Exploring the diversity of neurodiversity

In times past, neurodiversity was considered a developmental disorder and these labels were handed out as diagnoses that indicated some form of incapability. Attitudes are now changing. As I have argued in previous blog posts, people who are physically or neurologically different tend to be disabled by society, as opposed to being disabled in and of themselves.

Several neurodiverse conditions often arise in the same person and are more common among LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Queer, etc.) people. For example, dyslexia is common among people with some form of ADHD and/or dyslexia, and sometimes other selective challenges in language learning.  Once a person’s brain starts on the journey to being diverse, it seems it often becomes diverse in myriad ways.

Let’s look at some of the main presentations of neurodiversity.

Presentations of neurodiversity

Dyslexia

People with dyslexia process information differently from most people, making it more difficult for dyslexic people to process and remember things they see and hear, which can impact how quickly and easily they learn to read and write, as well as how easy they find it to organise themselves. Like other forms of diversity from homosexuality to autism, dyslexia has historically been viewed through a medical lens imposed by those in power and classified as a learning disability that makes the development of how a person is expected to develop more difficult, while the strengths offered by thinking differently were undervalued.

This can be seen in the Rose (2009) definition of dyslexia adopted by the British Dyslexia Association (BDA):

…a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed. Dyslexia occurs across the range of intellectual abilities. It is best thought of as a continuum, not a distinct category, and there are no clear cut-off points. Co-occurring difficulties may be seen in aspects of language, motor co-ordination, mental calculation, concentration and personal organisation, but these are not, by themselves, markers of dyslexia. A good indication of the severity and persistence of dyslexic difficulties can be gained by examining how the individual responds or has responded to well-founded intervention.

British Dyslexia Association (BDA)

The BDA goes on to point out that there are advantages to thinking differently and adds that some dyslexic people show strengths in areas such as reasoning, and in design, problem-solving, creativity, and interactive and oral skills, often making them better suited to a creative career.

Dyscalculia

Similar to dyslexia but affecting numbers rather than words, dyscalculia makes mathematics much more challenging. As with dyslexia, dyscalculia has many causes and results from many overlapping and interacting effects that make the condition a spectrum of cognitive diversity affecting all ages and abilities and creating a different experience for everyone. It is also indistinguishable from many other maths issues due to the severity of difficulties with number sense, including counting quickly and instinctively, making size comparisons, and putting things in order. It can occur singly but often co-occurs with other specific learning difficulties, mathematics anxiety and medical conditions.

Dysgraphia

People with dysgraphia have impaired handwriting.  Some people with dysgraphia find it very difficult to write by hand because they lack sufficient ability to remember words while simultaneously writing them down, while others find it difficult to hold a writing implement such as a pen without watching what they are doing with their fingers and thumb.  

To a greater or lesser extent, practice tracing letters and other handwriting exercises, useful for everyone learning to write by hand, can support handwriting development together with exercises involving looking at a letter and then imagining what that written letter looks like while it is temporarily covered. Sadly, in common with many neurodiverse conditions, dysgraphia goes under-recognised, particularly in children who are of above average intelligence, an inability to write being too often misattributed to a lack of effort rather than because of a surmountable difficulty.

Dyspraxia

Dyspraxia, also known as developmental coordination disorder (DCD), is a common disorder that affects movement and coordination. Affecting people of all levels of intelligence, dyspraxia impairs coordination, making certain skills such as balancing or driving more difficult, and can impair fine motor skills so that writing or using small objects becomes harder. Similar to dyslexia, dyspraxia can affect learning, thinking, managing emotions and social interaction, as well as time management and organisational skills. It is easy to imagine how this can make employment more challenging. Even standing on a ladder is potentially more difficult and dangerous, fine manual work becomes much more challenging, making restaurant and retail work much harder, while emotional management is a prime requisite for surviving and thriving in a busy office.

