Over 70 million people in the United States are navigating learning and thinking differences (LTDs) like ADHD and dyslexia, and that is a conservative estimate. Understood.org is a leading nonprofit focused on shaping the world for difference so everyone can thrive, recognizing that people with LTDs are often misunderstood, dismissed, and stigmatized. In fact, Understood.org’s research found that nearly 60% of Americans say they don’t have a clear understanding of what LTDs are, and many of them don’t believe in learning differences at all. While social media has sparked conversations around LTDs, it is not enough to truly empower neurodivergent individuals.
Through our social channels, especially Facebook, our objective is to combat the widespread stigma and misunderstandings surrounding LTDs, validate the experiences of the neurodivergent population, provide actionable resources, and foster community support. By transforming each click and conversation into a catalyst for behavior change, Understood.org’s Facebook platform aims to empower neurodivergent individuals and their families by reducing stigma and driving advocacy.
To bring our Facebook platform to life, we developed a multifaceted strategy that prioritized accessibility and engagement to effectively support our ideal Facebook audience. Our plan started with in-depth audience research to ensure our content addressed the unique needs of neurodivergent individuals and their families, highlighting their challenges at different life stages and empowering solutions. Recognizing the potential to engage Facebook’s key demographic—parents—we structured our content around three main pillars: increase thriving, reducing stigma, and drive advocacy.
Increase Thriving: This pillar underscores our commitment to providing relevant, uplifting, and practical resources that effectively support neurodivergent families. We tapped into real-life challenges, like time management and social anxieties, to create authentic connections with parents who are navigating LTDs in their children or themselves. Key themes include:
Reduce Stigma: This second pillar is dedicated to raising awareness of LTDs for everyone to understand the challenges, strengths, and skills of people with LTDs. Key themes include:
Drive Advocacy: This third pillar encourages community dialogue, welcoming neurodivergent parents to share their stories, ask questions, and take action to create a more equitable world for people with LTDs. Key themes include:
Challenges: Balancing the creation of accessible, relatable content with the need to keep it expert-driven and fact-based was a key challenge. Additionally, managing the resource strain of consistently producing content for both our English and Spanish Facebook platforms added to the difficulty. To address these challenges, we stayed flexible, adjusting our approach based on real-time feedback and audience engagement metrics.
Through a data-driven approach, creative audience engagement, and a commitment to accessibility and inclusivity, we’ve leveraged our Facebook community to increase awareness of LTDs while empowering neurodivergent families to take action and advocate for themselves and others.
Our English Facebook has grown to over 460,000 followers, generating 13 million interactions, highlighting the success of our approach. Notably, our top three content pieces from our Affirmations, Tips, and personal stories franchise series went viral —reaching 4.4 million views and garnering 33,700 reactions. This organic engagement reflects the strong connections we've built with neurodivergent families and the evolving public perception of learning and thinking differences (LTDs).
The success of our English Facebook fueled the launch of Understood.org’s Spanish Facebook platform, enabling us to extend our resources to more communities. Since then, our Spanish platform has expanded our impact, generating over 14.2 million impressions and 6.7 million engagements from Spanish-speaking parents navigating LTDs. This growth shows our commitment to supporting underserved communities by providing them with the free resources they lack.
Most importantly, Understood.org’s Impact study reinforces the effectiveness of the resources shared on our English and Spanish Facebook platforms. Every parent reported feeling better after using our resources, with 100% of parents experiencing positive emotions—such as feeling knowledgeable, validated, empowered, connected, confident in their parenting, prepared, or optimistic.
