Browse Terms
Browse our comprehensive collection of neurodivergence terms.
A
AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication)
Communication tools and strategies that support or replace speech—from picture cards and gestures to text-to-speech apps and eye-tracking computers. Used by people who find speaking difficult, exhausting, unreliable, or impossible, whether always or sometimes.
Accommodations
Changes to environment, tools, timing, or expectations that remove barriers so people can participate equally. Not special treatment or lowered standards—just different paths to the same destination.
ADHD Tax
The extra costs in money, time, and energy that people with ADHD pay because of executive function challenges in a world designed for neurotypical brains.
ADOS
Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule—a standardized assessment tool used to diagnose autism. A clinician observes you doing specific tasks and scores your responses against neurotypical expectations, often missing masked presentations, cultural differences, and adult adaptations.
Alexithymia
The inability to identify and describe your own emotions. You feel things intensely but can't name them—like having a complex emotional storm inside but only being able to say "I feel bad." Affects 50-85% of autistic people.
Allistic
A person who is not autistic. Created by the autistic community to name the specific neurology of non-autistic people, rather than treating it as a default "normal."
Assistive Technology (AT)
Tools, devices, software, and systems that bridge the gap between what your brain/body can do and what the world expects—from sticky notes and timers to speech-to-text and eye-tracking systems. Everyone uses AT; some of us just need more specialized versions.
AuDHD
Being both autistic and having ADHD simultaneously. Not just having two separate conditions—a unique neurotype where autism and ADHD interact, creating experiences that can't be understood by looking at either condition alone. Like running two different operating systems that both want control of the same computer.
Auditory Hypersensitivity
When your brain's sound filtering system doesn't work properly, causing everyday sounds to register as painful, overwhelming, or unbearable. Not about disliking noise—experiencing sound as physical assault that triggers genuine pain responses and fight-or-flight reactions. Like living with all volume knobs stuck on eleven and no way to turn them down.
Auditory Processing Disorder (APD)
Your ears work perfectly, but your brain's sound-to-meaning translator is glitching. You hear everything—too many things, actually—but understanding speech is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle while everyone waits for your answer. Not a hearing problem; a sound-interpretation problem.
Autistic Burnout
Complete physical, mental, and sensory collapse from the cumulative cost of existing in a neurotypical world. Skills disappear, speech vanishes, and previously automatic tasks become impossible—not tiredness but neurological system failure.
Autistic Meltdown
An involuntary neurological response to overwhelming stress where an autistic person temporarily loses emotional and behavioral control. Not a tantrum or manipulation, but the nervous system's emergency release valve when overload becomes unbearable.
Autistic Shutdown
A temporary loss of skills and abilities when an autistic person's nervous system becomes overwhelmed. During shutdown, speaking, moving, or responding becomes extremely difficult or impossible, even though the person remains aware.
B
C
Camouflaging
The conscious or unconscious suppression of neurodivergent traits to appear more neurotypical. Often used interchangeably with "masking," camouflaging involves hiding, compensating for, or overperforming to meet social expectations.
Chunking
Breaking large tasks, information, or time periods into smaller, manageable pieces to reduce cognitive overwhelm and improve processing and completion.
Co-regulation
When one nervous system helps stabilize another through presence and connection. Not talking someone through their emotions—literally sharing your calm until their system remembers how to regulate. Like emotional jumper cables: you can't charge a dead battery by yelling at it, but you can share power from a working one.
Cognitive Load
The total mental effort being used in working memory at any given time—when cognitive load exceeds processing capacity, it leads to overwhelm, errors, and shutdown.
Context Switching
Context switching is the brutal cognitive price tag attached to every "quick question," every notification ping, every "this'll just take a second"—the hidden mental machinery required to save your entire cognitive state, dump it from working memory, load an entirely different program, run it, then somehow reconstruct where you were before the interruption shattered your flow. Like a computer forced to constantly swap between heavy programs on insufficient RAM, context switching transforms what could be smooth cognitive performance into a stuttering, exhausting cycle of mental stops and starts that leaves you wondering why you're so tired after a day of "just emails and meetings."
