Neurodivergence in the Family Courts Series: Assumptions about Neurodivergence in Family Court

In child protection work, accurately understanding parenting capacity and risk is essential to safeguarding children. When parents are neurodivergent, their responses and behaviour can be misinterpreted if neurodevelopmental differences are not properly understood. This article explores how assumptions can shape professional thinking and how careful psychological assessment and formulation can help to clarify a parent's needs to help professionals and courts better understand them and make effective child-centred decisions for the future.

Shining a Light on Neurodivergence and Parenting in Family Court

In family court work, the wellbeing and safety of the child must always be at the centre of our attention. Decisions about removal, support and contact are high-stakes, with profound and lasting implications. To safeguard children effectively, professionals need to understand not only what parents do, but why they do it and how that relates to the child’s developmental experience.

When parents are neurodivergent, this can be more complex. Responses and patterns of behaviour that are observed without context may be interpreted through a neurotypical lens and that lens can colour how risk and parenting capacity are understood. It is not uncommon for neurodevelopmental differences to be mistaken for lack of insight, emotional detachment or poor engagement, when in fact they reflect different ways of emoting, processing information, communicating or responding under pressure.

Understanding Over Assumptions

It is important to be clear at the outset: neurodivergence does not automatically mean difficulty in parenting, nor does it automatically signal risk to a child. Many neurodivergent parents provide warm, consistent, structured and stimulating care and advocate effectively for their children. Their ways of relating may differ from neurotypical norms without being harmful and sometimes they represent strengths that are overlooked when behaviour is assessed without sufficient understanding.

That said, it is also true that some aspects of neurodivergence can intersect with parenting in ways that matter to children. Emotional attunement, reciprocity, guidance, boundaries and predictability are all central to attachment, regulation, social learning and emotional wellbeing. When behaviours associated with neurodivergence influence these areas, it becomes important to understand how and to what degree this is happening.

What distinguishes careful psychological and neurodevelopmental assessment is not simply observing behaviour, but understanding its function and meaning in context. A parent who appears emotionally flat under stress may be overwhelmed by sensory and cognitive load rather than uncaring. A parent who struggles with rapid shifts in routines may find it difficult to respond to sudden demands, yet this pattern can be understood and supported without assuming incapacity.

Misunderstandings in formulation can have very real consequences; they can lead to risk being overstated or risk being underestimated and support not being provided where it would genuinely help. Neither outcome serves children well. What serves children and parents well is thorough and careful psychological understanding that can distinguish difference from difficulty, difficulty from vulnerability, and vulnerability from risk created by misunderstanding.

This requires time, nuance and expertise. When clinicians and courts invest in careful formulation that genuinely accounts for neurodevelopmental differences, the child’s interests are protected by clarity rather than obscured by assumption or bias and we are able to better understand and support the needs of neurodivergent parents.