I think intelligence (fast learning, metalexia or god forbid, ‘giftedness’) and intellectual disability (slow learning, sometimes learning difficulties or disabilities in the UK and Ireland) should be treated as value-neutral phenomena, not determiners of human worth.
Neurodivergence thing I have complicated feelings about: the idea of ‘giftedness’. First off, I hate the word and some of the concepts surrounding it.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
I do think that the term *does* refer to an atypical learning style.
That said, it is valorised as ideal by some people, especially when contrasted with people with intellectual disabilities.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
I think providing accelerated classes and more complex materials for people with this label is a good thing.
Treating people considered ‘intelligent’ as better than people who are not is wrong and disablist.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
I speak as somebody who grew up with this label in conjunction with my autism diagnosis. I was/am ‘twice-exceptional’.
But I am not better than somebody with an ID.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
My support needs and learning style are different. But that doesn’t mean that people with an ID are worth less than me. We’re all people.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
I don’t think it’s helpful to treat people who fit the so-called ‘gifted’ (ugh this fucking WORD) learning pattern as being better than everybody else.
That’s just counterproductive.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
I seriously think we need a new word for this kind of thinking that doesn’t come with a value judgement.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
I have the impression that it’s same goes for folks with ID, but as I don’t have an ID, I will let people with direct experience lead that particular conversation.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
And any terminology used should avoid anything referring to ‘mental age’, an inaccurate and disablist concept.@lauralovesian1 wrote a great article for @NOSeditorial about this a while back.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
An adult with an ID is still an adult. A ‘gifted’ child is still a child.
They may learn differently from other people their age, but they’re still their age and have specific developmental needs.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
Also, you can be ‘gifted’ AND have a developmental disability like autism or cerebral palsy. An ID is a subtype of DD; they’re not the same thing.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
There’s a concept you see in ‘gifted’ (yes, I’m still putting it in dick quotes because THAT FUCKING WORD) circles called ‘asynchronous development’, which I love.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
And if you fit this profile *and* are autistic, you feel really out of sync.
It’s less prominent now that I have friends both online and off who have similar experiences, but it was much harder when I was a kid/teenager.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
I feel out of sync compared to the *general public*, but having a community really helps. The internet was a godsend for me in my late teens. So was moving to urban areas as an adult.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
I was honestly toying with a word to replace ‘gifted’ last night because I was tired of using it to refer to a set of learning patterns.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
The one I liked the most was ‘metalexia’ (basically, I took the root meaning of ‘intelligence’ in Latin and attempted to change it to Greek).
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
‘Intelligence’ literally means ‘reading-between’ (inter+legere) in Latin. I just flipped languages, though I used ‘meta’ because it was the closest thing to ‘between’ or ‘among’ I could find.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017
‘Meta’ is either ‘with’ or ‘behind’ or ‘among’ – the ‘among’ meaning was why I chose it. ‘Metalexia’ is ‘reading-among’.
— Festive Finn ❄️🎄 (@phineasfrogg) 15 December 2017