This summer, I worked with a student who had always struggled in school, especially with reading in heavy subjects like history. Bright, intuitive, and deeply dyslexic, he failed his Grade 8 history exam and was required to rewrite it in summer school. The amount of material he had to review was overwhelming — not just for him, but even for me as his tutor. That’s when we turned to AI tools like ChatGPT and NotebookLM. What happened next transformed more than his exam result, it changed how he saw himself as a learner. In this post, I’m sharing how we used AI to make studying accessible and empowering, and what it means for neurodiverse students everywhere.

This summer I worked with a student, with a very dyslexic learning profile, who had always struggled in school. This year his biggest challenge was his grade 8 history course. He ended up failing his end of year exam with a 57%, only a few short percentage points below a pass. His school then insisted that he attend summer school and re-write the exam at the beginning of August. He’s incredibly smart, curious, and intuitive. But every time he sat down to study, he felt overwhelmed. The amount of material. The way it was presented. The pressure. The fact that he struggles in test-taking scenarios meant that it just never clicked with a passing grade. And when I looked at all the material he needed to “re-learn” before his exam re-write, I too was overwhelmed by the large volume of content.

So, we tried something different.

We used ChatGPT to simplify the textbook language and generate summaries in bullet-point form. Then using those summaries, we entered them into  NotebookLM to organize his notes and create study guides, briefing documents, timelines and a podcast on each chapter. He also made old-school handwritten flashcards of the vocabulary on small neon cue cards in different colors for each section. I showed him how to talk to the tools, how to prompt, how to guide, how to think alongside the AI instead of having it think for him.

He went from frozen and frustrated to prepared and confident. And the best part? He started believing in his own ability to succeed, because he finally had tools that worked with the way his brain works.

That one experience reminded me of something I’ve seen over and over again in my work: neurodiverse students are not broken… our systems are. And AI can be a turning point.

Why Neurodiversity and AI Belong in the Same Conversation

For years, I’ve watched bright, capable students get penalized for not learning the “right” way. A kid with dyslexia who’s brilliant at problem-solving but dreads reading. A student with ADHD who can explain complex ideas but has messy notes. A child with mathlexia who understands big-picture logic but crumbles under timed drills.

They’re not the problem.

The problem is a system that still expects everyone to learn the same way and measures success by outdated standards.

That’s why I believe AI is such a powerful opportunity. It’s not a shortcut or a cheat code. It’s a way in.

What AI Can Do for Neurodiverse Students

Here’s what I’ve seen AI do firsthand, not in theory, but in real tutoring sessions with real students who’ve shown me what they create with AI:

• Clarify confusing content. AI can summarize long, dense chapters into bite-sized points.
• Help organize information. From study schedules to to-do lists, it helps structure chaotic minds.
• Practice, quiz, reinforce. Flashcards, practice tests, memory boosters which are all customizable.
• Bridge accessibility gaps. Speech-to-text and text-to-speech tools make content usable.
• Adapt to learning styles. Visual learners can build mind maps. Verbal learners can request explanations.

In short, AI doesn’t take away the learning, it literally makes it possible.

Tools I Recommend (and My Students Use)

Here are a few that come up constantly in my work with neurodiverse students:

• ChatGPT – for simplifying notes, brainstorming, explaining confusing ideas in simple language (even in math).
• NotebookLM – to turn their own notes or handouts into study guides, quizzes, briefing documents, timelines and podcasts.
• Otter.ai – to record and transcribe lectures.
• MindMeister – to create mind maps that organize complex ideas visually.
• Speechify – for text-to-speech reading support.
• Quizlet AI – to build flashcards and study smarter.

And yes, I’ve created tutorial worksheets for every one of these. You can find them at maxlexia.myshopify.com, made specifically for neurodiverse learners and the parents/teachers who support them.

It’s Not About Replacing Effort. It’s About Redirecting It.

I know some people worry that AI will make kids lazy or do the work for them.

That’s not what I’m seeing. Not at all!

When students are supported by AI the right way, they actually:

• Feel more organized
• Manage large volumes of course content in concise ways
• Ask better questions
• Learn more independently
• Feel proud of what they’re accomplishing

The key is to teach them how to use AI as a tool, not a crutch.

What Parents and Teachers Can Do

If you’re a parent or educator, you don’t need to be a tech expert. But you do need to be open to the idea that the traditional ways might not work for every brain.

• Try the tools out yourself.
• Model how to use them ethically.
• Encourage exploration; AI can unlock learning in ways that weren’t possible before.

And if you want help? That’s why I built Maxlexia.com. To offer real support, built from real experience, for real students.

Final Thought

AI isn’t magic. It won’t erase every challenge. But it can be the difference between “I can’t do this” to “I’ve got this.”

And for a neurodiverse kid who’s spent years saying the first, this change in mindset is everything.