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Dave Harrison

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Insightsfrom Different is Normal

Deep dives, personal essays and practical guides on neurodiversity, parenting and education. Written for the people doing the real work.

Latest·1 July 2026·9 min read

The Label Isn't the Problem. The Lack of One Is.

Australia has the highest autism diagnosis rate in the world. A senior paediatrician calls it distorted. I call it leadership. Here's why the research backs me up.

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EpisodesDiagnosisNormalSensoryStimmingBehaviourMaskingSchoolsSocietySocialTravelDaveEmily
The Student Who Named His Penguin David
24 June 2026·5 min

The Student Who Named His Penguin David

He came back to say goodbye, and the first thing he did was run over and give me a hug. Then he named his penguin after me. This is why I do this work.

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The Day We Got the Diagnosis
Ep 120 June 2026·6 min

The Day We Got the Diagnosis

Two parents. One diagnosis. Completely different reactions, and both of them right. The week we found out our son was autistic changed everything, but not in the way people assume.

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Why Transitions Are So Hard for Neurodivergent Children (And What Actually Helps)
18 June 2026·8 min

Why Transitions Are So Hard for Neurodivergent Children (And What Actually Helps)

It's not the place you're going to. It's the place you're leaving. Understanding what transitions actually cost a neurodivergent child changed everything for us.

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How to Discipline a Neurodivergent Child (Without Making Things Worse)
15 June 2026·9 min

How to Discipline a Neurodivergent Child (Without Making Things Worse)

Traditional discipline often backfires with neurodivergent children. Here's what I learned after years of getting it wrong, and what actually works instead.

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Relief, Grief, and Rainbow Ice Cream Cake
Ep 113 June 2026·6 min

Relief, Grief, and Rainbow Ice Cream Cake

Three diagnoses across one family, each completely different. Emily's daughter asked to find out why she felt different. Her son hoped the answer would be yes. Both got rainbow ice cream cake.

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Meltdown vs Shutdown: What's the Difference and Why It Matters
10 June 2026·8 min

Meltdown vs Shutdown: What's the Difference and Why It Matters

Meltdowns and shutdowns look completely different and need completely different responses. Confusing the two, as I did for years, makes a bad situation worse.

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Normal Was Never Real
Ep 26 June 2026·5 min

Normal Was Never Real

Normal started as a maths term. Somewhere along the way it became a social contract, and one that punishes difference. It's time to ask who that contract was actually written for.

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The Dinner Table We Let Go Of
Ep 230 May 2026·5 min

The Dinner Table We Let Go Of

The fantasy of the family dinner table cost us more than the table was worth. Once we let go of the format, connection found its own way in.

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Autism and School Refusal: What's Really Happening (And What Actually Helps)
28 May 2026·9 min

Autism and School Refusal: What's Really Happening (And What Actually Helps)

School refusal looks like defiance. From inside a child's nervous system, it looks completely different. Here's what's really going on, and what actually helps.

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What a Shower Actually Costs
Ep 323 May 2026·6 min

What a Shower Actually Costs

People ask why it's hard to get a neurodivergent child to shower. The honest answer: have you ever actually broken down what a shower involves? Step by step, it's a sensory marathon.

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The Cup That Never Starts Empty
Ep 316 May 2026·6 min

The Cup That Never Starts Empty

Imagine your child as a cup that's already twenty percent full when the alarm goes off. By the time they reach the classroom, where is it? This one metaphor explains almost everything about meltdowns.

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Why Stimming Deserves the Olympic Medal
Ep 49 May 2026·5 min

Why Stimming Deserves the Olympic Medal

Stimming has a PR problem. Most people think it's something to redirect or manage. But the truth is: all of us stim. The difference is scale, frequency, and how visible it is.

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Every Behaviour Is Trying to Tell You Something
Ep 52 May 2026·6 min

Every Behaviour Is Trying to Tell You Something

The meltdowns, the shutdowns, the refusals, the explosions that seem to come from nowhere, they're all carrying a message. And if we respond to the behaviour as a problem to solve, we miss the message entirely.

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The Hidden Cost of Keeping It Together All Day
Ep 625 April 2026·6 min

The Hidden Cost of Keeping It Together All Day

Masking looks like the ideal student: sitting still, looking forward, not making a sound. But that compliance is not engagement. It's expenditure. And the bill comes due at home.

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When Burnout Looks Like Giving Up
Ep 618 April 2026·6 min

When Burnout Looks Like Giving Up

There's a version of neurodivergent burnout that doesn't look like collapse. It looks like the child who stops doing the thing they love most. It looks like 'school refusal', which is almost always 'school can't.'

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How to Find the Right School (Not Just a Good One)
Ep 711 April 2026·6 min

How to Find the Right School (Not Just a Good One)

Almost every school is good at something. The question isn't whether it's a good school. The question is whether it's the right environment for your specific child. Those are different questions.

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The Questions Schools Won't Answer Until You Ask the Right Way
Ep 74 April 2026·6 min

The Questions Schools Won't Answer Until You Ask the Right Way

ILPs, SSGs, reasonable adjustments, camp preparation months in advance, the support is often available. But nobody tells you it exists until you know what to ask for.

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A World That Wasn't Built for Everyone
Ep 828 March 2026·5 min

A World That Wasn't Built for Everyone

One quiet hour in a supermarket. Dogs in Bunnings. ES workers with no specialist training. We're doing enormous work to help neurodivergent people understand the world, and very little in the other direction.

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Reading the Room When the Rules Are Invisible
Ep 921 March 2026·5 min

Reading the Room When the Rules Are Invisible

The social rules we all live by have never been written down anywhere. Most people absorb them without realising they're learning. For many neurodivergent people, every rule has to be learned deliberately, rule by rule, context by context.

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When Every Word Is Taken Exactly as Said
Ep 914 March 2026·5 min

When Every Word Is Taken Exactly as Said

He said he wanted the pots. So he took the pots. The plants were still sitting on the ground when the family arrived. He'd done exactly what was agreed. The confusion belonged to everyone else.

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What We Learned Travelling the World with Our Son
Ep 107 March 2026·6 min

What We Learned Travelling the World with Our Son

A sunflower lanyard. Social stories with 'might' not 'will.' A medication rejected at the border. And a boy who couldn't sit next to a stranger on a train, who came home able to ride a packed Tokyo carriage.

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The Accident That Changed the Way I See Everything
Ep 1128 February 2026·6 min

The Accident That Changed the Way I See Everything

A bike accident. A coma. Relearning to walk, talk, and see. And a realisation, seventeen years later, that an acquired brain injury is a form of neurodiversity. Dave's story.

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Growing Up Without a Name for It
Ep 1221 February 2026·6 min

Growing Up Without a Name for It

Emily was the capable sibling, the bright kid who coped. Managing looked fine from the outside. The cost of managing stayed invisible. Her story of growing up in the shadow of her brother's diagnosis, dropping out of university, and eventually finding a name for all of it.

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Why We Started Talking
Ep 1214 February 2026·5 min

Why We Started Talking

Emily said yes to the podcast immediately. Her first thought was: I love podcasts. It took a few episodes to understand what the show was actually doing, and why it mattered as much as it did.

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The Language We're Still Learning to Speak Together
Ep 117 February 2026·5 min

The Language We're Still Learning to Speak Together

When our son was diagnosed, I thought of it as learning a new language. Seventeen years later, we've built enough shared vocabulary that the conversations we have now are richer than anything I imagined at the start.

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