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Alicorn comments on Autism and Lesswrong - Less Wrong
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Comments (29)
What do you dislike about it?
It implies that position on the autism spectrum is the only relevant factor in describing a person's 'neural type'. Further, it implies that someone who is not autistic is 'neurally typical'. I believe that both of these are incorrect.
ADHD folks use the neurotypical phrase as well, as a contrast to themselves. Less so that autistic folks but it still crops up.
I agree that the there is plenty of room for improvement in the terminology there. I'd work on fixing 'neurotypical' just as soon as I was done fixing the 'disorder' label in ADHD.
Well, yes, precisely: the problem with "neurotypical" is that it's politics and social status marking more than anything to do with an individual's neurology. More so than every term is, I mean. Its entire purpose seems to be a bit reframing, a bit "take that!"
What does its use usefully predict?
I see it used far more as a natural descriptor defined by not having a known set of symptoms. We seem to disagree about the state of the universe here.
Expected degree of sensitivity to clothing fabrics. What is likely to happen when you look at their eyes. At a young age it predicts that you are more likely to get confused about whether a duck will appear in a photograph if the duck is removed from the scene after the photograph has been taken. It predicts that you are more likely to accurately deduce what another child believes about the contents of a smarties packet when you have more information than them.
Note above that the term also apparently describes "not bipolar", and other things, just in this thread. Do you have references to studies on bipolarity versus fabric sensitivity? ADHD versus fabric sensitivity?
If you're defining it to mean "not autistic or aspergic", what advantage in communication does it have over "not autistic or aspergic"?
Its use as a term that attempts to demedicalise autism, and now bipolar and ADHD as well, may well be a good idea, but is entirely politics.
It is one word not four. Humans always invent jargon terms if they are in a subculture that requires repeated reference to a specific concept.
It also allows to some extent to include the not-bipolar, not-ADHD things by default which is useful. Because it is easier easier to have general discussions about category if you can conveniently eliminate most of the outliers.
For what it is worth, look at Hallowell for information on fabric sensitivity and ADHD. But not only is the way you have framed a demand for references a tad disingenuous bipoar/ADHD fabric sensitivity is not even required for the point. (And I have no specific information regarding bipolar clothing.)
If autistics tend to have greater fabric sensitivity than average then the average of that trait in non-autistics is going to be higher than either the autistic group or the whole population. That provides predictive power.
Excluding bipolarity and ADHDness is a strength of the term, not a weakness. Once you throw out all the complicated outliers you can have an easier time just describing what makes bipolar (or autism or ADHD) what it is.
I know a bipolar woman who uses the phrase neurotypical in contrast to her mind-type.
As someone not super familiar with the lingo, I always assumed this referred to more than just non-autistic.
While 'Kipedia (and the highest-ranked batch of google results) say it's autism-specific, there is anecdotal evidence of alternate usage. It certainly sounds like it'd refer to more, and the Wikipedia article itself conflates "not on the autism spectrum" with "neurological development and states that are consistent with what most people would perceive as normal, particularly with respect to their ability to process linguistic information and social cues."
There's certainly a lot of confusion and variance in usage within this very thread.
My total Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) score is zero, '0'. So, there are autists who would label me ''neurotypical''.
Anyone familiar with my posting history can be confident that the face validity of that term is way off.