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Little Social Worker’s Journal (SEN Series – 008)
When brain scans cannot scan the soul… seeing the whole person through neurodiversity
(A social worker who cares for children with special learning needs)
Recently, I was chatting with our SEN teacher, Ms. Leung.
What started as a conversation about students’ behaviors slowly drifted into something much more philosophical.
“Do you think autism or ADHD are actually illnesses?”
She held her warm cup of tea, thinking aloud.
“Or are they simply part of nature’s biodiversity—natural variations in how human brains think, feel, and move?”
Her question reminded me of a metaphor I once heard:
Maybe the child was never ‘broken’ at all.
Maybe he just came with a different operating system from the factory.
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iOS Users in a Windows World
Our school system is like a massive Windows-based environment.
And SEN students?
They’re the iOS users.
Perfectly functional. Extremely capable.
But when placed in a Windows-only world, they struggle—not because they’re faulty, but because the system wasn’t built for their interface.
And yet we blame the child:
“Why can’t you open this .exe file?”
“Why can’t you keep up with our updates?”
It’s not a personal failure.
It’s a compatibility issue.
But the cruel part is this:
We keep blaming the one device that runs differently.
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Beyond neural circuits: the “hidden layer”
In case conferences, it’s easy to fall into a scientific trap:
“He hit someone because he has ADHD. The prefrontal cortex develops slowly. That explains it.”
It sounds professional—almost authoritative.
As if understanding the brain structure means understanding the entire child.
But Ms. Leung reminded me that this thinking is a kind of neuroscientific chauvinism.
Human behavior is far too complex to be reduced to a single neural explanation.
Inside every brain, there is a vast hidden layer—
the subconscious, the emotional scars of past failures,
the weight of present stress, the stories no MRI can capture.
When an SEN child screams or melts down,
it isn’t just neurotransmitters firing out of sync.
It is a tapestry woven from countless moments of misunderstanding,
their inner sense of injustice,
their fear of not being heard.
If we stare only at brain diagrams,
we lose sight of the living, hurting person in front of us.
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Mirror neurons ≠ real empathy
This also made me rethink “empathy.”
Back in school, we learned about mirror neurons—
how seeing someone cry may trigger a similar emotional response in ourselves.
So we assumed that this was empathy,
that this biological reflex meant we “understood” the child.
But mirror neurons can only mimic actions.
They cannot decode someone’s inner world.
When an autistic teenager sits silently across from me, expressionless,
my mirror neurons may read nothing.
But beneath that still surface,
there may be a storm he cannot articulate.
True empathy does not come from biology alone.
It comes from suspending our assumptions—
from slowly, patiently verifying the meanings behind someone else’s mind.
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The wisdom of “not-knowing”
“If even neuroscience can’t explain everything, then how do we help them?”
I asked.
Ms. Leung smiled gently.
“Maybe we start by embracing not-knowing.”
Lower-level brain states (neurons) can never fully explain higher-level properties (consciousness, identity, soul).
As social workers, whether we’re supporting a child with ADHD or dyslexia,
we can’t let medical labels shrink our imagination.
Our role isn’t to predict a future with brain scans—
it is to say, with humility:
“I may not fully understand your inner world.
But I’m willing to learn your unique operating system—together with you.”
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Reflection: A reminder for social workers (and all adults)
De-labeling:
Don’t let neuroscience become a new prejudice.
ADHD is a trait—not a life sentence.
Seeing agency:
Respect the child’s capacity to choose.
They are not machines driven solely by chemical reactions.
Walking with humility:
Professionalism is not certainty.
It is the ability to build genuine connection
even when we do not fully understand.
Brain science may help us see patterns—
but only empathy lets us see the person.