Neurodiversity is the diversity of human minds, the infinite variation in neurocognitive functioning within our species.

NEURODIVERSITY: SOME BASIC TERMS & DEFINITIONS

Neurodiversity is a biological fact. It’s not a perspective, an approach, a belief, a political position, or a paradigm. That’s the neurodiversity paradigm (see below), not neurodiversity itself.

Neurodiversity is not a political or social activist movement. That’s the Neurodiversity Movement (see below), not neurodiversity itself.

Neurodiversity is not a trait that any individual possesses or can possess. When an individual or group of individuals diverges from the dominant societal standards of “normal” neurocognitive functioning, they don’t “have neurodiversity,” they’re neurodivergent (see below).

NEURODIVERSITY: SOME BASIC TERMS & DEFINITIONS

Neurodiversity is the idea that all brains and connected bodyminds are diverse in how they work – no two brains or nervous systems are the same

Terminology | Critical Disability Studies Collective

Origins of the Term Neurodiversity

This letter discusses the origins of the concept and theory of neurodiversity. It is important to correctly attribute concept and theories to the people who developed them. For some time, the concept of neurodiversity has primarily been attributed to one person, Judy Singer. We consider the available evidence and show that the concept and theory in fact has multiple origins. We draw particular attention to recent archival findings that show the concept of ‘neurological diversity’ was being used years earlier than previously thought. ‘Neurodiversity’ means the same thing as ‘neurological diversity’ and does not change the theory in any way. We conclude that both the concept of neurological diversity or neurodiversity, and the body of theory surrounding it, should be understood as having been collectively developed by neurodivergent people.

The neurodiversity concept was developed collectively: An overdue correction on the origins of neurodiversity theory – Monique Botha, Robert Chapman, Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, Steven K Kapp, Abs Stannard Ashley, Nick Walker, 2024

We, an international group of autistic scholars of autism and neurodiversity, discuss recent findings on the origins of the concept and theorising of neurodiversity. For some time, the coinage and theorising of the concept of ‘neurodiversity’ has been attributed to Judy Singer. Singer wrote an Honours thesis on the subject in 1998, focused on autistic activists and allies in the autistic community email list Independent Living (InLv). This was revised into a briefer book chapter, published in 1999. Despite the widespread attribution to Singer, the terms ‘neurological diversity’ and ‘neurodiversity’ were first printed in 1997 and 1998, respectively, in the work of the journalist Harvey Blume, who himself attributed them not to Singer but rather to the online community of autistic people, such as the ‘Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical’. Recently, Martijn Dekker reported a 1996 discussion in which one InLv poster, Tony Langdon, writes of the ‘neurological diversity of people. i.e. the atypical among a society provide the different perspectives needed to generate new ideas and advances, whether they be technological, cultural, artistic or otherwise’. Going forward, we should recognise the multiple, collective origins of the neurodiversity concept rather than attributing it to any single author.

The neurodiversity concept was developed collectively: An overdue correction on the origins of neurodiversity theory – Monique Botha, Robert Chapman, Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, Steven K Kapp, Abs Stannard Ashley, Nick Walker, 2024

Walker said the real story of the term “neurodiversity,” wherein a community coined the word, is “inspiring” and one that people should know.

Who coined the term ‘neurodiversity?’ Not Judy Singer, some autistic academics say

Neurodiversity and Biodiversity

Human cognitive diversity exists for a reason; our differences are the genius – and the conscience – of our species.

A Thousand Rivers: What The Modern World Has Forgotten About Children And Learning

Neurodiversity: the notion that conditions like autism, dyslexia, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) should be regarded as naturally occurring cognitive variations with distinctive strengths that have contributed to the evolution of technology and culture rather than mere checklists of deficits and dysfunctions.

