A recent interview on the blog Technoccult with neurodiversity advocate Kassiane (she didn’t wish to give her last name), highlighted some key points about neurodiversity.  In defining neurodiversity, she made an important distinction between the word and the movement, explaining:  “Neurodiversity, the word, simply means the whole variety of different brain wirings people have…from the different kinds of normal...Read More

While autistic individuals are known to suffer from deficits in social communication, it is less often recognized that they possess specific strengths in other areas.  One strength relates to their ability to see details.  In fact, they can pick out details in a more complex visual design better than so-called “neuro-typical (e.g. “normal”) people (see examples...Read More

Temple Grandin is probably the most famous autistic person living today.  Her life will be chronicled on an HBO special starting in February, 2010.  Among her many achievements is the development of a “squeeze machine.”  Because of her autism, she resists the touch of others and doesn’t like to be hugged.  But she craves the...Read More

Intelligence tests have often been used to differentiate “high functioning” from “low functioning” individuals with autism.  But a recent study published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that “low functioning” children with autism may in fact score much higher if an alternative intelligence test–the Raven’s Progressive Matrices– is used instead of the more conventional Wechsler...Read More