Your Kid Belongs Here: Neurodivergence, Parenting, and the Right to Belong with Katie Rose Pryal
What if the problem isn't that neurodivergent children don't fit into the world, but that the world hasn't made enough room for them?
This week on Real Talk with Tina and Ann, we welcome Katie Rose Pryal, JD, PhD, an award-winning author, educator, and advocate whose work challenges the way society understands neurodivergence, disability, mental health, and belonging.
Katie holds a law degree and a doctorate in rhetoric from the University of North Carolina, along with a master's degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University. She is also a faculty member in Drexel University's MFA in Creative Writing program. As an autistic woman with ADHD and bipolar disorder, Katie brings both academic expertise and lived experience to her writing and advocacy.
Her latest book, Your Kid Belongs Here: An Insider's Guide to Parenting Neurodiverse Children, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, explores how schools, communities, and everyday systems exclude neurodivergent children and their families. Praised by Dr. Temple Grandin and recognized as a Foreword INDIES Award finalist, the book offers parents a different perspective on advocacy, accommodations, and helping children thrive.
Katie is also the author of A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education, which won an IPPY Bronze Medal, and Even If You're Broken: Bodies, Boundaries, and Mental Health, an IPPY Gold Medal winner. Her other works include Life of the Mind Interrupted and the forthcoming memoir An Autistic Girl's Guide to Horses.
Her essays and writing have appeared in Psychology Today, Slate, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Catapult, and The Establishment, and her work has been featured on NPR. Her writing has earned numerous honors, including multiple independent publishing awards and a Pushcart Prize nomination.
In this week's episode, we explore what meaningful inclusion really looks like, why accommodations are not special treatment, and how parents can advocate for their children without making them feel that their differences are something to fix.
We also look at the bigger question: Why do we keep asking neurodivergent children to change instead of changing the environments that exclude them?
Katie reminds us that belonging should never depend on a child's ability to learn, communicate, behave, or experience the world like everyone else.
Join us for a conversation about parenting, neurodivergence, advocacy, and creating a world where differences aren't simply tolerated but genuinely valued.
Because every child deserves to belong.
There is purpose in the pain and hope in the journey.
You can access Katie's website: Katie Rose Pryal | Writer of Neurodiversity | Essays - Memoir - Novels - Nonfiction
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