Neurodiversity is the view that brain differences are normal. People with autism, and learning disorders such as ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia don’t have deficits; they have a normal variation of the human brain. And no one type of brain is better than another.
The term “neurodiversity,” which was coined in the late 1990s by Judy Singer, an autistic sociologist, frames brain differences as unique strengths that schools, the workplace and the rest of society should value. Rather than seeking to “cure” these differences, neurodiversity gives space and opportunity to people across a range of brain differences, so that they can play to their strengths.
At its core, neurodiversity is the hope that people with atypical ways of perceiving and interacting with the world can know that they’re accepted and normal, and not wrong or lesser-than. And when parents understand their neurodivergent children in a context of acceptance and normalcy, kids have a better chance to grow and thrive.
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