Budget Boost To Early Childhood Education Hailed By Neurofusion

“The government’s recognition of young students with the highest learning needs suggests that the one in five children who are neurodiverse will receive specialist support,” says Graeme Bennett, CEO of Neurofusion.

“The observation we offer is that this isn’t just a resourcing problem, it is a system design problem,” says Graeme Bennett. “Our hope is that the solutions in the budget include changes to a rigid education system that rewards conformity, penalises difference, and assumes every learner thinks the same way.

“Timetables, curriculum, assessment, and participation are still shaped by industrial-era logic which are built for efficiency, not for human variability. Think fixed bell schedules, standardised content-heavy curricula, high-stakes timed exams, and an expectation of passive, uniform participation. These structures create hidden barriers for anyone who doesn’t fit the mould.”

Adding more people to a broken system doesn’t fix it, says Bennett.

“What we need is not more of the same but a radical, human-centred redesign that values difference, not just accommodates it. This is a new kind of learning infrastructure that begins with culturally responsive, neuro-inclusive environments. It maps how different brains think using personalised learner profiles. And it helps young people tackle real-world complexity using their unique cognitive strengths through dynamic, project-based learning.

“Fixing this doesn’t mean just hiring more aides,” says Bennett. “It’s not a toolkit. It means transforming the system so every learner can thrive.”

Auckland-based Neurofusion works with businesses, educational institutions, and policymakers to create environments where everyone can reach their full potential. BrainBadge is Neurofusion’s comprehensive certification programme based on agile and lean principles that reframes cognitive ‘disorders’ and ‘disabilities’ into valuable mindsets that can be leveraged to unlock business success.

Neurodivergence is a term used to describe people with brains that are designed differently. Neurodiversity embraces the differences in brain function and behavioural traits as a natural element of human diversity.

Neurodivergent conditions are part of the endlessly different ways that human minds are wired. These conditions known as neurotypes include autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, anxiety, giftedness, sensory processing disorder, Tourette Syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Asperger’s syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

As both children and adults, neurodiverse people can have talents and skills that include:

• Leadership, innovation, creativity and initiative
• High levels of technical and mechanical skill
• New ways to solve problems
• High levels of concentration
• Exceptional design and visualisation skills
• Keen accuracy and ability to detect errors
• Strong recall of information and detailed factual knowledge
• Pattern recognition and drawing connections
• Gifted at ethical decision making
• Reliability, persistence, high loyalty and retention
• Excel at work that is routine or repetitive in nature

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