Curb-cut Effect
When designs created for disabled people benefit everyone—named after wheelchair ramps that activists literally hammered into curbs in the 1970s, now used by people with strollers, luggage, bikes, and delivery carts. Proves that disability drives innovation and "special accommodations" often become universal necessities.
D
Decision Fatigue
Your brain running out of decision-making juice—every choice from breakfast cereal to career moves drains the same finite cognitive battery until you're standing in the grocery store unable to choose between two identical yogurts. Not laziness; executive function running on fumes.
Demand Avoidance
When your nervous system treats everyday requests like threats, triggering fight-flight-freeze responses to even gentle suggestions. Not defiance or oppositional behavior—a neurological response where the brain's threat detection system perceives any loss of autonomy as danger, making you unable (not unwilling) to comply with demands, even ones you genuinely want to follow.
Divergent Thinking
A cognitive process that generates creative, non-linear solutions by exploring multiple possibilities and making unexpected connections between ideas.
Double Empathy Problem
The mutual difficulty autistic and non-autistic people have understanding each other's communication styles and perspectives. Not a one-sided autistic deficit, but a two-way translation problem between different neurological cultures.
Dyscalculia
A learning difference that affects the ability to understand numbers, perform calculations, and comprehend mathematical concepts, sometimes called "math dyslexia."
Dyschronometria
Difficulty accurately perceiving and estimating the passage of time - a common neurodivergent experience where minutes can feel like hours or hours like minutes, affecting daily planning, task completion, and social interactions.
Dysgraphia
A learning difference affecting handwriting, spelling in writing, and organizing thoughts on paper.
Dyspraxia (Developmental Coordination Disorder, DCD)
A motor coordination difference affecting planning and execution of movements (fine/gross), handwriting, sequencing, and self‑care tasks.
E
Echolalia
The repetition of words, phrases, or sounds heard from others or oneself—a natural form of communication and processing particularly common in autistic people, serving functions from language learning to emotional regulation and social connection.
Emotional Contagion
Absorbing others’ emotions automatically; can be stronger for autistic and highly sensitive people.
Emotional Dysregulation
Neurological differences in how emotions are experienced, processed, and expressed. Characterized by intense feelings that may seem disproportionate to triggers and difficulty returning to emotional baseline—not a character flaw, but brain-based variation.
Emotional Flashback
A sudden, intense emotional state (fear, shame, panic) triggered by past trauma rather than present reality, often without clear images.
Energy Budgeting
Planning activities around available energy using a structured, proactive plan.
Executive Dysfunction
Difficulties with the brain's management system for planning, organizing, initiating, and completing tasks. Like having all the pieces but struggling to assemble them in the right order at the right time.
F
H
Hyperactivity
Excessive movement, restlessness, and high energy levels that are developmentally inappropriate and often interfere with daily functioning, commonly associated with ADHD.
Hyperacusis
Heightened sensitivity to everyday sounds where normal environmental noises are perceived as uncomfortably or painfully loud - a sensory processing difference common in autism, ADHD, and other neurodivergent experiences that significantly impacts daily life and accessibility needs.
Hyperfixation
Intense, consuming focus on specific interests, activities, topics, or even people, characterized by an overwhelming need to engage with the fixation to the exclusion of other activities.
Hyperfocus
Intense, laser-like concentration on one activity to the exclusion of everything else. A state where time disappears, the world fades away, and only the task exists—often lasting hours without awareness of basic needs.
Hyperlexia
Advanced reading ability that emerges earlier than expected, often accompanied by intense fascination with letters, numbers, and written language - commonly seen in autistic children who may decode text fluently while still developing comprehension and verbal communication skills.
Hypersensitivity
Heightened neurological responsiveness to sensory input where stimuli that others find tolerable or unnoticeable can be overwhelming, painful, or distressing - a fundamental sensory processing difference affecting how neurodivergent people experience and navigate the world.