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

Turns out that, more than anything else, Kristin had one of those square-peg personalities that didn’t quite fit her world’s round— and shrinking— holes. The human brain has evolved over many thousands of years, yet only in the last hundred, a blip on that time line, have we demanded that each and every young one sit still and pay attention for seven hours a day. Kristin couldn’t. But was that really her underlying problem?: 

Schwarz, Alan (2016-09-06). ADHD Nation: Children, Doctors, Big Pharma, and the Making of an American Epidemic (Kindle Locations 140-143). Scribner. Kindle Edition.

Neurodiversity as a term is related to the much more familiar concept of biodiversity, and we now recognise the importance of respecting our environment, with the rich diversity of life forms that inhabit it. In many ways, the concept of neurodiversity is just the next step in this more respectful way of thinking about our planet and our communities.

Editorial Perspective: Neurodiversity – a revolutionary concept for autism and psychiatry

Neurodiversity may be every bit as crucial for the human race as biodiversity is for life in general. Who can say what form of wiring will prove best at any given moment?

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity and the Social Model of Disability

The word “neurodiversity” … proposes that disability is a product of the way society is organised, rather than by limitations imposed by a person’s condition. In a world without wheelchair ramps and accessible buildings, wheelchair users have very few choices about where they can go. But in a world that accommodates wheelchair users, they have many more choices. Neurodiversity extends the social model of disability into the realm of cognitive differences like autism, dyslexia, and ADHD. How can we make the world safer and more welcoming to people with these conditions so they can lead happier, healthier, and more autonomous lives? That’s the question that the neurodiversity movement asks.

Steve Silberman recommends the best books on Autism

Neurodiversity and the Pathology Paradigm

Through the lens of the neurodiversity paradigm, the pathology paradigm’s medicalized framing of autism and various other constellations of neurological, cognitive, and behavioral characteristics as “disorders” or “conditions” can be seen for what it is: a social construction rooted in cultural norms and social power inequalities, rather than a “scientifically objective” description of reality.

The choice to frame the minds, bodies, and lives of autistic people (or any other neurological minority group) in terms of pathology does not represent an inevitable and objective scientific conclusion, but is merely a cultural value judgment. Similar pathologizing frameworks have been used time and again to lend an aura of scientific legitimacy to all manner of other bigotry, and to the oppression of women, indigenous peoples, people of color, and queer people, among others. The framing of autism and other minority neurological configurations as disorders or medical conditions begins to lose its aura of scientific authority and “objectivity” when viewed in this historical context—when one remembers, for instance, that homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) well into the 1970s; or that in the Southern United States, for some years prior to the American Civil War, the desire of slaves to escape from slavery was diagnosed by some white Southern physicians as a medical “disorder” called drapetomania.

AUTISM & THE PATHOLOGY PARADIGM

Here is what I have learned from my years in the field and from Ros Blackburn and others: There is no such thing as autistic behavior. These are all human behaviors and human responses based on a person’s experience. When I present workshops and seminars about autism, I often tell the audience that I have never seen a person with autism do something that I haven’t seen a so-called normal person do. Of course, many people find this difficult to believe. So I make it a challenge. I ask the listeners— usually parents, teachers, and professionals— to name a behavior that is central to autism, and I predict that I have witnessed it in a typical person. Immediately people in the audience raise their hands.

“How about repeating the same phrase over and over one thousand times?”
Plenty of kids do that when they’re asking for an ice cream cone or how much longer the drive will be.

“Talking to yourself when nobody’s around?”
I do that in my car every day.

“Banging her head on the ground when she’s frustrated?”
My neighbor’s “typical” son did that when he was a toddler.

Rocking, talking to yourself, jumping up and down, flapping your arms? We all do these things. The difference, of course, is that you might not have seen it as persistently or as intensely (or at an older age) in a typical person. And if we do engage in such behavior, we generally make sure we’re not doing so in public.

Ros Blackburn says people stare when she jumps up and down and flaps her arms. They’re simply not accustomed to seeing an adult act with such abandon. She points out that it’s common to see people on TV doing just what she does, after they’ve won the lottery or a game show. “The difference,” she says, “is that I get excited more easily than you do.”

