What does neurodiverse mean?
(No, it doesn’t refer to a person!)
Neurodiverse is a term that frequently gets mixed up with neurodivergent.
‘Neuro’ means our brain and nervous system, and diversity is variety, so neurodiversity covers the full variety of human neurotypes, or braintypes.
Divergent means moving away from the average, so someone is neurodivergent if their brain processes information in a way that’s different from psychology’s constructed idea of what is standard.
This can be an innate difference that you’re born as such as being autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, etc, or it could be an acquired difference such as PTSD or dementia.
Someone who is neurodivergent in more than one way, such as epileptic and ADHD, is known as multiply neurodivergent, not neurodiverse.
A single person can’t be neurodiverse because there’s only one of them. A team can be neurodiverse if it’s made up of people with different neurotypes, for example a team made up of a neurotypical, a dyspraxic and a dyslexic would be neurodiverse. So would one with two AuDHDers and someone with PTSD. If everyone in the team is autistic then the team is neurodivergent and neurohomogenous, not neurodiverse.
Humanity as a whole is neurodiverse.
In this piece, Dr Nick Walker explains: “Many people mistakenly use neurodiverse where the correct word would be neurodivergent.
Of all the errors that people make in writing and speaking about neurodiversity, the misuse of neurodiverse to mean neurodivergent is by far the most common.
There is no such thing as a “neurodiverse individual.” The correct term is “neurodivergent individual.” An individual can diverge, but an individual cannot be diverse.”
This neurodivergence vs neurodiversity video explains the concept in fewer than 90 seconds.
Read more:
What is the neurodiversity paradigm?
What is the neurodiversity movement?
What does neuronormative mean?
What makes someone multiply neurodivergent?
Neurodivergent is an identity not a diagnosis
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