Hyposensitivity
Reduced responsiveness to sensory input, requiring more intense or prolonged stimulation to register sensations that others notice easily.
I
Infodumping
Enthusiastically sharing extensive knowledge about a passionate interest, often rapidly and in great detail. A natural neurodivergent communication style that expresses joy, builds connection, and shares expertise.
Interoception
Your internal body sense—the ability to feel hunger, thirst, heartbeat, temperature, pain, and other signals from inside your body. Many neurodivergent people experience this "eighth sense" differently, making basic needs harder to recognize.
L
M
Masking
Hiding or suppressing neurodivergent traits to appear more neurotypical. A survival strategy that involves mimicking social behaviors, suppressing stims, and performing neurotypicality at significant personal cost.
Misophonia
A neurological condition where specific sounds trigger intense emotional reactions, often including anger, disgust, or panic, along with physical responses.
Monotropism
The theory that autistic minds naturally focus like a laser on one thing at a time, rather than spreading attention thinly across many things. This intense single-channel processing creates both superpowers (deep expertise) and vulnerabilities (difficulty switching tasks).
N
Neuroaffirming
Creating spaces, practices, and attitudes that accept and support neurodivergent people as they are, rather than trying to change, fix, or hide their differences.
Neurodivergence-In-Context
The idea that many difficulties arise from inaccessible environments, not deficits in the person.
Neurodivergent
Having a brain that functions differently from society's constructed "typical" standard. Encompasses autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, Tourette's, and other neurological variations that aren't illnesses needing cure but different operating systems deserving respect.
Neurodivergent Masking Fatigue
Exhaustion and stress that build up after prolonged masking of neurodivergent traits.
Neurodiversity
The natural variation in human brains and minds; a paradigm that views neurological differences as natural human diversity rather than deficits or disorders.
Neurominority
A distinct population sharing a particular form of neurodivergence, often facing systemic prejudice, discrimination, or pathologization from the neurotypical majority.
Neurospicy
A playful, reclaimed slang term for being neurodivergent, often used with pride and humor.
Neurotypical
Someone whose brain functions in ways society considers "normal"—no autism, ADHD, dyslexia, or other neurodivergences. Not better or worse, just the statistical majority. Like being right-handed in a right-handed world.
Non-verbal Communication
Communication that occurs without spoken words, including gestures, facial expressions, body language, written text, visual symbols, sign language, and alternative communication methods.
O
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
A neurodivergent condition characterized by intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors or mental acts (compulsions) that significantly impact daily functioning.
Overfunctioning / Underfunctioning
Two common responses to stress: doing "too much" (taking on everything, over‑controlling) or "shutting down" (reduced capacity, withdrawal).
P
Pacing
Balancing activity and rest to avoid overwhelm, burnout, or crashes.
Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA)
An autism profile where everyday demands—even enjoyable ones—trigger intense anxiety and nervous system threat responses, driving a need for autonomy and control that looks like defiance but is actually survival mode.
Pattern Recognition
The cognitive ability to identify patterns, connections, and regularities across various domains, often leading to insights, predictions, and innovative solutions.
Processing Speed
The pace at which the brain takes in, understands, and responds to information.
R
Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria
Extreme emotional pain triggered by perceived or actual rejection, criticism, or failure. A neurological response common in ADHD where minor criticism feels like physical injury and imagined rejection becomes unbearable agony.
Resilience
The capacity to adapt, persist, and thrive despite facing challenges, adversity, or systemic barriers, often developed through navigating neurodivergent experiences in a neurotypical world.
S
Savant
Exceptional ability in a specific area that stands out dramatically compared to other areas of functioning. Most commonly associated with autism, where extraordinary skill coexists with support needs—but often misunderstood and stereotyped in media as the only way autism looks.
Sensory Avoidance
Reducing or avoiding certain inputs (noise, light, textures, smells) to prevent overload and stay regulated.
Sensory Diet
A planned set of activities and inputs designed to give the nervous system the right amount of stimulation across the day.
Sensory Gating
The brain’s ability to filter out unimportant sensory information; reduced gating can amplify overload.