We’re all human, and these are human behaviors.

That’s the paradigm shift this book will bring: instead of classifying legitimate, functional behavior as a sign of pathology, we’ll examine it as part of a range of strategies to cope, to adapt, to communicate and deal with a world that feels overwhelming and frightening. Some of the most popular autism therapies make it their sole aim to reduce or eliminate behaviors. I’ll show how it’s better to enhance abilities, teach skills, build coping strategies, and offer supports that will help to prevent behavioral patterns of concern and naturally lead to more desirable behavior. It’s not helpful to dismiss what children do as “autistic behavior” or “aberrant behavior” or “noncompliant behavior” (a phrase used by many therapists). Instead of dismissing it, it’s better to ask: What is motivating it? What purpose does it serve? Does it actually help the person, even though it looks different?

Prizant, Barry M. (2015-08-04). Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism. Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

In this definition, dyslexia is characterized as a “disorder,” as opposed to a characteristic. The word disorder suggests that something is “wrong” or that the person is broken. However, disability can be defined only in a particular context, which is to say if there was no such thing as written text, there would be no disability related to reading.

Foss, Ben (2013-08-27). The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Often people discuss dyslexia in terms of it having been diagnosed, but that word reinforces the notion that dyslexia is a disease, a scourge, an imperfection, and that someday we can find a cure. As I said in the introduction, there will be no cure because there is no disease! Dyslexia is a characteristic, like being male or female, or from a certain state, or a graduate of a certain university. There’s nothing less than perfect inherent in any of those descriptions, is there? You can start changing this practice in your own house today, replacing the phrase “diagnosed with dyslexia” with “identified with dyslexia.”

Foss, Ben (2013-08-27). The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Autism isn’t an illness. It’s a different way of being human. Children with autism aren’t sick; they are progressing through developmental stages as we all do. To help them, we don’t need to change them or fix them. We need to work to understand them, and then change what we do. In other words, the best way to help a person with autism change for the better is to change ourselves— our attitudes, our behavior, and the types of support we provide.

Prizant, Barry M. (2015-08-04). Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism. Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition.

But it could rightly be argued that the term ‘disorder’ is not just descriptive. The term ‘disorder’ implies the natural order has gone awry and that the individual’s underlying cognition and neurobiology is dysfunctional is some way – even if for environ-mental reasons. But when we examine the cognition and biology of autism, arguably what we see is not evidence of dysfunction but rather evidence of difference (Lai, Lombardo, & Baron-Cohen, 2014).

Editorial Perspective: Neurodiversity – a revolutionary concept for autism and psychiatry

But the language of disability is very different to the language of disorder. Disability requires societal support, acceptance of difference and diversity, and societal ‘reasonable adjustment’, while disorder is usually taken to require cure or treatment. These are very different frameworks.

Editorial Perspective: Neurodiversity – a revolutionary concept for autism and psychiatry

Many in the autism community adopt the neurodiversity framework, coining the term ‘neurotypical’ to describe the majority brain. Steve Silberman’s terrific book Neurotribes is a kind of manifesto for the neurodiversity movement, encouraging us to recognise autism as an example of diversity in the set of all possible brains, none of which is ‘normal’ and all of which are simply different. The notion of neurodiversity is highly compatible with the civil rights plea for minorities to be accepted with respect and dignity, and not be pathologised. Left-handers are an example of neurodiversity in a majority right-handed world, and left-handers used to be seen as a pathological condition that needed correction. In the same way, the concept of neurodiversity challenges whether people with autism should automatically be ‘treated’ and ‘normalised’.

