A practical roadmap for building real connection—without masking or burnout

Friendship isn’t intuitive for everyone, especially for  neurodivergent adults who  the world still expects to simply know how to “read the room,” follow unspoken rules, and keep up socially. In this keynote, ADHD and social skills expert Caroline Maguire shares a practical, compassionate roadmap based on her Social GPS framework, breaking friendship into concrete, learnable skills that actually work in real life. 

Rather than asking people to change who they are, Caroline helps audiences understand how friendships function and how to navigate them in ways that respect neurodivergent brains, energy limits, and communication styles. Participants leave with leave with tools they can use immediately to start conversations, deepen connections, and build friendships that genuinely fit who they are.

Audiences will learn how to:

• Understand why neurodivergent friendships often look different, and why that is not a deficit

• Recognize how executive function, sensory thresholds, and communication styles shape social experiences

• Use Caroline's Social GPS as a step-by-step system for initiating, sustaining, and deepening friendships

• Practice ready-to-use scripts for real situations, including joining a group, texting an acquaintance, reconnecting, and repairing conflict

• Apply the Three Ps of Friendship (Participation, Proximity, and Practice) to create more chances for connection

• Build a sustainable support network as a neurodivergent adult without pushing themselves past their limits

This talk is grounded in Caroline’s decades of coaching experience and her book Friendship Skills for Neurodivergent Adults, offering audiences validation, insights, and actionable next steps.

From accommodation to belonging

College is often described as a time of connection, belonging, and exploration. For many neurodivergent students, however, it can feel more like a constant social test with invisible rules. Dorms, dining halls, group projects, and clubs are often exciting and overwhelming at the same time. Masking, misunderstanding, and social exhaustion can get in the way of the friendships and opportunities students came to college hoping to find.

In this talk, Caroline Maguire, M.Ed., PCC, helps campuses move beyond paperwork and accommodations toward true neuroinclusive social environments. Drawing from her Social GPS framework, she equips students—and the adults who support them— with practical tools that make social life more understandable and manageable without asking them to mask or change who they are.

Audiences will learn:

• Why neurodivergent students may experience campus life as both overstimulating and isolating, and how that shows up in classrooms, dorms, and clubs

• How executive function challenges, sensory needs, and communication differences affect group work, office hours, social events, and roommate dynamics

• Simple, concrete skills students can use to read the room, join conversations, set boundaries, and recover after awkward moments

• Strategies for building layers of connection, from casual to close friends, at a pace that feels realistic and attainable

• Specific, actionable practices faculty, staff, RAs, and student leaders can use to make campus spaces more neuroinclusive and socially accessible.

This talk can be tailored for student audiences, disability services, faculty and staff training, or campus wide initiatives focused on belonging, inclusion, retention, and student well-being.

Item d“Why Will No One Play with Me?”—a question every parent fears having to answer, yet one that has become more prevalent with each generation. Whether you are the parent of a child with learning differences, social integration issues, one that is a victim of bullying or even the parent of a child navigating the seemingly simple process of growing up, there has never been a greater need for a go-to resource that provides parents with the tools to help their children navigate the challenges of social interactions. In this talk, Caroline Maguire introduces audiences to the tools they need to become their child’s (or student’s) social skills coach. Through step-by-step guidance, parents and educators will learn how to help others build social skills, use positive social behaviors, and become social problem-solvers. Caroline will demonstrate the coaching process for participants, so they can apply coaching techniques at home, in the classroom, or anywhere needed most. By practicing and using open-ended questions, reflective listening, and praise and prompts, the audience will prepare to become their child’s social skills coach.escription

As neurodiversity has risen in awareness, most schools have worked diligently to support the needs of all students who may be considered “atypical.” Yet the truth remains that learning differences and preferences in a classroom setting can be a lot to manage with limited resources and support staff. The answer to this challenge doesn't lie in giving teachers “one more thing to do.” It lies in teaching students the social skills needed to thrive—how to make friends, communicate with others, and increase their emotional intelligence. Confidence, resilience and belonging stem from student’s belief that they have one caring adult to lean on, they possess the skills they need to strive toward their goals, and that they are connected and supported by their community. Caroline Maguire aims to help educators understand the needs of neurodivergent students, including an understanding of how they see the world and the accommodations needed to nurture this gifted population. In this talk, Caroline will demonstrate simple strategies to teach all students to communicate more effectively, to understand their impact on others, to work more collaboratively, to improve problem solving, and to bolster self-advocacy. Through this talk, educators will learn how to weave improved social-emotional communication techniques for all students into daily lessons without any additional preparations. 

Let’s face it – it’s frustrating when you witness others, especially your own children, doing and saying things that can make them seem rude or insensitive. In this guided talk, Caroline Maguire will present techniques proven to help those diagnosed with ADHD to learn how to recognize other people’s point of view (perspective taking), gain greater social self-awareness, change the messages they telegraph to other people, self-evaluate their behavior, and adapt their behavior depending on the unspoken rules, context, people and situation, in order to develop and improve their perspective taking skills. Participants will leave with step-by-step techniques to address tone, unexpected social behavior, misguided humor, continual monologue, and other common ADHD social challenges that often make individuals seem insensitive or rude.

Neuroinclusive connection that drives engagement, performance and retention.

Behind the emails, meetings, and dashboards, many employees, especially neurodivergent ones, feel isolated and alone at work. Hybrid schedules, unspoken norms, and fast moving communication can make it difficult to build trust, speak up, or feel like you truly belong on a team. Over time, this disconnect can lead to quiet disengagement, missed collaboration, and avoidable turnover.

In this talk, Caroline Maguire reframes connection as  a real business advantage for performance, retention, and overall well being. Using her Social GPS framework and years of experience coaching neurodivergent professionals, she translates big ideas like psychological safety and inclusion into everyday behaviors teams can actually use.

Audiences will learn how to:

• Recognize signs of loneliness, isolation, and social burnout at work, especially for neurodivergent employees

• Understand how executive function, sensory differences, and communication styles influence meetings, feedback, and collaboration

• Use simple connection habits and conversation scripts to make one-on-ones, team meetings, and informal moments more inclusive and less draining

• Create work norms that support different kinds of brains, including clear expectations, flexible participation, and multiple ways to contribute

• Build a culture where people feel safe to show up as themselves, ask for what they need, and form the kind of relationships that keep them engaged and committed

This talk equips leaders and teams with practical tools to foster connection that supports both human well-being and organizational success.