Parenting Neurodivergent Kids: Practical Tools and Strategies

Parenting neurodivergent kids means constantly adapting — routines that work one month may need adjusting the next, and strategies that help one child may not help another. These resources are built from real experience raising three neurodivergent kids at home. No fluff, no one-size-fits-all advice — just practical tools and honest walkthroughs of what’s actually helped our family.

If you’re a Georgia family navigating Medicaid or Katie Beckett, those resources have their own dedicated section — head to our Georgia Resources hub for those guides.

What You’ll Find Here

This page is organized around the parts of daily life that come up most often when you’re parenting neurodivergent kids — mornings, hygiene, the tools we actually use, and gift ideas that make sense for sensory and developmental differences. Each section links to its own hub or individual posts with more detail.

Mornings are one of the hardest parts of the day for many neurodivergent families. We have two posts dedicated to this — one covering the practical visual checklist system we use, and one on the regulation-first philosophy behind it. Both are in the Morning Routines section below.

Hygiene is another area that doesn’t get talked about enough. For kids with sensory sensitivities, ADHD, or autism, basic hygiene tasks can feel overwhelming or even painful. Our hygiene tools section covers what’s helped our kids build more independent routines without the daily battle.

The What We Use section is exactly what it sounds like — home-tested products that have made a real difference for our family. Visual timers, fidget tools, organizational supplies — things we actually buy and use, not a generic list. If you’re looking for gift ideas specifically, the Gift Guide pulls together our favorite sensory, movement, and practical picks in one place.

A Note on How We Approach Parenting Neurodivergent Kids

Our approach is regulation-first. That means before we ask our kids to perform — academically, socially, or behaviorally — we try to make sure their nervous system is in a state where that’s actually possible. This isn’t about lowering expectations. It’s about understanding that a dysregulated child can’t access the skills they have, no matter how capable they are. Research on self-regulation in neurodivergent kids consistently supports this — and it’s been the single biggest shift in how we parent.

We’re also a neurodivergent family ourselves. I have AuDHD, and my kids have a mix of ADHD, autism, sensory processing differences, motor planning challenges, and learning differences. That means everything here is written from the inside — not from a clinical distance. What works in our house is messy and imperfect and real, and that’s exactly what I try to share.