Neurodiversity Reflections and a Book Chat

It has been almost a year since I posted a blog! I don’t really know why I exclaim that since blogging really isn’t as much of a “thing” for me as it used to be. I do miss when I had more of a blogging community, but I digress already.

I saw a post at work the other day that mentioned April is Neurodiversity Awareness Month and, funny enough, I finally finished reading Dr. Devon Price’s Unmasking Autism. I started it, literally, months ago, but between work, life, and teaching on top of my “day” job, I found myself with less time to really process the book. But, I am so glad I did have a chance to finish today.

Besides just having an educator’s interest in neurodiverse inclusion, I also came to this book with some tentative curiosity about how I process information.

I’ve thought for a long time that I likely had an undiagnosed learning disability but, because I loved school, I have almost always just made learning work. Along with that small acknowledgement of my own potential learning differences, I’ve also looked at my genetics to see potential markers for neurodiverse traits. Additionally, the young people in the next generation of my extended family have been diagnosed with various processing/mental differences as well as some cases of ADHD.

And yet . . . I haven’t been willing to say I am on any of these spectrums, although I sometimes speak about processing information differently. I don’t feel like I have “earned” the right to claim a “disability” with an official diagnosis. At my age (which is closer to 50 than not), I’m not sure if it is worth my time (and money) to seek out an official diagnosis, but there is something to be said (as this book explores) for speaking your identity out into the world.

The other side of that word “disability” is also the fact that I don’t see (as I feel the book often explores) neurodiversity as a disability. It is a difference from an arbitrary “norm”, but I only see the disability part in the fact the many parts of our society can make it difficult for those who process information and present their interpretation of the world differently.

I will spend more time with my notes to process (irony?) this book. I highly recommend it for anyone, whether you are exploring your own masks or not.