Cognitive flexibility v cognitive rigidity. Have you ever tried to convince your child that mac and cheese can be made with a different brand of pasta? Or that their favourite shirt is in the wash, and they will, in fact, survive wearing a different one?

Have you ever watched your child stare intensely at a weird lizard in the grass, notice every detail of the way its tail moves, and provide a detailed lecture on lizard behaviour—only to have them completely blank out when asked to do their homework?

Parenting a neurodiverse child or a little one struggling with emotional regulation can feel like being an unqualified zookeeper—except instead of lions and tigers, you’ve got a small human swinging from the furniture, roaring about the injustice of bedtime, or lying flat on the floor because their sock “feels weird.”