Neurodiversity & the Value of Reframing the "Norm"
In recent years, more awareness has been raised around Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and autism. This is especially noticeable with the rise of social media and the evolving conversation about mental health therein. It is likely that you know someone with ADHD or autism or may even live with either yourself.
While we know more about ADHD and more people are being diagnosed with it, many still regard it and conditions like it as something outside of the norm. While less people live with these conditions than without, everyone benefits when we design our spaces to be inclusive of neurodiversity, in a principle called universal design.
While various conditions have to do with neurodiversity, we will focus on ADHD in this article.
What is Neurodiversity?
Neurodiversity is the concept that there is no “right” way of perceiving and interacting with the world around us, and that differences in brain and mental function are just that, differences. This view emphasizes accounting for neurological differences instead of trying to mould everyone into a single form of functioning.
What Causes Neurodiversity?
How a person’s brain communicates with itself affects how the person pays attention, how they perceive the relationship of time and their goals, their memory, their focus, and how they plan, amongst other things. In one word, it affects their executive function.
No two brains are wired exactly the same, and different people exercise executive function differently, leading to neurological diversity.
To visualize, the front of the brain is responsible for higher level thoughts and goal setting. If the connections between the front of the brain and the memory centre are not strong, then the ability to keep goals in the working memory might be diminished. You can read more here.
Designing Neurodiverse-Inclusive Spaces
Now that we know what neurodiversity is and how it affects people’s functioning, how can we build spaces for everyone?
The needs of people with different forms of neurodiversity may differ, and each need can have its own accommodation. In the case of ADHD, an effective way to modify our environment is to use the point of performance - a skills training approach supported by research.
The point of performance is the place and time where a behaviour happens. For example, the point of performance for the behaviour of eating lunch could be the lunch table at 2 PM. The significance of this concept is in building the connection between actions and consequences.
Utilizing Point of Performance
For someone who, as we mentioned, has a different experience in goal-setting, time, memory and focus, it can be incredibly helpful to place a reminder that sets out what should be done where.
These reminders need to be:
At the point of performance: Being in the place where they are needed when the behaviour in question is happening.
Novel: Standing out and not blending into the background so they are noticed and heeded.
Simple: As a general rule, all instructions should be easy to follow, concise, and simple natured.
The Benefits of Using Point of Performance for Everyone
As established earlier, there is no one way that people’s brains are wired. All lie somewhere on the spectrum of executive function. Almost everyone can become distracted, lose sight of their goals, or give less consideration to the consequences of a particular action. Therefore, an accommodation that can be extremely beneficial to some, can still be valuable to others.
To finish the article, I leave you with this: As a principle, when we design something to cater to an average height, or an average size or any other trait, we are designing it for no one. Not a single person is average in every respect of their life. In contrast, when we design our social and physical environments to be inclusive, everyone will benefit in every respect to different degrees.
Consider how you make coffee or tea at home. Are your mugs in a cupboard across the kitchen from your coffee maker or kettle? Where do you store your spoons, sweetener, and tea leaves or coffee grounds?
The idea of "point of performance" suggests we store all the items you need to make coffee or tea within reach of your drink-of-choice's maker. When we need to move across the kitchen to grab each item (s.a., the mug, spoon, filters, coffee grinds or tea leaves, sweetener, etc.) and bring them back to the coffee maker or kettle, we can easily become distracted by other tasks along the way. This concept of keeping things for a task within reach of the place where we're doing the task is often used within the service industry and can simplify anyone's life. Although it can be especially useful for those of us who are neurodiverse.
About the Author
Hi there, my name is Peyman Moghimi and I am a recent Psychology (BSc.) graduate from York University. My interests lie in the intersections of religious practice and psychological concepts, as well as learning more about how technology and changes in culture have affected our mental health.
I hope you enjoyed reading this blogpost!