Editorial Perspective: Neurodiversity – a revolutionary concept for autism and psychiatry

Many feel that the term ‘disability’ is softer, and that the term ‘disorder’ is quite hard-hitting. Moreover, while the concepts of disability and neurodiversity are not incompatible, the concepts of disorder and neurodiversity are incompatible. This is because we all have areas of strength or difficulty and some cognitive profiles are adaptive in certain environmental niches but manifest as a disability in others. If someone is tone-deaf, that is only a disability in a situation where the person is expected to sing. Expanding on the quote attributed to Einstein, a fish will appear as having a disability if required to climb a tree. And to expand on the quote attributed to a person with autism, ‘we are fresh water fish in salt water. Put us in fresh water and we are fine. Put us in salt water and we struggle to survive’.

Editorial Perspective: Neurodiversity – a revolutionary concept for autism and psychiatry

But the case for not applying the term ‘disorder’ to autism is that, in an autism-friendly environment, the person can function not just well, but sometimes even at a higher level than a typical individual. People have made the case for including other neurodevelopmental conditions and ‘phenotypes’, such as ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia or synaesthesia, within the framework of neurodiversity.

Editorial Perspective: Neurodiversity – a revolutionary concept for autism and psychiatry

Neurodiversity and Learning

The idea of neurodiversity has inspired the creation of a rapidly growing civil rights movement based on the simple idea that the most astute interpreters of autistic behavior are autistic people themselves rather than their parents or doctors.

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

Dyslexic children often have better imaginations than non-dyslexics, after all, but nobody labels the “normal” children as having an “imagination disability.”

A Thousand Rivers: What The Modern World Has Forgotten About Children And Learning

These children’s brains are organizing themselves differently, and it should go without saying that their developmental arc may therefore be different. When we interfere in the process of this organization, when we stigmatize it and test it and remediate it prematurely -– when we try to teach dyslexics to think like other children by aggressively drilling them in phonics –– Cooper says we are robbing these children of the opportunity to build organically on their many strengths rather than being treated as something broken that needs fixing.

A Thousand Rivers: What The Modern World Has Forgotten About Children And Learning

Some simply have a different learning strategy; one that absorbs, considers, consolidates, integrates, and then suddenly blossoms fully formed

A Thousand Rivers: What The Modern World Has Forgotten About Children And Learning

If your learning style doesn’t fit this year’s theory, you will be humiliated, remediated, scrutinized, stigmatized, tested, and ultimately diagnosed and labelled as having a mild defect in your brain.

A Thousand Rivers: What The Modern World Has Forgotten About Children And Learning

Most schools and reading programs designed for remediation of dyslexia are based on the idea that dyslexia equals brokenness. Their aim is to transform the child into a person who can read without problems. But I’m here to tell you that’s just wrongheaded. I’ve learned that if you make your primary goal teaching your child to read or spell just like every other child, you’re going to decrease your child’s chances of achieving success. It’s like telling a person in a wheelchair that she needs to put in more time to learn how to walk.

Foss, Ben (2013-08-27). The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

I am introducing these terms to address an underlying bias in our schools: that eye reading is the only form of reading. You can help move the needle on this limited assumption by using the terms eye reading, ear reading, and finger reading yourself and explaining them to your child. We need to celebrate children’s love of ideas and quest for knowledge and give them permission to not like standard books at the same time! When we give kids opportunities to gather information and explore ideas in other ways, they will thrive.

Foss, Ben (2013-08-27). The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Focusing on eye reading overlooks the real goals of education, which are learning, independent thinking, and mastering the ability to make new connections in the world of ideas.

Foss, Ben (2013-08-27). The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

A central theme in this book is that we must question what we are taught is the “normal” way to do things, and instead integrate multiple ways for our children to access information.

Foss, Ben (2013-08-27). The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

If you are a dyslexic person or the parent of a dyslexic child, I recommend that you allow technology to become your new best friend.

Foss, Ben (2013-08-27). The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

The key to my happiness occurred when I stopped trying to change my brain, and started changing the context around me.

Foss, Ben (2013-08-27). The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

One dyslexic friend of mine described his shame as “slow-drip trauma.” He felt unworthy and “not normal” every day. As an adult, he was treated for post-traumatic stress syndrome that was caused by his experiences in school.

