Our Story

Hi !

 

Thanks for stopping by.

If you are wondering what is SPED and why the M squared, then this little intro is designed to satisfy your curiosity !

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First, lets address the mystery of the M - M is the first letter of the names of 2 of our founders - university students Mitchell and Mayya. It is squared to represent that the collective power of their drive to increase the public knowledge of SPEDs.

 

Now, SPEDs is an abbreviation for special educational differences. 

These encompass autism and autistic spectrum disorders, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and others. People who have SPEDs are called neurodiverse individuals, and those who do not have SPEDs are called neurotypicals. 

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​SPEDs can occur in anyone who has a brain, and are thus relevant to people of all genders, racial and ethnic backgrounds, social status and age groups. 

SPEDs are something you are born with and are, with a few important exceptions, actually a variant of normal. Importantly, most special educational differences (with the exception of some types of autism) do not affect IQ. 

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Similarly to the other streams of diversity, neurodiversity has been affected by misrepresentation in the media, which portrays a negative and inaccurate image of SPEDs. 

There are high rates of unemployment, mental health struggles and suicide levels in the neurodiverse community. The group affected the most are the young neurodiverse people entering the working world, designed for neurotypicals. 

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This leads to exclusion of neurodiverse talent from the places of employment, and an overrepresentation of neurodiverse individuals who are classified as NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training). 

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Becoming aware of the social, psychological and educational circumstances surrounding SPEDs, Mayya and Mitchell decided that we need to start having open conversations about SPEDs and increase the level of public education about this topic. 

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Our educational intervention is aimed at the young people entering the working world, which is why our programmes are designed for year 10 and year 12 students.

We hope you will join us on this important mission of making a difference to people  with differences!