The Brain Forest is an engaging and colourful book that introduces the concept of neurodiversity and celebrates the many different neurotypes in the world. The Brain Forest is a great resource to facilitate conversation and celebrate our differences.
The book likens the diversity in different brains to a diverse forest made up of different trees creating a rich ecosystem, and highlights that if there were only one type of brain things would be boring! Throughout the book there are different brain types explored including neurotypical, Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, OCD, Pervasive Drive for Autonomy (PDA), just to name a few!
If you are reading this book with your child or young person, there is an opportunity during the book to draw or write their brain strengths, which is a great activity to build self-esteem and for take a moment to notice all of their awesomeness.
This activity can also be used in therapy or in a classroom setting and is easily adaptable for larger groups rather than one on one – you could create your own brain forest made up of many different trees, writing about each person’s individual strengths, or if you are limited on space, you could make one tree and have each leaf represent individual strengths.
The author, Sandhaya Menon (who is neurodivergent herself) includes some other wonderful suggestions of activities at the back of the book (page 29) that also include ways that parents and teachers to facilitate discussions on neurodiversity.
Get your copy here: The Brain Forest