Autism

Autism is one of the most common forms of neurodiversity. Historically confused with mental illness and disability, autism is simply a cluster of cognitive differences that emerge as a person grows up that may make it more difficult for them to fit easily into our rigid society.  Neurotypical people are characterised by fitting into the society into which they find themselves born, in a similar way that able-bodied people find there are no intrinsic obstacles placed in their way as they make their way around the urban environment.  Society is designed around such people.  As such, society impedes the lives of those who are in any way physically or cognitively different.  According to the social model of disability, individuals are not disabled, rather it is the inflexibility of the way we live that disables them.  As a result, autistic people often feel overwhelmed and stressed and at any one time 15% of them will suffer from a diagnosed anxiety disorder.

So, what is different about people who we describe as being “austistic”?  Well, it’s complicated.  You did expect me to say that, didn’t you?  Life is rarely straightforward and neurodivergence is a wicked weave indeed.  Autistic people have brains that are wired slightly differently to ‘neurotypical’ people.  Autistic people, in particular, are neurodivergent individuals who score more highly than neurotypical people against one or more of five traits:

• Highly focused traits – some autistic people are deeply fascinated with specific topics, studying them in obsessive detail.  This can make them formidable subject experts.
• Sensory sensitivity – some autistic people cannot tolerate bright lights, sounds, and smells.  Unexpected touch might be painful, while the noise of a book returns alarm going off next to them can send them into shock, effectively wiping their short-term memory and leaving them disoriented, unsure where they are, etc.  Still others might be hyposensitive to certain stimuli, such as touch, and need to wear heavy clothes at all times to satisfy their sensory needs.  Many find that the typical indoor environment bombards their senses with an overload of sensory stimuli, causing them to become distressed or withdrawn. In autistic children, this often results in a breakdown that resembles a temper tantrum; in adults, withdrawal.
• Repetitive behaviours/routines – most people are creatures of habit but predictability is particularly important to many autistic people; unexpected disruption to routines causes them greater distress than the rest of us.
• Social communication – many autistic people find the subtle array of nonverbal cues most people use to communicate difficult to recognise and comprehend; they often talk in quite literal terms and find it difficult to grasp idioms, allusion and metaphor.
• Social interaction – a reduced ability to read nonverbal cues may make autistic people appear aloof or withdrawn, strange or rude, or domineering.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Originating in childhood, ADHD often persists into adulthood. Adults with ADHD may show a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity–impulsivity that interferes with day-to-day functioning and/or development. ADHD is a condition with few advantages in the modern world because, like other forms of neurodiversity, it makes it more difficult to meet ‘basic’ expectations that employees will all fit be and behave in a way that makes them easy to monitor, manage, and measure.

Inattention makes many jobs that emphasise accuracy and reliability very difficult for anyone who finds sustained attention difficult. Symptoms include a tendency to make careless mistakes resulting from inattention, appearing not to listen, not completing tasks because they get side-tracked, difficulty organising themselves and others, avoidance of prolonged mental effort, misplacing things (documents, keys, technology) and being generally distracted and forgetful are all possible symptoms of inattention. While few people with ADHD have all these symptoms (only five symptoms from this list to persist in more than one setting are needed for a clinical diagnosis), any of these tendencies would make many jobs very much more difficult.

Hyperactivity sometimes becomes less pronounced over time but can include fidgeting, restlessness, being loud (particularly in play), talking excessively, and interrupting others. Life is frequently harsh, and simply not waiting until the end of interview questions before answering might cost someone a job opportunity. Once again, arbitrary social rules and expectations mean neurotypical behaviour is expected and rewarded, creating a culture of neurotypical privilege in the workplace, with half of all managers admitting they were made uncomfortable by the prospect of hiring a neurodiverse employee.

It is very common for a person who grows up neurodiverse to be diverse in more ways than one. People with ADHD are often dyslexic or autistic as well, the combinations of different diverse traits making for a much more interesting world but also meaning that these particularly diverse individuals face more challenges.

And really, we are just starting…

There are many more neurodiverse conditions, including Tourette syndrome, characterised by its verbal and physical tics that have alienated others and scandalised polite society throughout the ages and acquired neurodiversity, where a person may develop different patterns of thinking and feeling as a result of a brain injury following a head injury or disease.

You can find out more about the diversity of neurodiversity on the Exceptional Individuals website.

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Read more about these presentations of neurodiversity.