A good way to understand Neurodivergence is spiky profiles
A generalised explanation might look like this- the majority of people seem to be average at lots of things but ND folx are excellent in some areas and struggle in other areas- creating a very spiky profile
But we can look deeper and look at what our society values because in reality every person has a somewhat spiky profile so why do OUR spiky profiles stand out so much?
Well, we live in a world that values some human traits, actions and ways more than others
Excelling at communicating honesty like many of us ND folx do has no value in a world that values dishonesty
Having an egalitarian outlook is common amongst us ND people but then the world values hierarchy (linking obviously back to valuing lying)
We can’t live in a hierarchy without lying about some humans being better, more important and more valuable than others
Some ND people don’t make mouth sounds and we live in a world that places speech above all other communication for some odd reason
Many of us hyperfocus and become experts in a world that champions the average while also strangely platforming ‘experts’ (almost like it’s part of the facade- no we really value uniqueness- look here’s a few unique people who are really important- now can the rest of you go back to being average please- a cunning illusion)
But many of us see the emperor has no clothes – and also no right to be an emperor
Our wild creativity is also not very much appreciated in our education systems and workplaces- we are creative people living in a world that values conformity
Our world demands compliance and we are super talented at non-compliance
We could go on and it’s similar to when we talk about ‘strengths’ and ‘weaknesses’ because they’re highly subjective notions, are context dependent and often assumed by those at the higher levels of this pretend hierarchy – those ‘experts’ again
It’s just easier for some spikey profiles not to matter in our world
Example:
It doesn’t really matter if you can’t play football in many instances (and yes there are areas where it would be seen as a terrible thing not to play football)
but imagine a world that values football playing as much as we do speech for example- something everyone HAS to do or else they’re deemed a failed human
We’d have support groups for the parents of non-footballing children. Courses on how to employ non-footballing adults. Sibling support for those whose sibs are inflicted with the disordered football deficits
We’d have criteria to diagnose those of us who maybe, with the right help & accommodations might someday play football like the normal people – we’d be high functioning non-footballers, not quite footballers but almost there you see- passing as footballers – kinda
And then the criteria of course would be rigid so it has levels of impairment- those who are deemed in childhood to be unteachable will need to be segregated from the others , even the other non-footballers but they’d learn ‘life skills’ because their ability to play football is directly linked to their ability to do everything else apparently. Ironically spikey profiles don’t seem to exist for this cohort of humans at all.
There’d be studies linking IQ (another test that pretends to prove something) with non-footballing levels of deficit
(They’d have developed better tools after moving on from measuring our heads and the distance between our big toe and little toe)
Then there would be therapies to try to support non-footballers to fit in and to build resilience to the mocking, shaming, othering and physical segregation
Professionals would go on to link high levels of anxiety, low self esteem and depression with being a non-footballer and assume it’s a natural part of being a non-footballer
There would be special diets for non-footballers to help with the symptoms of non-footballing
Some dodgy thinkers would blame the vaccines for the existence of non-footballing kids instead of addressing their own prejudice
We’d have schools for footballers and special schools then for non-footballers. We might include the non-footballers though by adding separate units onto the footballing schools- a new notion of segregated inclusion would begin
Tons of money would go into researching the phenomenon of non-footballing. Particular attention will be paid to people with wombs – what happens in the womb and the connection that parent has with their child
People without wombs are already exempt you see (coz ya know, the world is built on lies & hierarchy)
Charities would spring up everywhere to research causes, warn people about us – especially parents . There’d be media notices warning of red flags for non-footballing kids and lists of early interventions to interrupt your non-footballing child’s natural development, they’d collect money on our behalf while many of us live in poverty and take our own lives
The behaviourists would get involved – that goes without saying – with their ABA and PBS to ‘support’ us when we might express any sort of frustration at they way we’re being treated, or heaven forbid just live our lives as non-footballers. We’d have behaviour support needs you see – coz someone made that up as a thing
People would post on their Facebook feed ‘I love someone with non-footballing’ and then someone would comment saying it’s actually a non-footballing person.
Others would argue too about the language they use to describe us- instead of wondering why there is an ‘us’
Those who’d try to draw attention to the fact that non-footballers are human and have rights would be called extremists. We’d offer all kinds of insight and explanations as to why segregating us, pathologising us and dehumanising us is wrong but much of it would be dismissed as misinformed or radicalism
People would say ‘when you’ve met one non-footballer then you’ve met one non-footballer’ as if somehow this wasn’t dehumanising but a revelatory comment instead
People who are susceptible to conspiracy would stop vaccinating their kids because risking your kids life is better than risking having a non-footballer
The papers would be filled with stories of parents at their wits end from non-footballing kids and their challenging behaviour caused by their deficits in footballing
There would be people queuing up for therapies for non-footballers
Sounds ridiculous right? And yet this is the world we live in
This is the world so many believe in
Our spikey profiles only matter because-
We are thinkers in a world that encourages us not to think
We are self teachers in a world that discourages questioning
We are often highly talented in an area that is regarded as weird or useless
Our hyperfocus and interest-led existence has no place in a world that demands multi-taskers
We are sensitive in a world that views sensitivity as a weakness- a disorder even
Maybe spikey profiles are just a human thing but some spikes matter more than others – so much so that some spikey profiles appear quite flat
Until of course someone changes the rules
We’re human- having spikey profiles is natural and our survival depends on it- no one person has everything to sustain themselves let alone a community.
The notion of independence is directly related to the notion of the average all-rounder
These lies distance each of us from the other.
It’s ok to admit we’re not self sufficient, that we need to rely on each other and as soon as we do that then we’ll start to ignore the value systems imposed on us – the idea of competition – and realise that the only way of winning this game is to collaborate, to rely, to seek help, to revel in our humanity and see that we’re all different anyway- we’ve just created a system that values some differences and magnifies others
