![\"2RDCYB1](\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/21104635\/SEI_205190045.jpg?width=1200\")
<\/div>Jurgita Vaicikeviciene\/Alamy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
As a child, I was frequently scolded for zoning out in class, interrupting conversations and losing just about everything I owned. It wasn\u2019t until adulthood, when I was diagnosed with ADHD,<\/a> that these \u201cbad habits\u201d began to make sense.<\/p>\n The idea that my brain is wired differently is the foundation of neurodiversity, a relatively new framework for understanding neurodevelopmental conditions like ADHD and autism.<\/a> \u201cNeurodiversity reflects an awareness that, across humanity, we have many different ways of perceiving and relating to the world that reflect differences in our brain development and brain function,\u201d says Geraldine Dawson<\/a> at Duke University in North Carolina.<\/p>\n Instead of viewing these differences as problems to be fixed, a neurodiverse approach aims to embrace them, she says.<\/p>\n That seems clear enough. But the concept of neurodiversity has been a source of debate in recent years, particularly in terms of what it means for psychiatrists and neuroscientists, who have long thought in terms of neurodevelopmental \u201cdisorders\u201d, and the people they are seeking to help.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people take it that the neurodiversity paradigm is against the medical paradigm,\u201d says Anita Thapar<\/a>, a psychiatrist at Cardiff University in the UK. \u201cWhat I have argued in several papers is that both are useful for different purposes.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n To start from the beginning, the term \u201cneurodiverse\u201d was first coined in the late 1990s by sociologist Judy Singer, who used it when describing people with autism who had no intellectual impairments but struggled with relating to others or had repetitive behaviours.<\/p>\n The idea was to view autism\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nWhat is neurodiversity?<\/h2>\n