School was difficult for Makayla Caliendo when she was young. She remembers staring out the window while her classmates were paying attention in class. Some clothes, tags and socks were uncomfortable and left her unable to focus. She even had to repeat preschool.
“I left those early school years with less knowledge than my peers,” Caliendo wrote as a high-school senior in Attention magazine. That was back in 2021. Those experiences had “made me feel dumb.”
Scientists Say: Neurodivergent
But Caliendo wasn’t — and isn’t — dumb. Her brain just works differently than most of her peers.
Caliendo has a condition known as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. It affects how people think, learn and process information. Although sometimes called a “disorder,” ADHD is actually a neurotype. That means it’s a natural — and fairly common — variation in how the brain develops.
English (US)