BY RAEGAN NEUFELD
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sponsored by the Student Health and Wellness Services, Tigers Without Limits is a support group for students who are Neurodivergent. The group started this semester with the intent to foster a safe atmosphere for students to feel comfortable and be around others who are like them.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what does it mean to be Neurodivergent?
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNeurodivergent just means that a person\u2019s brain might learn or process information differently than what\u2019s considered typical or neurotypical,\u201d Practicum Student Mackenzie Giess said. \u201cOriginally the term was used specifically for people with autism, and then over time it became an umbrella term for individuals with autism, ADHD, Tourette’s, dyslexia, and different things like that.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brenna, a group member of Tigers Without Limits, also gave an insight into what being Neurodivergent means.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBeing Neurodivergent is quite an experience. There\u2019s a lot of things that you have to deal with, like how the world isn\u2019t really meant to be accommodating. A lot of people don\u2019t really seem to care all that much about the comfort of Neurodivergent people,\u201d she said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Giess began her work with Health and Wellness Services, specifically Student Accessibility, last fall. The need for a support group was apparent then, but they didn\u2019t have the right amount of staff to take it on. With more interns and senior staff members, Giess began preparing and researching last semester before launching the support group this semester. She was able to use the help of a coworker who is Neurodivergent, as well as Brenna.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMackenzie is my accommodations counselor,\u201d Brenna said. \u201cShe was asking me all sorts of questions and asking what I thought, and I liked her ideas.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Giess, Neurodivergent people may face problems with socializing, as it\u2019s not an inherent skill. Other skills that may not come naturally include those that are used in the classroom and in daily living.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt just takes a little bit longer to learn those skills. They can still be done, it just takes an extra push sometimes,\u201d Guess said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt also depends on the person,\u201d Brenna added. \u201cI don\u2019t have a hard time socializing with my peers. I have a huge friend group here and they\u2019re learning how I work. But, not many people take the time to understand how a Neurodivergent person works.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As mentioned, the support group was started to provide a safe environment for students. Giess also said that she hopes the support group will be a place for students to come for help. Sometimes, this means just being able to relax for a little while, which is what Brenna said she is hoping to get out of the meetings.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI want a safe space for me to decompress with the activities, and a way to destress and destimulate, while also stimulating what I need.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the group is still in its early stages, there are no concrete plans for what each meeting will look like. However, Giess has ideas.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy hope is each week we\u2019ll have something specific we\u2019ll go over, like note-taking. There\u2019s a really cool process we\u2019ve discovered in Accessibility that I\u2019ve used with a lot of my clients, so something like that,\u201d she said. \u201cSome weeks it might be sharing special interests, or if it\u2019s been a super stressful week, just coloring and talking with each other. I don\u2019t have a concrete plan for every week just because I want to dive into what students and members are wanting.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tigers Without Limits meets at 1:30 p.m. every Monday in the Smoky Hill Room in the Union. For further information, visit the Health and Wellness Services TigerLink page.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BY RAEGAN NEUFELD Sponsored by the Student Health and Wellness Services, Tigers Without Limits is a support group for students who are Neurodivergent. The group… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":63487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3398,11],"tags":[14511,14510,14226,14509],"class_list":["post-63486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","category-news","tag-neurodivergent","tag-neurodivergent-support","tag-raegan-neufeld","tag-tigers-without-limits"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Tigerswithoutlimits.jpg?fit=1482%2C873&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63486"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63488,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63486\/revisions\/63488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/63487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}