Open Society

Monotropism, and the subsequent work of Tanya Adkin in conceptualising Monotropic split, has been an incredibly meaningful set of ideas for the neurodivergent community. One of the most common questions, however, has been- How do we fix it? This article aims to answer that question. This is a solution to Monotropic split.

How We Curate Space And Create Felt Safety

Autistic burnout is a profound exhaustion stemming from unmet societal expectations. It manifests as brain fog, physical depletion, and loss of coping strategies. The concept of lilipadding emphasizes small, manageable steps toward recovery, allowing individuals to navigate their journeys without shame. This practice promotes self-acceptance and healing within societal constraints.

Small talk or straight talk? Autism communication has its own logic—and embracing difference opens the door to empathy. Understanding this can transform empathy and connection.

Stress as the Architect of Complexity The Evolutionary Stress Framework (ESF) reframes stress as the universal process by which energy organizes matter into complexity — from prebiotic chemistry to human neurodiversity. Ilya Prigogine showed that dissipative structures emerge by dissipating energy, making stress the driver of order out of chaos (Prigogine, 1980). Bruce McEwen defined allostasis, revealing stress as predictive regulation rather than damage (McEwen & Wingfield, 2003). Martin Picard uncovered how mitochondria act as stress historians, storing cellular memory (Picard & McEwen, 2018). Lisa Feldman Barrett demonstrated that emotions are constructed predictions, with stress at the heart of interoception (Barrett, 2017). Ernest Rossi showed how ultradian rhythms pulse stress and recovery through nested biological cycles (Rossi, 2000). Karl Friston explained why stress exists at all: systems must minimize surprise by aligning predictions with reality (Friston, 2010). Lee Cronin & Sara Walker quantified complexity itself with Assembly Theory — showing why certain patterns endure (Cronin et al., 2022). Takeaway: Stress isn’t pathology. It’s the ancient logic of life — the force that assembles molecules, rhythms, emotions, and ecosystems into adaptive complexity.

Why I’m not a neuro-affirmative professional. I’m often told I’m neuro-affirmative and it has never quite sat right with me. So this weekend I have done a deep dive into neuro-affirmative assessment and therapy. I’ve read all the books which Amazon could provide when I searched for ‘neuro-affirmative’ and ‘psychology’ and now I can say for sure, I’m not a neuro-affirmative psychologist. That doesn’t mean that I think that children should be called disordered, or that we should be pathologising difference. That doesn’t mean that I think we should be punitive or that I’m changing anything in my approach. I champion every child, exactly as they are. I think we need to change the environment so that children can thrive, and stop trying to shove square pegs into round holes. But what neuro-affirmative means, according to what I’ve read, is more than that. Yes, one part of it is being strengths-based and positive about young people, and that’s essential. But the other part of being neuro-affirmative seems to be accepting a brain-based determinism about children which it totally at odds with my approach as a psychologist and the evidence base. Neuro-affirmative psychologists see a child’s diagnosis as a sign that their type of brain (or neurotype) has been identified and that they have, effectively, a different type of biology. They say things like ‘Being Autistic runs through our neurology in the same way that words or streaks of colour run through sticks of sweet seaside rock…any effort to pull the writing out of the rock is not going to end well for anyone concerned’. (Kavanagh et al, 2025).   This isn’t true. There is no ‘autistic neurology’. There are just people’s brains, and lots of them working differently to others. A diagnosis of autism just says ‘this person is behaving in this way right now’. It does not identify a neurotype. Brains don’t divide up into diagnostic categories.   Why does that matter? Because when people (and particularly children) hear that their brain type has been identified, they think that this means that they can’t change. They think that when things are hard, it will be this way for ever. And it’s not true.   Brain scans cannot identify who has a diagnosis of autism (or ADHD, or any other psychiatric diagnosis). Brains are only one part of who we are, and they don’t determine our lives. People are so much more than their brains. We have minds, and bodies, and we exist in a social context. They have a history of good and bad experiences. All of these things are important when thinking about why a child is behaving in the way that they do. Reducing it to ‘neurology’ is determinism.   When we reduce people down to their brains, we lose something very important. Our ability to ask questions and to be curious disappears. We just say ‘it’s how your brain works’ and we stop thinking.   In fact, we lose our minds, in the enthusiasm for everything to be about our brains.     | 37 comments on LinkedIn

GROVE is an online community for Autistic young people to connect through shared interests & experiences. We support young people’s personal growth by fostering a positive & authentic identity through neuro-affirming mentoring, social & interest-based groups & our 'BEING ME: Knowing Myself, Valuing Myself, Being Myself' group programme.

