NeuroDiversity
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: Mar 05, 2012
Posts: 40
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 Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 2:14 pm Post subject: The term "neurodiversity", what does it mean to yo |
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All,
When i joined this site last week I chose what I thought at the time was a new word I had just made up, "neurodiversity", as my user name on WP. However, yesterday I discovered that a woman named Judy Singer originally coined this phrase. What I would like to know from other WP members is whether this term carries with it unnecessary baggage? For example, on one site, it appeared that Ms. Singer or some of her followers may have had some bias against Aspies having custody of their children in a divorce. (Of course, that could also have been a misrepresentation of her viewpoints.)
In any event, my intention in "making up" this term was to suggest that there are infinitely many different brain types, and that no single type is better or worse than another. That also seems to be where Ms. Singer may have begun. But, I just want to make sure she didn't end up someplace entirely different. And if she did, then I will re-register under a different name!
Thanks for listening.
Don
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D in So Cal, USA
Official Dx: ASD and ADHD
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Vigilans
Orgasm Donor
Joined: Jun 20, 2008
Age: 24
Posts: 12095
Location: La belle province
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| Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 2:21 pm Post subject: |
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Hey Don,
As it says on WP's front page:
Wrong Planet is the web community designed for individuals (and parents / professionals of those) with Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD, PDDs, and other neurological differences
I would say that neurodiversity fits into that definition [bolded]
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Krychek
Snowy Owl
Joined: Aug 15, 2011
Age: 31
Posts: 126
Location: Las Vegas
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| Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 2:39 pm Post subject: Re: The term "neurodiversity", what does it mean t |
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| NeuroDiversity wrote: | All,
When i joined this site last week I chose what I thought at the time was a new word I had just made up, "neurodiversity", as my user name on WP. However, yesterday I discovered that a woman named Judy Singer originally coined this phrase. What I would like to know from other WP members is whether this term carries with it unnecessary baggage? For example, on one site, it appeared that Ms. Singer or some of her followers may have had some bias against Aspies having custody of their children in a divorce. (Of course, that could also have been a misrepresentation of her viewpoints.)
In any event, my intention in "making up" this term was to suggest that there are infinitely many different brain types, and that no single type is better or worse than another. That also seems to be where Ms. Singer may have begun. But, I just want to make sure she didn't end up someplace entirely different. And if she did, then I will re-register under a different name!
Thanks for listening.
Don |
I say congratulations on getting the username first.. I'm sure it will eventually become a somewhat commonly used word.
Also, I do understand the need to give credit when you thought you made something up, got excited about it, used it, THEN thought to look it up.. Ha, I do it all the time.
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Callista
Phoenix
Joined: Feb 04, 2006
Age: 30
Posts: 9839
Location: Central USA
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| Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 3:58 pm Post subject: |
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Neurodiversity is a specific type of diversity; or, more precisely, a belief that a specific type of diversity is a good thing.
By "diversity" I mean the sort of society that happens when people of all different sorts work together, accept each other, and form a cooperative group. Most of the time "diversity" is applied to acceptance of racial and ethnic minorities, to acceptance of religion (and non-religious people), to acceptance of all genders and sexual orientations, and to equality in general. It's called "diversity" and not just "acceptance" because it's a sort of acceptance where everyone is still free to be themselves; where differences are acknowledged and celebrated rather than uncomfortably ignored, minimized, or denied.
Neurodiversity is all of that, applied to cognitive, neurological, and generally brain-related disability and difference. I say "disability and difference" because neurodiversity technically doesn't apply just to disabilities like autism, but to things like synesthesia, giftedness, and different learning styles--things that represent differences between people's brains even when there is no disability involved. That means that neurodiversity applies to diagnosable autistics, and to people who lost their diagnosis but are still quirky, and to people who don't have a diagnosis, and to people who are self-diagnosed, and to people who are sub-clinical. Not to mention a lot of allies--spouses, friends, sympathetic professionals--who would like to see us treated as equals as well.
Neurodiversity is partly within the disability-rights movement; but as I've said it's also not entirely about disability, but also about differences. A proponent of neurodiversity might, for example, lobby for a more flexible school system to allow even neurotypical children to pursue their own talents, so that the spatially-gifted child might have plenty of illustrations and graphs to work with, and the verbally-gifted child, lots of books to read. You needn't have a disability to benefit from that.
Neurodiversity is a term used mostly within the autism-rights community, but it's leaking out. I've heard it applied to ADHD and bipolar disorder, so far. I hope the concept gains wider acceptance.
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TheDarkMage
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CockneyRebel
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NeuroDiversity
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: Mar 05, 2012
Posts: 40
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| Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 5:36 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks all for your replies. All of your replies are pretty consistent with what I had in mind when I thought I made up the word. In short I was thinking of something like cultural diversity applied to people with different brain types, on one type being any better or worse than another.. just different.
Now If I can just figure out what a "neurotypical" is. Is it the 40+ percent of the population with one or more mental disorders? The 15% or so of the population with personality disorders? The intersection thereof? Or just those that haven't been diagnosed with anything yet due to the limits of our current knowledge about the brain? 
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D in So Cal, USA
Official Dx: ASD and ADHD
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