“If you are finding neurodivergence confusing and ambiguous that is because it IS confusing and ambiguous it’s not because you’ve missed a meeting”
Dr. Nancy Doyle, Genius Within CIC
I completed a brilliant, and rather intense, neurodiversity course recently and having a 'Neurospicy' family, and being a dyslexic thinker, I wanted to share what I leant.
Neurodivergence has always been in existence we put specialists (neurodivergence) in schools during the 19th century and tried to mold them in to generalists using an education system built around a neurotypical framework, valuing conformity, rote memorization, and standardized testing - none of which align well with the strengths and learning styles of many neurodivergent individuals. Instead of nurturing their unique ways of thinking, schools often made them feel like failures simply because they didn’t fit into an arbitrary mold. In doing this we made neurodivergent people feel failures because they didn't pass exams and for many this feeling has stayed with them for life.
Don’t get hung up on the language around neurodivergence, it is constantly changing, if in doubt ask!
There’s a move away from the medical model from “I have autism / dyslexia” to the social model “I am autistic / dyslexic”.
You don’t need an assessment - unless you’re in education or need financial or medical support.
Just as we have biodiversity, we have neurodiversity. We need neurodivergent people in the world. It is thought the hunter gatherers were neurodivergent humans - without these we wouldn't have survived!
When you’ve met one neurodivergent person - you’ve met ONE neurodivergent person. Neurodiversity is as individual as personality.
Whilst it would be great to say neurodivergence is a lens to be looked through, not a label to be placed upon. Having an understanding (and for some an official diagnosis) of how and why you think, act and live as you do as a neurodivergent person gives you tools and a handbook for life which can be incredibly empowering.
We no longer measure via a spectrum. We use a spikey profile plotting skillsets on a graph. Neurotypical will have a wavy profile, neurodivergence a spikey profile a higher level of difference between the peaks and troughs. Neurodivergence are specialists not generalists’ thinkers.
More girls are undiagnosed than boys. Many girls have been misdiagnosed as having general anxiety or bipolar.
It is thought 20% of the population are neurodivergent. The crossover between Autism/ADHD and other neurodiversity traits is thought to be above 60%.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we understood that we are all individuals with our own needs that may sit outside the norm - and that's actually ok! And there were no boxes to tick to say a new employee requires ‘special assistance’ just individuals telling people in interviews what they need in the workplace to make them more productive and healthier at work.
“We need variation in any species because if resources change and conditions change certain members of that species will prosper above others it’s a survival mechanism" "
"I don’t see a box. In a time of crisis we need people who don’t see boxes”
Chris Packham
(Naturalist, writer, photographer, conservationist, campaigner and filmmaker)
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