Neurodiversity

Hi Friends! Welcome to my blog. Feel free to browse about the home page to learn a little background info on why I created this and where we are going. Or...just dive right in with me :) Alongside my degree in Elementary Education, I have been working towards a certificate in neurodiversity. Now I know what most of you are thinking...what the heck is that?

The dictionary.com definition is,

“the variant and differences in neurological structure and function that exist among human beings, especially when viewed as being normal and natural rather than pathological: recognizing autism as an example of neurodiversity”.

That is kind of a mouthful, but essentially it is a term used to refer to those who have a non-neurotypical brain and it is “the viewpoint that brain differences are normal, rather than deficits” (Neurodiveristy: What You Need To Know). News Flash: Normal is a thing created by the society we live in. There is not a brain in somewhere, sitting in a jar, in some underground laboratory, that is labeled "normal". We decided what was normal and then created a world full of judgment and standards around that. However, that is a discussion for a different day. All you need to know for now is that neurodiversity is a respectful and appropriate term to use when identifying an individual whose brain functions in ways that contradict with societal standards of normal. Examples of this would include autism, dyslexia, ADHD, DCD, etc.

Most of us have reached a common understanding that it is important for people to have other people, characters, ideas, and morals that they can relate to. For example, I love Disney princesses. My favorite princess growing up was Ariel from The Little Mermaid. However, I always say that I also really love Belle from Beauty and the Beast because that is the princess I am most similar to. Belle has brown hair, brown eyes, white skin, loves to read, and yearns for adventure. And because I can identify with her, I looked up to her. So the opposite side of that could be before there were any black Disney princesses. A young black girl may still have a favorite princess, but she would be unable to go to the store and look at the princess dolls and say "that one looks like me". Princesses are known to be beautiful and strong, so without that representation, those girls could have been made to feel that they did not look beautiful or were not strong. I have only in recent years began to understand the significance of representation, which is what lead me to wonder about the representation of neurodiverse people in movies, tv shows, and books. Are they shown in a positive light? Are they made to seem strong? Or are they portrayed as someone who needs to be fixed? As the punch line to a joke?

The purpose of this blog is to look at a variety of movies, tv shows, and books with neurodiverse characters and analyze how they are being represented. It seems like unless we have a neurodiverse individual in our immediate family or friend circle, we often do not know a lot and are embarrassed to ask questions. In the upcoming weeks I will be posting approximately 10 blog posts reviewing various media outlets with neurodiverse characters. I hope that this helps you to begin recognizing these characters in the media, acknowledging if it is a positive representation, and begin to ask the necessary questions.

I would appreciate any questions or comments about things you want to know! Feel free to send me an email or DM. My contact information is linked below. I want this to be valuable for you so hit me with the feedback. Lastly, I would like to state that information from each post will be based on resources and information gained in my certificate courses, my personal opinion, and extra resources that will be listed below. Thanks for reading!

Bye for now :))