THE
NEURO­DIVERSITY
PROTOCOL

The term neurodiversity grew out of autistic self-advocacy in the 1990s. It offered a way to talk about differences in how human brains develop and work without treating every difference as a defect. A few years later, the terms neurodivergent and neurodivergence were introduced to describe people whose neurological development or functioning differed from what society treated as typical. These terms began in autistic self-advocacy and social movements, not as medical diagnoses or clinical classifications.

The term neurodivergence creates a distinct problem that undermines the reason it was coined. Divergence describes a relation. Something diverges from something else, along a particular path or by a particular measure. When the term neurodivergent was introduced, the reference point was dominant social norms. But social norms are expectations about how people behave; they are not biological measures of neurodevelopment. Once neurodivergent becomes a label for a person, it fails to describe what is diverging, from what, and in what way. A term intended to create understanding has instead created another category of person.

Because categories separate, the result has been a division between kinds of people: neurodivergent on one side and neurotypical on the other, neither of which actually describes a person. Rather than building a bridge of understanding, the distinction can build a wall. As its use has expanded and become a label and an identity, it has come to mean very little and actually tells us nothing useful about a person’s development, functioning, needs, or capacities.

Neurodiversity is the accurate term for what is actually being described: variation in human neurological development and functioning. There is no such thing as perfect neurological development or functioning, and no single type of brain that sets the standard for everyone else. Human brains vary just as human bodies do. Neurodiversity describes that variation across all of us.

This does not mean that everyone has ASC, ADHC, dyslexia, or another neurodevelopmental condition.

Neurodevelopment, Your Own Unique, Complex, & Dynamic Journey

Neurological development begins before birth and continues through childhood and adolescence into adulthood. Each person experiences it in their own way and on their own timetable. There is no right way, not even a single standard course. Different parts and systems of the brain develop, reorganize, and interact on different time courses, and some forms of specialization continue well into adult life. 

Not only is each person’s neurodevelopment a complex journey that they take at their own pace, parts of that journey will differ in nature and timing from other parts. Even within one person, different aspects of the brain develop at different rates, at different times, and in different ways. Between people, even people who seem very similar, there is further variation, and it is not always visible in their functioning. Neurodiversity describes this vast variation in how human nervous systems develop and function.

The journey includes neurological functioning. Neurodevelopment and functioning happen together and they both influence each other. Each person’s journey is unique to them and lasts their whole life. A description of any point on that journey may not be accurate later along it, and no label other than a person’s name, can denote the complete adventure.

The journey of neurodevelopment and neurological functioning also occurs in continuous interaction with the conditions of a person’s life in real time. Experience, relationships, culture, resources, stress, learning, and other environmental conditions participate in development alongside biological factors. Altogether these factors defy a simple cause-and-effect path from a particular experience or developmental difference to a particular kind of brain or behavior. This is why neurodiversity best describes the vast, real, and important variation in human neurodevelopment and functioning, rather than dividing people into neurodivergent and neurotypical types.

Neurodevelopment and neurological functioning together are an essential process, a unique journey that each human being is exploring for themself each day. This is your own unique, complex, & dynamic adventure that lasts your entire life.

Neurological Function, the Tip of the Iceberg

Some aspects of neurological functioning become visible through consistent patterns of behavior over time. But even what is observable cannot be traced backwards in a simple or predictable way to any developmental cause, feature, or trajectory. It is clear that neurological functioning, the behavior we can observe, is the tip-of-the-iceberg of neurological development that has been occurring and is occurring under actual conditions in real time; what the exact relationship is between what is not observable and its specific origins is not.

The differences along that complex and dynamic journey may become noticeable in sensory experience, attention, communication, learning, or the regular demands a person finds difficult to manage. When particular difficulties are persistent and intense enough to seriously affect daily life, they may require clinical evaluation, treatment, or support.

The Role of Clinical Diagnoses, Triage not Identity

Many of the experiences involved in these conditions also occur in people without those diagnoses. Distraction, overload, difficulty starting a task, or emotional intensity are human experiences. What matters clinically is the pattern: how strong it is, how often it occurs, how long it persists, and how much it affects a person’s ability to function and live well. A clinical response is a triage, concerned with helping stabilize the patient. Neurodevelopment is studied elsewhere. This is why the terminology of the clinic differs from the terminology of the research on human development and its potential.

The distinction between the terminology of diagnosis and the terminology of research on neurodiversity and neurodevelopment is incredibly important. In either case, no human being can be reduced to a diagnosis and the language that helps someone when they are in need, that describes a condition as a pathology, is not as helpful to them when they need to build a stable life. Read this section of The Ecology of the Brain for more.

The Importance of Terms, Being Earnest

For these reasons, ARTESIAN uses neurodiversity to describe human neurological variation, not a type of person. We do not use neurodivergent, neurotypical, or neurodiverse as labels for people. When a distinction matters, we describe what we actually mean: a particular neurodevelopmental condition, function, trait, developmental pattern, or support need.

The Neurodiversity Protocol focuses on certain diagnosed neurodevelopmental conditions because their effects make some of the workings of Focus, Cognition, Emotion, and Drive easier to observe. The purpose is to understand particular patterns well enough to support stability, wellbeing, development, and the potential capacities they may afford for everyone. See The Work of Wellbeing below.