Language is empowering. Language that helps us describe ourselves and our experiences can lessen feelings of confusion and increase healthy identity development. The language we use to describe the neurodiversity of humanity has the potential to create understanding and to bridge the disconnect between people who have disparate life experiences based on their neurology. The way we use our language also sends a message to our audience about the context that we come from.
Neurodiversity is a description of a group where there are differences in neurology amongst members of the group. It makes no sense to apply that word to an individual.
Neurotypicality is a descriptor that can apply to a person’s individual traits or to a person themselves. Applied to a trait, it means that the trait is subjectively within normal limits for what the person would expect given their context. If a person’s identity is such that they perceive their every trait to be within normal limits subjectively for their given context, they could consider themselves a neurotypical person.
Neurodivergence is a descriptor that can apply to traits or people as well. Neurodivergence applied to a trait indicates that the person’s expression of this trait falls subjectively outside of normal limits for their context. A person with any neurodivergent trait can consider themselves a neurodivergent person. A person with several neurodivergent traits can consider themselves multiply neurodivergent.
An example is that most people can remember a string of 5 to 9 numbers in their working memory until they get distracted by something else. If you can remember 11 numbers with ease without using any learned tricks, your working memory would fall outside of the normal range, and you might consider yourself neurodivergent for this difference.
A popular misconception conflates neurodivergence with autism and does the same with neurotypicality and a lack of autism. Autism is only one example of neurodivergence. People who are not autistic can be said to be allistic. One can be both allistic and neurodivergent in other ways.
Besides autism, other categories from the DSM are included in neurodivergence. ADHD, learning disorders, tic disorders, OCD, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and psychotic disorders are all forms of neurodivergence. And neurodivergence is not only the field of psychology. Developmental coordination disorder, dyspraxias, dysphagia, aphasia, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, brain inflammation related to PANS are all examples of neurodivergence. So is having an amputated limb, a TBI, prenatal exposure to teratogens, dementia, changes in the brain related to chronic substance abuse, or changes in the brain related to chronic stress and trauma. The nervous system runs throughout the body, and the body and mind are not separate.
Using these terms—neurodiversity, neurodivergent, neurotypical—does show others that you want to be on the team of treating others with equity, dignity, and respect. But misusing these terms or misapplying them can unintentionally send a message that you seek to profit from the neurodivergent community without spending time listening to the array of groups that you are communicating to and without doing the work of addressing ableism in your own mind and heart. If you are authentic and open to perspective from people with lived experience, any efforts to use the language preferences of the people you are describing is going to be appreciated.