Foss, Ben (2013-08-27). The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Ninety percent of my injuries happened when I was in school and before I was talking about my dyslexia publicly. Hiding who you are can translate into self-harm. When I talk with my peers in the dyslexia movement, a majority of them had a specific plan for suicide when they were teenagers. I regularly meet dyslexic kids who cut themselves or worse when they were young. I am fine today, but the hiding left scars, figurative and literal, for many of us.

Foss, Ben (2013-08-27). The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

My friend Steve Walker, a very successful dyslexic entrepreneur, tells me all the time that you could not pay him enough money to go back to any type of school setting. He even says that he would sooner kill himself than go back to school. Yet in the same breath he will also say that you could not give him enough money to take away his dyslexia, because it is a part of who he is. Many times when I was in school or taking a standardized test, I rejected an accommodation because I was embarrassed and ashamed: I did not want to stand out, or I was frustrated that it would take too much effort to get permission to have my exam read aloud to me.

Foss, Ben (2013-08-27). The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

The majority of teachers and administrators are well-intentioned and look for ways to help your child. However, they often miss the most important point, which is that the goal is not to fix your child— your child is not broken. The goal is, instead, to play to your child’s strengths, support his weaknesses, and give him access to information.

Foss, Ben (2013-08-27). The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Neurodiversity and Identity

Dyslexia is not a disease, it is an identity. An identity is not something one cures; it is the basis of community and is an element of self you aim to understand and embrace. My hope is that you and your child will learn to own dyslexia, to understand it, and ideally, to celebrate it.

Foss, Ben (2013-08-27). The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

This book— and your mission as a parent— is about moving the model for your child from dyslexia as disease to dyslexia as identity, an identity we can all be proud of.

Foss, Ben (2013-08-27). The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

Dyslexia is a genetic, brain-based characteristic that results in difficulty connecting the sounds of spoken language to written words. It can result in errors in reading or spelling as well as in a number of areas not considered major life activities, such as determining right and left. Individuals who are dyslexic can be highly independent and intelligent. Dyslexia is also characterized by a set of strengths that typically come with this profile in one or more of the following areas: verbal, social, narrative, spatial, kinesthetic, visual, mathematical, or musical skills. Overall, it is characterized by an increased ability to perceive broad patterns and a reduced ability to perceive fine detail in systems.

Foss, Ben (2013-08-27). The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

There are several messages from the concept of neurodiversity. First, there is no single way for a brain to be normal, as there are many ways for the brain to be wired up and reach adulthood. Second, we need more ethical, nonstigmatising language and concepts for thinking about people who are different and/or who have disabilities. Third, we need a framework that does not pathologise and focus disproportionately on what the person struggles with, and instead takes a more balanced view, to give equal attention to what the person can do. And finally, genetic or other kinds of biological variation are intrinsic to the person’s identity, their sense of self and personhood, which seen through a human rights lens, should be given equal respect alongside anyother form of diversity, such as gender.

Editorial Perspective: Neurodiversity – a revolutionary concept for autism and psychiatry

Neurodiversity, Normality, and Neuronormativity

In considering the question of how to deal with the diversity of neurological conditions, we would do well to remember H. G. Wells’s story, where “normal” is a fluid term. Nunez thinks of the blind as abnormal, but so do they of him. That each human being is biologically unique is, in fact, the norm. These biological differences are, in turn, inextricably intertwined with the different ways we have of seeing and being in the world. Eliminating this rich biological and psychological diversity in the ostensible interests of ameliorating or preventing suffering would in the end diminish our humanity. It would make us less visibly like the country of the blind, but more like them in their prejudice. Rather than working to create another set of public labels, the real value of the neurodiversity movement may be in helping us to recognize that we each face challenges and opportunities – and that a decent society is one in which we are each able to strive to make the best of what we are given.

Mental Disorder or Neurodiversity? – The New Atlantis

Further Reading