In the late 1990′s, Judy Singer invented a word to describe conditions like autism, dyslexia, and ADHD: neurodiversity. The word shifts our thinking about atypical ways of thinking. These “deficits” or “disorders”, Singer explains, have concomitant skills and aptitudes.
Autistic people, for instance, have superb memories for factual data, and are capable of focusing on tasks for extended periods of time. To autistic people, the typical brain is too-easily-distracted, obsessively social, and suffers from a “deficit” of too little attention to detail!
Harvey Blume, in Wired magazine, said “Neurodiversity may be every bit as crucial for the human race as biodiversity is for life in general…Who can say what form of [neural] wiring will prove best at any given moment? Cybernetics and computer culture, for example, may favor a somewhat autistic cast of mind.”
Experts are learning that helping students make the most of their native strengths instead of trying to correct their deficits or “normalize” them helps neurodiverse minds make meaningful contributions to our world.
Thomas Armstrong, one of our heroes in special education, has a new book called Neurodiversity in the Classroom. Armstrong asserts, “We ought not to pathologize children who have different kinds of brains and different ways of thinking and learning….We don’t pathologize a calla lily by saying it has petal deficit disorder”.
So if you hear your child/student described as a having “deficit disorders”, ask, “What does my child do well?”