Language trends change quickly at the hands of social media users. They explode into our screens, rather than slowly evolve. This can change the ways we talk about diagnoses such as autism and concepts like neurodiversity.
But before we use a term, we should look at how it came to be and what it means to people. So where does the new word “neurospicy” come from? And why do some people embrace it, while others reject it? First, let’s unpack ‘neurodiversity’ The term neurodiversity evolved collectively in the mid-1990s in an online space dedicated to autistic people. The term refers to the neurological diversity found across the human species.
It is a way to include brains and minds that diverge from what society considers neurologically typical or “neurotypical”. Australian sociologist Judy Singer first used the term in academia in her 1998 honours thesis and it made its way to mainstream media the same year. The terms neurodivergent and neurotypical are now well studied and well defined by academics and the neurodiversity movement.
Outside of this, though, language can change meaning. The neurodiversity movement promotes equality The neurodiversity movement came from the autism rights movement , and for many, the term neurodivergent is associated with autism. The concept of neurodivergence has broadened over time to include people with conditions such as intellectual disability, mental illness, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia and acquir.