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Neurodiversity
In my book The Power of Neurodiversity:  Unleashing the Advantages of Your Differently Wired Brain, I explore the idea of niche construction as a way of thinking about neurodiversity.  When I suggest that neurodiverse individuals, such as those with autism or ADHD, might have been labeled gifted in other times and in other cultures, the quick...
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I was a special education teacher for several years, and during my time teaching, I became aware that not enough emphasis was being placed on the strengths of children who had been sent to my special classes.  This made me resolve to do some research, and I had the opportunity to do this when I did...
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 Over the past sixty years, we’ve witnessed a phenomenal growth in the number of new psychiatric illnesses.  The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, first published in 1952, originally listed about 100 categories of illness.  By the year 2000, that number had tripled.  We’ve become accustomed to hearing in the news about “learning disabilities,”...
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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...
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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...
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