I’m producing a series of videos to promote my new book The Power of Neurodiversity:  Unleashing the Advantages of Your Neurodivergent Brain.  This is the second video: ” The Culture of Flowers.”  I begin the book with this story, telling about people waking up one morning and finding everyone has been changed into a flower. ...Read More

Asked to define what an ”intelligence” is, Dr. Howard Gardner replied that it is the ability to solve problems and to fashion culturally valued products.  This introduction of culture into his theory offers us the opportunity to explore the application of the theory of multiple intelligences to cultural diversity.  Some people have made the mistake...Read More

Nothing has been more disconcerting to me in my forty-five years as an educator than to ask a parent or teacher:  ”What is your child’s (or teen’s) strengths?” and have them answer:  ”He hasn’t got any.”  I’ve actually heard this several times in my career.  It was such responses that motivated me to come up...Read More

The concept of neurodiversity emerged in the 1990’s as a way for autism advocates to affirm their identity as people with neurological differences rather than as disabled individuals.  The idea has spread as other advocates (including myself) have sought to articulate the ”diversity rather than disability” message to a broader segment of the population than...Read More

The December 14th shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, have opened up a Pandora’s box of issues related to mental health.  One controversy in particular relates to the shooter Adam Lanza’s alleged identification as a person with a mild form of autism spectrum disorder called Asperger’s syndrome.  This hearsay diagnosis in turn has ignited a strong rebuttal from the...Read More