Does this posting title make you want to gag? I almost have to take Advance OT off my best blogs list!!. In describing the learning and events at a conference on autism on their blog, I found the blogger describing those without autism as ‘neurotypical’. Having not heard the term before it stopped me momentarily in my tracks – perhaps I’m not getting out enough!
I found myself envisaging the need to give everyone a MRI scan or similar to check whether you were ‘neurotypical’. I guess the question is why do we need to do this? why don’t we accept difference/diversity without seeming to have to show that the ‘other’ is um…better?
4 responses so far ↓
adiemusfree // August 26, 2008 at 6:00 am |
Oh yes, yes, yes!!! Especially so when we know that there is no-one who is particularly ‘typical’ when we get down to it. What about people with central sensitisation symptoms, are they ‘neurotypical’ or ‘neurosensitive’ or what? And what about people who are depressed, are they ‘neurodepressives’, and those who get stressed ‘neurostressors’???
Ummmm, really, we’re all unique.
williecampbell // August 27, 2008 at 10:10 pm |
well, who is this typical person anyway- dare we have a test of any sort, because then you have to attend to some result that may or may not be to your liking.Remembering that the “typical” will shift according to cultural norms, standards of testing instruments, and the style in which results are presented.
occupationaltherapyotago // August 28, 2008 at 9:41 am |
The good old online dictionary states Typical is: Exhibiting the qualities, traits, or characteristics that identify a kind, class, group, or category: a typical suburban community.
I wonder whether given the complexity of neurology that the two words could ever go together.
lisa // September 13, 2008 at 11:45 am |
I hear what you are saying and it is an interesting debate.However,I work in the field of autism and it is my understanding that the term “neuro-typicals” was actually first used by those with autism themselves to refer to those without ASD. I have heard Temple Grandin( a lady with high functioning autism) who quite clearly felt that there were a lot of advantages to not being “neurotypical”!She and many others are quite proud to be different!