The Wonder School Pune in association with Aavishkar Inclusion Centre successfully hosted The Unlabeling Conference 2026 last weekend. The event aimed to bust the myths around neurodiversity and reimagine how children are understood, supported and empowered across homes and schools. The event also marked the beginning of The Wonder School’s year-long initiative, The Unlabeling Project – Discovering Strengths. Designing Pathways.
Reflecting on Aavishkar Inclusion, Anamika Dasgupta, Director, TWS Pune, said neurodiversity is still an evolving field of science. “Growing up, many of us knew children who thought or behaved differently, but there were far fewer labels. Today, society often feels the need to categories children for convenience, sometimes reinforced even through policies and systems. We realized that while educators understand learning processes, we are not experts in nutrition, therapy, holistic health, or medical intervention. So, we chose to build a collaborative community, bringing together specialists, practitioners, parents and educators to collectively understand children better.”
The conference featured a series of engaging workshops for children across Arts, Dance and Sports, each designed to support expression, confidence and overall well-being.
Art therapy is a powerful medium of expression. Children engaged with materials such as clay, crayons, colour pencils and watercolours, experiencing a range of textures that encouraged creativity and sensory exploration. Through art, they were able to communicate emotions and feelings that are often difficult to express in words.
Dance therapy creates a safe and liberating space for neurodivergent children to simply be themselves. Movement becomes a language of expression, allowing them to communicate beyond verbal limitations. Activities involving movement, shaking and jumping helped children regulate their nervous systems, release energy and experience a sense of calm and emotional balance.
Sports therapy offers children an opportunity to participate, explore and connect through play and experience many may have previously missed due to social barriers. By engaging in sports, they discovered teamwork, joy and confidence, while reconnecting with an essential and often overlooked aspect of childhood. Sports therapy has also shown results in improving the child’s motor skills.
Speaking about the conference, Anamika Dasgupta, said, “The Unlabeling Conference began with a deeper reflection on the language we use for children. Words like ADHD or neurodivergent may sound politically correct, but if we look closely, they still carry implicit judgments. ‘Attention deficit,’ ‘hyperactivity,’ ‘disorder’ — these are inherently negative terms. Even when we try to avoid labeling, we often replace one label with another. When we say someone is neurodivergent, we must ask divergent from what, and who defines what is normal? It is unfair for one group of people to decide a standard and then tell another group that they are different and therefore somehow wrong.
As educators who founded The Wonder School, we strongly believe that every child, irrespective of abilities, traits, or perceived differences has the right to learn in their own way. Differentiation in education is not an added service, nor something to be celebrated as ‘alternative schooling.’ It is the fundamental responsibility of every educational institution. The right to learn differently is simply the right to learn.”
For the past two years, Aavishkar has worked toward creating this ecosystem to remove stigma and misinformation surrounding neurodiversity, including misconceptions sometimes spread unintentionally even by so-called experts. Labels not only box children who do not deserve to be boxed, but they also cause society to lose out on immense talent because we focus on the diagnosis instead of the individual behind it. “Personally, I would rather describe ADHD as curiosity-driven, passion-led hyper motivation and hyper focus — because when we shift the language, we shift perception and suddenly what was seen as a limitation becomes a strength many would aspire to have.”
She added, “The Unlabeling Conference is therefore a year-long and ongoing effort to challenge myths, share credible and evolving knowledge, and continuously apply these learnings within our own institutions. It is not about promoting Aavishkar or any one organization; it is about changing mindsets. Our goal is to move beyond labels and create a society and education system where children are understood as individuals first and not as a diagnosis. Where every child is given the dignity, opportunity and environment to thrive in their own unique way.”
Dr. Rashmeet Kaur, Paediatric Therapist and Founder of My Sensory Park, said, “A lot of people spread awareness, but inclusion takes effort to put in action. When you are actually putting an effort and building a community together that is when we are working towards creating a better world and future for neurodivergent children. Organizations like The Wonder School Pune and Aavishkar Inclusion Centre with the events they are doing it’s going to help spread a lot of awareness and have inclusion in action.”
TWS is part of Potters Earth Foundation, a non-profit organization working with students and young adults to find their strengths and opportunities and turn them into meaningful careers and decent work.
