Strengths
Strengths are not always recognised in children with neurodevelopmental differences
Strengths are not always recognised in children with neurodevelopmental differences
Every neurodivergent child has a unique set of strengths. These can be under-recognised by schools and services (Growing Different Parent Survey, 2024).
It can feel patronising as a child or parent to be told that their diagnosis is a “super power”. Or that your child must be like rain man, able to memorise cards. A child is not a stereotype, they are themselves and need to be seen for their own whole profile.
Sometimes the pressure to frame a diagnosis only as a positive can become another burden for the child and family. Challenges can be severe, profound and very real. If support, services, society or education under-play these challenges, the child can be without vital support.
However on the flip-side, sometimes a child can just be seen as their challenges, or their diagnosis, and their strengths are missed. For others, their disabilities are their strengths. And for some, the experience of their diagnosis or disability means that they develop unique strengths such as creative problem solving.
Most parents who completed our survey described real challenges. Yet almost all listed a number of strengths about their children. In addition, most parents felt that their child’s strengths were under-recognised in services, education and in general.
Understanding of the unique child’s profile is key, supporting both their own strengths and challenges, not making assumptions as to what these are.
Families in our 2024 parent survey described creativity, humour, memory, honesty, being observant, kindness, caring, maths and imagination as the most mentioned. But there are many more.
In our parent survey, creativity was the most common strength listed by parents about their child. Around 1 in 2 parents reported this (Growing Different Parent Survey 2024).
Some studies suggest creative strengths from a different perspective such as people with ADHD (Hargitai et al, 2025; Hoogman et al, 2020).
Read our Easy Read resource on Being Creative here.
In our parent survey, humour was also the most common strength listed by parents about their child.
Humour can serve many purposes. It is one of the most universal ways of communicating. It can also help to cope with frustrations, and build confidence.
Sometimes when we think of strengths we think of abilities that can get measured, such as maths or sports. However valuable, important strengths include traits such as honesty and kindness. These traits came up often as child strengths in our parent survey.
Some autistic people describe thinking in images or in patterns. This has been associated with ability in pattern recognition and visual problem-solving (Conson et al 2022; Soulières et al 2009).
See our Easy Read resource on Visual Thinking here.
Dual or multiple exceptionality (DME) describes children with above-average ability in one or more areas who also have a neurodevelopmental condition. A DME child may:
Read more about dual exceptionality here.
Read our Easy Read resource on DME here.
Hyperfocus is a period of intense concentration on a topic or activity. A child who hyperfocuses may:
Hyperfocus is reported by a significant number of autistic and ADHD individuals.
National Autistic Society page on focused and dedicated interests
Hypernumeracy is an unusually strong ability with numbers and patterns. It can occur alongside other neurodevelopmental differences. There is little information or studies in this area.
Many families also reported that their children had curiosity, passion, were active and had a good imagination.
Hyperlexia is the ability to read well above the expected level for a child’s age. A child with hyperlexia may:
Hyperlexia is associated with autism and other neurodevelopmental differences. Read more about hyperlexia here.
Read our Easy Read resource about Hyperlexia here.
Example — Steve:
Steve has Down’s syndrome and is autistic. He has difficulty learning maths and reading. He attends a specialist school and is very popular with friends. He is caring and helps other students with their work.
He is also very good at acting and has performed some lead roles in the local theatre. He has a lot of energy and curiosity. Sometimes Steve says he would like people to see the whole him, and not just his challenges.
Note: Our examples are made up to show common experiences and are not real children.
There are a range of strengths, unique to each child. Some strengths may be seen more often in neurodivergent children and with learning disabilities, such as memory for detail or honesty. However assumptions about a diagnosis strengths are also to be avoided.
Parent Survey 2024
Most families told us that their child had many strengths.
367 out of 394 parents completed our survey section on strengths.
Many parents said that their children were creative, funny, honest, kind, observant and had good maths or memory skills.
Other strengths included maths, music, English, science, enthusiasm, hyperlexic, sports and enriches others lives.
Families told us they wanted more information about strengths, shared in ways that are clear, visual, reliable, and easy to understand.
disagreed or strongly disagreed that their child’s strengths were recognised in services, education or in general (204 out of 367, 55%)
said picture books about positive aspects of neurodivergence would be most useful (in their top three, 241 out of 319 or 75%)
felt that signposting information about strengths would be very or extremely useful (270 out of 369 responses or 73%)
The numbers shown are the number of parents who felt that their child had that strength. 367 parents completed the question on strengths.
Growing Different Parent Survey 2024 – Note on limitations
Online survey for families of children with neurodevelopmental differences such as autism or ADHD.
Our survey was a self-selected online survey of 394 parents / carers, most with an autistic child (around 8 in 10). It reflects their experiences, not all children. It is not reflective of the general population, so it is not a prevalence study.
There was no comparison group, so the survey cannot show whether something is more common in neurodivergent children than others, or what causes it. Numbers vary because not everyone answered every question. We share these figures to reflect family experience and shape our resources, not as population statistics.
Please credit ‘Growing Different Parent Survey 2024’ when quoting these figures.
A link is not an endorsement. We are not responsible for the content of external links.
References
Dupuis A, Mudiyanselage P, Burton CL, Arnold PD, Crosbie J, Schachar RJ. (2022) Hyperfocus or flow? Attentional strengths in autism spectrum disorder. Front Psychiatry. 2022 Sep 16;13:886692. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.886692. PMID: 36276327; PMCID: PMC9579965.
Hargitai LD, Laan ELM, Schippers LM, et al. (2025) The role of psychological strengths in positive life outcomes in adults with ADHD. Psychological Medicine
Hoogman, M., et al. (2020). Creativity and ADHD. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 119, 66–85.
Soulières I, Dawson M, Samson F, Barbeau EB, Sahyoun CP, Strangman GE, Zeffiro TA, Mottron L. (2009) Enhanced visual processing contributes to matrix reasoning in autism. Hum Brain Mapp. 2009 Dec;30(12):4082-107. doi: 10.1002/hbm.20831. PMID: 19530215; PMCID: PMC2787806.
Conson, M., Senese, V.P., Zappullo, I. et al. (2022) The effect of autistic traits on disembedding and mental rotation in neurotypical women and men. Sci Rep 12, 4639 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-08497-2
Clear words and pictures – for children and adults with learning disabilities
Some children have significant differences in how they experience the world, such as noise, pain, or interoception.
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Information created: June 2026 I Next review: June 2029
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