Sensory Integration
How the brain combines input from different senses to guide movement, learning, and comfort.
Sensory Intelligence
The sophisticated ability to process, interpret, and utilize sensory information in nuanced and advantageous ways, often leading to enhanced perception and environmental awareness.
Sensory Overload
When your brain receives more sensory input than it can process—like a computer with too many programs running until it crashes. Lights become painful, sounds pierce your skull, textures feel like sandpaper, and your nervous system screams for escape.
Sensory Processing Disorder
A condition where the nervous system has trouble receiving and responding to sensory information. People may be over-sensitive, under-sensitive, or both to different sensory inputs.
Sensory Seeking
Preferring or seeking extra sensory input (movement, pressure, sound, texture) to feel regulated.
Special Interest
An intense, passionate, and often lifelong fascination with specific topics that brings deep joy, expertise, and meaning to autistic lives. Not just a hobby—a core part of identity and wellbeing.
Spiky Profile
A very uneven pattern of abilities—strong strengths in some areas, significant challenges in others.
Spoon Theory
A metaphor where daily energy is represented as a limited number of spoons. Each activity costs spoons, and when they're gone, you're done—no amount of willpower creates more. Created by Christine Miserandino to explain living with lupus, now universal disability language.
Spoonie
A person living with chronic illness, disability, or limited energy who uses spoon theory to understand and communicate about their daily energy management.
Stim Toy / Fidget Tool
Objects used to self‑regulate through movement or touch (spinners, cubes, putty, rings).
Stimming
Self-stimulatory behaviors—repetitive movements, sounds, or activities that regulate the nervous system. Natural, necessary, and beneficial actions that help process sensory input, manage emotions, and maintain focus.
Synesthesia
A neurological phenomenon where stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory pathway - like hearing colors or seeing sounds.
Systems Thinking
The ability to understand how parts interconnect within complex wholes, seeing relationships, patterns, and feedback loops that create the bigger picture rather than focusing on isolated components.
T
Task Initiation
The ability to start a task without unnecessary delay.
Task Paralysis
The complete inability to start a task despite desperately wanting or needing to. Your brain knows what to do, your body won't move. Like being frozen at the starting line while everyone else is already running—not lazy, literally paralyzed.
Time Blindness
The difficulty sensing how much time has passed or accurately estimating how long tasks will take. Living in an eternal "now" where time flows unpredictably—five minutes can feel like an hour, or three hours pass in what seems like moments.
Transition Difficulty
Struggles moving from one activity, environment, or mindset to another.
Twice-Exceptional (2e)
A person who is both gifted (intellectually, creatively, or in specific domains) and has one or more learning differences, disabilities, or neurodivergent conditions.
U
Universal Design
Design principles that create products, environments, and systems usable by the widest possible range of people without requiring specialized adaptations. Not "special accommodations"—building accessibility into the foundation so everyone benefits from design that works better for all.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
A framework for designing learning goals, materials, and assessments that are accessible from the start via multiple means of engagement, representation, and action/expression.
Unmasking
The process of reducing or stopping masking behaviors and allowing more authentic expression of neurodivergent traits and needs.
V
Vantage Sensitivity
The flip side of sensitivity—when your nervous system that suffers more in harsh environments also thrives more in supportive ones. Not just vulnerable; exceptionally responsive to positive experiences, interventions, and enriching conditions. Your sensitivity isn't a weakness that needs fixing; it's a high-performance system that needs the right fuel.
Visual Schedules
Structured visual representations of daily activities, tasks, or routines using pictures, symbols, or text to support planning, transitions, and time management.
W
Waiting Mode
The complete inability to start tasks when you have an appointment later, as if your entire brain is on hold until the thing happens. Even with hours available, you're stuck in mental limbo—not procrastinating, literally paralyzed.
Working Memory
The mental workspace that holds and manipulates information for short periods (seconds to minutes) to guide actions.
Working Memory Deficit
Challenges holding and manipulating information over seconds/minutes to guide action.