Next week is Neurodiversity Week. Read about what will be happening below or come and find out more at next Friday’s Celebrating Neurodiversity Parent Information Session at 8.15 am in the secondary library.
If you would like a more cerebral (pun intended) take on this topic, please do read psychology teacher Mr Islam’s excellent article entitled “Why is ADHD more common than a tail?” at the end of this newsletter.
Students and staff at TBS will be celebrating Neurodiversity Week, featuring a diverse array of activities. These include mentor time tasks, assemblies delivered by Psychology students, staff training sessions, parent information sessions, The Odd Sock Day on Thursday, complete with a photo competition, a visit to and from Down Syndrome Society Nepal and much more.
Celebrating neurodiversity is very important to us as it promotes understanding, acceptance, and appreciation of the unique strengths and perspectives of individuals with diverse neurological profiles. By recognizing and embracing neurodiversity, we foster an inclusive environment where all students and staff feel valued and supported. Moreover, celebrating neurodiversity helps to break down stigma and misconceptions surrounding neurodevelopmental conditions, paving the way for greater empathy, compassion, and collaboration within our school community.
Please join our celebrations! The Neurodiversity Celebration Week is part of a worldwide initiative. If you are interested in delving deeper into the theme, we encourage you to visit the Neurodiversity Week website, where you can discover a wealth of information. Additionally, you can sign up for free online workshops scheduled throughout the week, offering valuable insights and discussions on neurodiversity.
To inaugurate the school’s celebration campaign, Mr. Islam has graciously penned the following article on neurodiversity, drawing from his extensive knowledge in psychology. We hope you find it insightful and engaging!
Neurodiversity: Why is ADHD more common than a tail?
“Neurodiversity is the idea that neurological differences like autism and ADHD are the result of normal, natural variation in the human genome,”
John Elder Robison (author of Look Me in the Eye, diagnosed with autism at 40).
The obvious answer is that having a few common genetic variations in cognition is advantageous. But what do we even mean by common? After all, psychological variation is both continuous and multidimensional.
Standardisation: Defining the Norm
If you were to visit the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sèvres, France, you would find amongst its many precision artefacts a circular cylinder of platinum-iridium of a height equal to its diameter (39mm). To prevent contact with dust, It is housed in an almost perfect vacuum between two bell jars of descending size. Forged in 1897, it is known as La Grande K or the international measurement for the kilogram (pictured on the right). Similarly, you will find international standards for the second, metre, ampere, kelvin, candela, and the mole–from which subsidiary measurements are derived (e.g. volume, energy, pressure, and velocity). Unlike these measures, the brain is notoriously difficult to standardise. As of yet, the disputed territory of the common brain is still in debate. The closest we have come to achieving this level of standardisation for the brain is the Montreal Neurological Institute’s brain template (pictured on the left), which as of 2021 was the most commonly used brain imaging template. (Dader,2021)
Despite its usefulness in diagnostics, with a sample size of only 152 “healthy” adults, many sceptics criticise its use as a standard model. Critics like Harvard’s Joseph Henrick may have described these “healthy” participants as the WEIRDest people on Earth (i.e. westernised, educated, and from industrialised, rich democracies) and so, relatively uncommon. (Henrick, 2015)
Going beyond the WEIRD sample, one way we could understand the difference in brain structures is by looking at left-handed brains. The latest in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) suggests that 95% of right-handed people have important language processing centres in the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex, whilst this is only the case for 65% of left-handed people. (Javed, 2023) For the remaining 35% percent of left-handed and 5% of right-handed people, we would be surprised by the fact that these language centres will have specialised in the right hemisphere if we were looking in the wrong place.
This level of diversity between right-handed and left-handed brains hints is only a small example of how diverse each of our brains are. Just as the location of these language centres is not the same for all participants by their handedness, neither are any two brains with Autism or ADHD the same.
From fMRI Machines to Examination Halls
This need for standardisation is present in education. As most schools do not house fMRI scanners in their laboratory cupboards, and most of us would be apprehensive about placing our children under powerful magnets, we may not be able to see the physical brain structures. We instead use various cognitive aptitude tests, to track the fidelity of thinking and memory by narrowly defined parameters. Namely: EXAMS. These standardised tests provide a relatively cheap, one-size-fits-all method for diagnosing cognitive ability.
However, these limiting tests do not show the rich and varied—neurodivergent–differences in cognitive aptitude. Temple Grandin, an advocate for autism (ASC) and herself a person with autism, jokingly said that: “[the systemising abilities of individuals with ASC might have] allowed some guy to develop the first stone spear, it wasn’t developed by the social ones yakking around a campfire [probably].”. These valued traits remain untested by exams. For example, people with dyslexia have been found to possess global visual-spatial abilities, including the capacity to identify impossible objects (think M.C. Escher). (von Karoyli et al, 2003) A characteristic advantage in the fields of astrophysics, molecular biology, genetics, engineering and computer graphics where abstract three-dimensional thinking is required. Moreover, people with Down syndrome display warmth and friendliness beyond their neurotypical counterparts. And finally, those with ADHD and bipolar disorder possess a heightened propensity for novelty-seeking and creativity than matched controls. (White & Shah, 2011; Jamison, 1996; Simeonova et al, 2005)
We may speculate, through these exclusive examples, that the retention of these genetic differences have proved more valuable to our species than the primordial tail. As a community, now that we have climbed down from our trees and into classrooms, maybe it is time we renegotiate the terms of our standard model. Much like the scientific community did in November 2018 in Versaille, France, where La Grande K lost 50 micrograms; it is now defined by the Planck constant and not a hunk of metal manufactured in 1897.
Despite all of this, this article does not wish to underplay the upcoming challenges on removing these social barriers, it means to highlight them.
Want to read more?
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Armstrong (2015), The Myth of the Normal Brain: Embracing Neurodiversity
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Austin & Pesano (2017), Neurodiversity as a Competitive Advantage
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Cooks-Campbell (2021), Why You Shouldn’t Use ‘Differently-Abled’ Anymore
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Felicia (2024), Is 50% of NASA Dyslexic?
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Henrick (2015), The WEIRDest People in the World
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Jamison (1996), Touched with Fire: Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament
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Javed et al. (2023), Neuroanatomy: The Wernicke Area.
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Mandal et al. (2015), Structural Brain Atlases: Design, Rationale, and Applications in Normal and Pathological Cohorts
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National Institute of Standards and Technology, International System of Units (Redefinition)
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Simeonova et al. (2005), Creativity in Familial Bipolar Disorder
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von Karolyi et al. (2003). Dyslexia Linked to Talent: Global Visual-Spatial Ability
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White & Shah (2011), Creative Style and Achievement in Adults with ADHD
