Encouraging Neurodiverse Genius: Prophets of the Evolving Brain

By

Stephanie Mines, Ph.D.

Copyright 7/12

Cathy & Sophie Shorma

We are witnessing the birth of a new breed of neurodiverse people who shed the shame and shyness about their differences like a coat that has become too heavy to wear in a new season. They proclaim the right to be who they are with clarity and strength. We want to nourish and encourage them because they are the ones who can tell us about how the human brain is evolving. They are the teachers of what we can do to empower the growing community of young people who are labeled with sensory problems but who are really the prophets of the future. Here are the directives they issue for how to educate our youth.

1. Educate about tolerance so that the neurotypical world does not erode the selfhood of people who are neurodiverse;
2. Get curious about the visual thinking and multi-tasking, multi-level perceptions of neurodiverse consciousness. It points the way to new problem solving approaches;
3. See over-focus as giftedness;
4. Advocate for supportive modalities that enhance the balance and wellbeing of the growing legions of the neurodiverse;
5. Spread the message of their needed expression so that we can learn more about neurodiversity from the neurodiverse; and
6. Do not allow neurodiverse youth to be bullied. Stand up for difference! Protect neurodiversity. It is a natural resource!

Neurodiverse genius falls broadly into two camps: Systemizers and Storyteller/Artists. Prophecy emerges differently from the members of these two camps. Systemizers invent the technology of the future. Storyteller/Artists sing the praises of the future. Each of these has their own lineage and ancestry. Like clans they boast of heroes and heroines worthy of epic hymns.

Nikola Tesla

Systemizers reference Nikola Tesla, Thomas Alva Edison, Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs. Daniel Tammet and Temple Grandin are the torchbearers for the new generation of wizards. The Storyteller/Artist line up is equally impressive. Hans Christian Anderson, Emily Dickinson, and William Butler Yeats are just a few. The young torchbearers holding the light for future Storyteller/Artists are Dawn Prince-Hughes, Binger Sellin, Jasmine Lee O'Neill and David Eastham. These lists are hardly exhaustive and will soon be overcrowded with new names as the number of young people with Sensory Abundance (my term for what is usually called Sensory Processing Disorder) increases steadily.

Dawn Prince-Hughes

Youth programs are remiss to not include points of entry and inclusion for the neurodiverse including those labeled with autism, Asperger's, learning challenges, and sensory needs. These are the false names masking our guides and teachers, our seers and warriors, heroes and heroines of the new way of thinking.

I am writing to encourage a new perspective on what has at times been called "disability" and to call upon adults to mentor and advocate for those among us who are between the lines and outside the box. In the new world those we shun will show the way.

If you can be present to the mysteries of neurodiversity and listen attentively to what the non-verbal children are saying I believe you will have an experience akin to putting a sea shell to your ear. This moment in history is like the eye of a storm. Soon everything will turn in the direction of neurodiversity!