How do I help my neurodivergent kid be more “well rounded?”

How do you help your sensory and processing issues kid develop a more well -rounded view of the
world? Hi, my name is Kent Toussaint and welcome to Tips on Teens where I answer your parenting
questions. If you have any, if you or your family or your child could use a little more support
from a therapist through individual therapy, family therapy, group therapy, please contact
us. We love supporting kids and teens. happy to have a free phone consultation with you. Our
content info is in the caption below. Let's jump into today's parent question on tips on teens.
My son has some processing and sensory issues. He really excels in the stuff he likes, which
is math and violin. The stuff he doesn't like, he hates, and he struggles with. He'll be entering
high school this year and I want him to be well -rounded so he can hopefully graduate and go to
college. How do I encourage him to apply himself more to the stuff he doesn't like. Thank you
for question. I think many of us who have children who

are neurodivergent to E struggle with this topic. I think there's a different focus you should
you should different questions focus on is how do I help my kid lean into his strengths? Because
because trying to get him to do the things he doesn't like, is maybe like pushing water uphill.
And I would encourage you to lean into the strengths if math and violin is where he really excels,
let's lean into that as much as possible. Will he have gaps in his education? Maybe. I don't think
well -rounded is the goal because none of us are well -rounded. Perhaps his focus, his hyper
focus on math and violin may help him excel so much that the other things will kind of come through
with it. And I've seen this happen with many kids. For example, let's say your kid hates creative
writing and he's kind of failing his English class. Once he really wants to do exploratory math
and experimental math, he's going to have to do certain things to get to the certain college
he wants to get to and or violin. And

so eventually, there will be hopefully some maturity as he gets older, and he'll be able to recognize,
well, I have to do this so I can get there. and that's the kind of awareness you want to develop.
So it's more intrinsically inside of him motivating him instead of you with the whip trying
to get him to write his essay. Now, that may mean that he does poorly in some classes and won't
be able to graduate and go right to a four -year university his freshman year. He may not have
the emotional maturity to do that anyway. So maybe having him slow walk it and go into a community
college where now it's like, hey, if you want to get to this college, you're going to need to get
an A in this English class, which may mean that now has a more, again, it's more intrinsic in him.
It's more of his own idea instead of someone forcing it on him. This is really tough because your
kid may be going not in a conventional route that you had planned for. But I think it's really
important to help your kids
who are 2E lean into their strengths and allow those other deficits to rise up to meet those strengths.
It's a big topic. There's many different balls and winches and gears working around here. No
one answer fits with every kid. So if this is really a struggle, I encourage you to talk to someone
who can support you, who focuses on kids and teens and families like us at Teen Therapy Center
in Woodland Hills or our non -profit 501c3 organization, Child and Teen counseling. If you'd
like help, give us a call. We'd love to support you. We have therapists for all budgets. Again,
my name is Kent Toussaint with Teen Therapy Center and the nonprofit Child and Teen Counseling.
We're off next week. I'll be camping, but we'll catch up with you guys in two weeks and do a new
parent -led question on Tips on Teens. Thanks, everybody. Bye bye.