Student Engagement & Wellbeing News

Neurodiversity

Neurodiversity describes the concept that people experience and interact with the world around them in many different ways; there is no one "right" way of thinking, learning, and interacting, and differences are not viewed as deficits but rather from a diverse viewpoint.

The word neurodiversity refers to the diversity of all people, but it is often used in the context of autism, as well as other neurological or developmental differences such as ADHD, Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), dyslexia, dysapraxia, deafness and hard of hearing, and may include other learning disabilities.

The idea of neurodiversity is really a paradigm shift in how we think about learners in education. Instead of regarding these learners as 'suffering' from deficit, disease, or dysfunction, neurodiversity suggests that we consider their strengths, passions, interests and above all else meet their needs without relying on their deficits to define them. Neurodiversity urges us to discuss brain diversity using the same kind of discourse that we employ when we talk about biodiversity and cultural diversity. It is a philosophy that emphasises differences in human neurologies. Neurodiversity is both a helpful and a descriptive term; it alerts us to the idea of brain difference – just one of many kinds of diversity.

This shift in thinking encourages people with various diagnoses to focus on their unique strengths and abilities and, at the same time, seek the necessary accommodations, support, and treatment through lived experience and advocacy.

Over the next few Newsletter editions, we will explore more on this topic. Stay tuned!

Anna Gbikpi-Benissan