Today I took the time to go to the tes SEND Show and come away inspired, but one thing has stuck with me. After seeing a lecture run by Andrew Whitehouse (andrewwhitehouse.co.uk), who champions what it is like to grow up with ADHD, he got me thinking about a particular phrase. He has a book he has written about his experiences called ‘Andrew and the Magic Giveash**ometer: Growing up with ADHD,’ what a great title for a book! Andrew explained ‘Why do we strive to be neurotypical? We have to stop idealising this term’ It made me think why we even have the two terms, neurotypical and neurodiversity, as just having those two terms appears divisive.
A definition of neurotypical is “Not displaying or characterised by autistic or other neurologically atypical patterns of thought or behaviour. Neurotypical individuals often assume that their experience of the world is either the only one or the only correct one" Is this true? It would imply that being neurotypical is easy!
Neurodiversity describes the variation in the human experience of the world, in school, at work, and through social relationships. An estimated 15-20 percent of the world's population exhibits some form of neurodivergence. For me, this doesn’t seem close! There seems to be a label now for any type of difficulty a person or young person may come across. If you have difficulty with reading and writing you may have dyslexia, difficulty with maths and you may have dyscalculia, poor handwriting and you may have dysgraphia or poor attention and you may be classed as having ADHD, and the list goes on. As a special needs co-ordinator labels can be helpful but the barriers will still exist and the support may not be anything that different to what the child is already receiving. Often parents are quite shocked when they finally get an autism diagnosis after years of waiting and all they get for support is a leaflet. So, I go back to my question, can only 20% of the population be neurodiversity? I think most people would be able to talk about an aspect of learning they find difficult. As we talk about difficulties and acknowledge these are on a spectrum, it might be that difficulties in maths or with football could be classed as dyscalculia or dyspraxia. Does that then make that person neurodiversity? If so, I think the diversity percentage would be much greater than 20%. I am dyslexic and my husband is Autistic and we often discuss who, out of our friends, could be neurodiverse. When you start trying to group or ‘classify’ people in this way you realise, that for whatever reason, a person might have a difficulty but no label, but this means they could still fall into this neurodiversity category.
This reminds me of a study from the Open University which talks about how narrow the definition of ‘normal’ has become but yet the education system still strives for this. The actual definition is ‘conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.’ If the definition is this narrow how do at least 80% of the population fit into it? For example, the assessment systems within schools now assess a child by saying they have made or met the expected standard or not met. It is that black and white, there is no spectrum! However, when we talk about special needs we often talk about a spectrum such as the autistic spectrum. Many people on the spectrum may not be picked up by the assessment process but will still have recognised challenges. There are also generations of people who don’t have the correct diagnosis. How are those people classified? So why don’t we appreciate that people are different, and diverse and shouldn’t categorise people into two distinct groups, neurotypical and neurodiversity, met or not met?
So, what?
Working in the education sector it is important to talk about young people as being diverse and recognising talents and challenges. The world is diverse, and I have always admired the work of Andrew Moffit (no-outsiders.com) who supports diversity in all respects from gender to religion, family units to additional needs. I think more than ever it is important not to use possibly unhelpful terms such as neurotypical or neurodiverse but acknowledge diversity across the spectrum. I think people are like bags of ‘pick and mix, two bags are never the same but each one is unique and full of delights.
Enjoy your pick and mix!
Commentaires