Tool Tuesday: Summer Study Series Part 3—Considering Narrative and Neurodiversity

With this 3rd entry in 2024’s Summer Study Series, we look at a recent article that promotes neurodiversity-affirming approaches and how narrative language intervention fits within this recent topic.

To offer a simplification, the neurodiversity movement has emerged in recent years as autistic individuals aged toward adulthood. Social media in particular has given autistic culture an amplified voice, and this population has expressed opinions about their educational experiences and what has been helpful, and in some cases, harmful to them. Naturally, with the pandemic intensifying the messages of marginalized communities, the need for philosophical shifts in all educational disciplines has been intensified.

This month we are recommending A Primer on Neurodiversity-Affirming Speech and Language Services for Autistic Individuals (Gaddy & Crow, 2023).

Some key points:

• As specified in the title, the article is a helpful primer on NEUODIVERSITY and many associated concepts, including the definition of the term: “the idea that neurological differences are a natural and valuable part of human diversity, akin to differences in race, gender, and sexual orientation.”
• The authors provide helpful history on the movement as well as a consideration of the medical vs. social model of disability, including the shift toward disabled individuals as needing support, not repair.
• Though not specifically detailed through the article, we can immediately consider narrative language as a broad context through which autistic individuals can receive support, affirmation, and encouragement of sharing their perspectives, rather than an area of remediation.
• We should link the idea of neurodiversity-affirming care or intervention to client-centered care, an essential element of evidence-based practice (EBP). The piece describes “acknowledging [clients] as an expert on their own experiences,” which again points to the potential use of narrative tools such as Story Grammar Marker^® to help us ensure we are understanding these perspectives as we proceed.
• The article describes the key concept of the DOUBLE EMPATHY PROBLEM, or consideration that “it is not that autistic people lack empathy, it is the idea that empathy is bidirectional. Autistic and non-autistic people have difficulty cognitively and emotionally empathizing with each other in ways that the other understands.” I hope you see the value of MindWing’s Perspective Taking Map and other visuals as much as I do here, both in explaining this concept to clients (in my experience, many of mine have not heard of it) to support their self-advocacy, and in problem solving of everyday situations.
• A key section of the article details neuro-affirming language, which again involves a number of shifts such as avoiding functioning levels such as “low functioning” which stigmatize autistic individuals.

• Notably, the authors point to dynamic assessment of narrative as an essential element of neurodiversity-affirming evaluation, with the recommendation of using the free resources from Columbia University’s Leader’s Project previously recommended on this blog.
• The article concludes with a number of case studies, one of which describes a communication breakdown for which the Story Grammar Marker^® would be directly applicable to helping the child self-advocate and take steps to solve the problem.

Universal Magnet SetHere’s a quick thought to conclude and apply these concepts in sync with MindWing’s tools. One of the ways I have tried to be more neurodiversity-affirming in my work is with more consistent use of the Universal Magnet Set. The story icons broken free from the braid itself help me more freely, flexibly, and affirmatively represent stories my clients share, while also offering the opportunity to support them in elaborating and adding complexity.

For more information on this topic, check out the Therapist Neurodiversity Collective.