Neurodiversity – What does it mean?

Welcome back to Term 3!

This term the school counsellor newsletters will focus on Neurodiversity.

Our understanding of how human brains work is changing rapidly and this impacts on how we as individuals, schools and society live, work and function.

Where the term Neurodiversity came from…

The term Neurodiversity was coined by Australian Sociologist Judy Singer in 1997 to refer to the infinite neurocognitive variability within the human population (Doyle, 2020).

Singer originally used the term Neurodiversity in relation to Autism, with the aim of shifting public perception that Autistic people are “disordered” or “defective”  (Doyle, 2020). In the early 2000s, many advocates within the Autistic community began to refer to themselves as being Neurodivergent, highlighting that autistic brains differ or “diverge” from the brains of non-autistic people. People whose brains were considered as being “average” or “normal” began to be referred to as “Neurotypical” within Autistic communities (Doyle, 2020). 

  – above is taken from the Divergent Futures website https://www.divergentfutures.com/resources

The term Neurodivergent is now commonly used to refer to a wide range of neurological differences including:

• Autism -  ADHD         - Dyspraxia          - Dyslexia           - Dyscalculia  … and more!

In understanding how our own brains, or those of our children, work, we can better support one another to be happy and healthy.

Accepting differences in brain functioning and working to better support these differences we can help to create an environment that meets the needs of everyone. We can help our young people to better understand and accept themselves and advocate for their own needs. We can start to see brain differences as just that, rather than ‘disorders’ or something that needs to be treated or fixed.

Thanks for reading, Sam, School Counsellor

The next newsletter article will focus on the language of Neurodiversity which has also changed significantly in recent years. Efforts have been made to ensure that this article uses Neurodiversity-affirming language, however, should any language be seen as problematic or unhelpful, please feel free to contact me: samantha.hessenthaler@mccg.org.au