Published on 12, July, 2020
Neurosplaining...By analogy with 'mansplaining', I guess; the act of telling a neurodivergent person how they experience their neurodivergence.
A new word for my vocabulary today, but wondered whether anyone else had heard it before.
I can't claim any credit for inventing this new lexical item here, but I like it and yes it does nicely sum up some rubbish we hear from others (sadly, often professionals as frequently as friends and family). I just came across it in a post on LinkedIn from a psychologist and neuroinclusion specialist. It's made my day. So, I thought I'd share.
My doctor neurosplains me every time he tells me I "suffer with autism". Or tells me he regrets that "he cannot cure my autism".
Has anyone neurosplained you recently?
You do sometimes in the corporate world get people giving lectures on how to make workplaces more welcoming for neuro diverse people. And it’s usually neuro diverse rather than autistic they don’t like to be too detailed. And they make a big sweeping statements as if they covered all cases usually about office noise as if almost all issues could be solved by putting people in the quiet corner with a set of headphones.
I do like to correct them at this point. To say that autism is primarily a social issue not a sensory one. I’m not belittling the sensory issues they can be quite serious, but beyond giving people a particular desk and not making a fuss when they use headphones there’s not a lot the average office can do about sensory issues. The social challenges that autistic people face in a typical corporate office are massive compared to that and require a lot more work on the part of the company to address.
They might do better discouraging office back biting and fawning thereby doing themselves a favour too.