STRUCTURE OF THE CONCEPTS NEURODIVERSITY AND NEURODIVERGENCE

Abstract

In the following scientific essay, a review is made of the emergence of the concepts Neurodiversity and Neurodivergence, which have their origins in the movements for the defense of the rights of autistic people in the eighties, which were strengthened in the nineties and early two thousand by the emergence of digital communities on the Internet, and where people whose cognitive functioning diverges from the neurotypical were added. In this sense, although the concept of Neurodiversity arises from various communities worldwide, it is important to highlight the International Autism Network as well as the contributions made by Sinclair (1993), in addition to the ideas of the Independent Living Foundation by Dekker (1996), in whose forums the debates on these concepts probably began, and which served as an essential basis for the contributions of Singer (1999), to whom the term neurodiversity is attributed in a sociological study relating biological diversity with neuronal diversity. In addition to all this, this essay also addresses the concept of Neurodivergence initially according to the arguments of Asasumasu (2000), who proposes the term as a reference aimed at recognizing those neurologies that are outside the neurotypical, and that covers a large number of particular neurologies, while highlighting the contributions of Walker (2014) as one of the main exponents regarding the spectrum of neurodivergences in congenital or acquired terms, all with the intention of approximating an initial understanding about those people who, from a neurological perspective, perceive the world differently, without forgetting some reflections on these realities and their implications at a social, political, cultural, as well as educational level.