Developmental Difference & Neurodiversity

Vocabulary flashcards covering key topics from the lecture including executive function, cultural variations, neurodiversity terms, models of disability, and early intervention principles.

Executive Function

Mental processes used to control and regulate thought, emotion, and behaviour, shaped through experience such as interactions with parents and school.

Executive Functioning Skills

A set of core mental processes that includes planning, organization, self-control, task initiation, time management, metacognition, working memory, attention, flexibility, and perseverance.

Marshmallow Test

A task assessing executive function and delayed gratification, historically viewed as a window into willpower where longer wait times were thought to predict higher self-esteem and academic success.

Cultural Construction of Executive Function

The concept that standard tests for executive function reflect cultural norms rather than universal standards, demonstrated by findings where Cameroonian children waited twice as long as German children for marshmallows, and Japanese children waited longer for food but less for presents compared to US children.

Neurodiversity

A perspective holding that people think and interact with the world in many different ways with no single right or wrong way for brains to work, treating variation as difference rather than deficit.

Neurodiversity Umbrella

An overarching concept covering various neurodivergent conditions including Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dyspraxia, Tourette's, OCD, Synesthesia, DID, OSDD, ABI, and PDA.

Neurotypical

Refers to a state in which a person's brain functions as expected by society.

Autism

A range of conditions often characterized by differences or reductions in social interaction, in speech and communication, and by repetitive or restricted behaviours.

ADHD

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, often characterized by differences or challenges in attention, impulse control, and hyperactivity.

Dyslexia

A condition characterized by challenges in reading, decoding words, and spelling.

Learning Disability

Challenges in one or more of the processes involved in learning, and/or in specific academic skills.

Social Model of Disability

A model asserting that disability arises due to the mismatch between a person's characteristics, impairments, or variations and the limitations of their environment, focusing on addressing physical and social barriers.

Intervention Principles (Leadbitter et al., 2021)

Four guidelines for autism early intervention: consideration of internal drives and experiences, re-evaluation of intervention targets, emphasis on strengths, pleasure, and well-being, and promotion of autonomy.

Historical View of Left-Handedness

In North America in the early 1900s, left-handedness was viewed as non-normative and deviant, associated with evil, mental disability, and stubbornness, prior to a cultural shift away from negative views in the 1960s–1970s.