As jurisdictions worldwide grapple with regulating social media's effects on youth, US state legislatures have emerged as important laboratories for “techno-legal solutionism”—the belief that complex...

SPACE-TIME: A Monotropism-Informed Neuroaffirming Framework for Autistic People

Fergus Murray – science teacher, writer and 'autist' – on single attention and associated cognition in autism; a theory with a family connection…

Five Things States Should Ban Instead of Phones in School Are mobile phone bans about adult convenience and adult preferences or about child development? Are mobile phone bans about child physical …

Explore how Autistic people experience grief differently and discover affirming resources, support, and strategies for navigating loss with compassion.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., continues to sow discord and disinformation about autism and characterize autistic people like me as nothing but burdens.

Monotropism is an attention-based theory of autism that is gaining increasing recognition among the autistic community, researchers and practitioners within education and workplace settings.

The Zones of Regulation is a widely implemented program for social-emotional regulation, including for students with autism. To date, there is very little empir...

Why Big Data Needs Thick Data Originally published on May 13, 2013 for Ethnography Matters, I’m republishing the post for the launch of the new Ethnography Matters Medium channel. I’ve updated …

How We Know Neurodivergence

Alright – so today we’re talking about the Reading Wars, the historical debate about how to teach literacy. Specifically we’re talking about the Science of Reading movement, a faction of the so-called Reading Wars. The Science of Reading movement is connected to other similarly named movements aimed at “going back to basics” in teaching, such as the Science of Math movement, or the more general “Science of Learning” movement. Especially in the last few years, these movements have taken storm as test scores have dropped and a narrative has been formed that schools are, once again, failing our children. First, we want to give an overview on how the Science of Reading, steeped in this “Reading Wars” debate, is shaping our classrooms, student literacy, and teacher professional development. We’re going to talk about how this movement is not only changing reading classrooms, but the general ideas of school itself. And two: to make the claim that the Science of Reading, like many of the factions that have formed around the Reading Wars or Math Wars more broadly, does more harm than good. And that our obsession with these labels and factions on teaching reading is dangerous and harmful to young people and teachers alike, for many many reasons. But before we talk specifically about the Science of Reading movement, let’s take a look at the ongoing debate surrounding literacy that’s been fought for nearly 100 years... What're we getting ourselves into... 00:00:00-00:02:25 Dewey v. Thorndike 00:02:25-00:06:05 The Reading Wars 00:06:05-00:24:10 "The Science of Reading" 00:24:11-00:32:36 Cultural Literacy 00:32:37-00:41:10 The Knowledge Gap 00:41:11-00:50:26 The Dismal Deans 00:50:27-01:14:12 Beyond The Reading Wars 01:14:13-01:29:38 Huge thanks to Megan Figueroa for speaking with us, you can learn more at her website & podcast https://meganfigueroa.com/ and https://vocalfriespod.com/ All of our sources are referenced throughout the video, and you can find other specific study links here: https://www.humanrestorationproject.org/writing/who-is-being-sold-a-story-unsettling-the-science-of-reading Beyond Pavlov's Perfect Student: https://www.humanrestorationproject.org/writing/going-beyond-pavlovs-perfect-student ----------------------------------------------- Learn more about our free resources, podcast, writings, and more at https://www.humanrestorationproject.org/ Join our Discord (link on website!) Twitter: https://twitter.com/HumResPro Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/humanrestorationproject/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/humrespro/ Want a HUMANIZE EDUCATION shirt? https://www.rayguncustom.com/collections/human-restoration-project Human Restoration Project is a 501(c)3 nonprofit centered on enabling human-centered schools through progressive pedagogy. All content is released under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial, share-alike international license unless otherwise noted. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite player at "Human Restoration Project."

Negative school experiences generate twice the emotional burden in autistic and ADHD adolescents compared to their neurotypical classmates, and this is significantly correlated with depression and anxiety, according to a new study involving a UCL researcher.

Plain language is an important part of making things accessible for disabled people. We are very worried that people are using artificial intelligence to translate text into plain language without realizing that it cannot do that work correctly. We tested multiple artificial intelligence models, and all of them made big…

Published in Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies (Vol. 40, No. 2, 2018)

Each equity "lever" includes a guiding question and detailed description.

Empathy deficits are considered a core attribute of autism and are scored in standardized autism diagnostic instruments. However, empirical evidence c…

This paper describes the eight phases of an innovative procedure for collective and reflexive research about neurodiversity. Structured by Q methodology, this p...

Contrary to common perception, technology use supports social connection.

And Why Journalism, Education, and Media for Children need to be held responsible for their ableism.

Online communities of adults with autism are creating a new culture focused on empowerment. Here is some of the new language growing in these communities.