A-Z C

Communication style where immediate responses are expected; this style – the one inherent in job interviews, etc. – tends to cause significant anxiety for autistic people.

The act of soothing and helping to calm someone during a moment of dysregulation; another way of saying this is to work through and complete the stress cycle with the support of a safe person. Co-regulation is necessary and deemed socially acceptable for infants and toddlers, but neurotypical expectations prioritise independent regulation for primary-aged children, young people, and adults, to the detriment of neurodivergent people – co-regulation is a valid strategy for every neurodivergent person, regardless of age.

The stand-alone conditions – either diagnosed or self-identified – that an individual experiences. For example, an individual may have co-occurring autism and dyslexia. Pathological terminology frames these as ‘comorbidities.’

The way individuals change behaviour, language, and appearance based on the environment or situation into which they are going, i.e., ‘church clothes,’ profession-specific vernacular, etc. Allistic people frequently think this is what autistic people mean when they try to explain masking, but it isn’t the same.

Adhering to a group or societies expected standards regardless of individual needs and desires.

A collection of traumas that compound over time; often related to childhood trauma.

This can describe internal experiences, i.e., the competing needs of being both autistic and ADHD, or it can be about the unique needs between individuals, i.e., differing needs between siblings, which cause challenges to providing appropriate and equitable support.

The authentic way an individual expresses themselves; neurodivergent CI (echolalia, scripting, literalism, silence etc.) is frequently dismissed as ineffective, deficient, or meaningless because it doesn’t match neuro-normative expectations of communication.

Needed for receiving, understanding, and responding to verbal & nonverbal messages being passed between oneself and others.

Polytropic communication; light, changing topics quickly, cluttered.

Monotropic communication, deep focus on topics, direct and literal, and commonly asynchronous.

An exchange of information. For autistic people, ‘communication’ is performed in order to achieve a specific outcome; it is purposeful.

An ethical value that states individuals have the right to absolute sovereignty over their own brains and their own cognitive processes without interference; freedom of embodiment (the freedom to indulge, adopt, and/or experiment with any styles or quirks of movement and embodiment, whether they come naturally to one or whether one chooses them) is an essential element of cognitive liberty.

The imposition of neurotypical ways of thinking, knowing, perceiving, and reacting to the world onto neurodivergent people, leading to the marginalization and invalidation of neurodivergent knowledge systems.

Needed to be able to think and reason, including planning tasks and organizing oneself (executive function).

A psychological intervention aimed at helping an individual to recognize and understand the impact of their thoughts and feelings on their behaviours (the CBT Triangle). It can be harmful to neurodivergent people when used in ways that do not take neurodevelopmental differences into account, for example when it is misused to correct or reframe someone’s thinking in a way that’s invalidating or gaslights people into doubting their own reality.

How the brain processes, disseminates, and acts upon the information it receives.

Health conditions, whether acquired or genetic, that can’t be cured and so they must be managed. Most people describe a baseline level of symptoms that they live with each day, as well as periods with more intense symptoms that are called flares.

Behaviour that causes disruption or is deemed unacceptable. Observing behaviour like this demands that the authority figures in the situation ask: What clue does this behaviour give us? What is the unmet need?