Tag: Neurodiversity
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What Does Neurodivergent Mean? A Plain-Language Guide
Neurodivergent means thinking, processing, learning and responding in ways that differ from the majority. A plain-language guide to what the word means, who it includes and what it is not.
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Awe, Wonder and Monotropic Attention in Neuroqueer Learning Spaces
If Helen De Cruz designed a learning space, what would it look like? Helen Edgar follows wonder and awe through monotropism, glimmers, flow and Cavendish Space.
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Bagpuss: Lost Things. Holding Space for Emergence & Joy
Exploring Bagpuss through a neurodivergent lens: monotropism, slow attention, and the quiet beauty of restoring meaning to lost and overlooked things.
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Plain Language:
A plain-language guide to monotropism, wonder and awe — what happens when Autistic and ADHD attention is given space to notice, and stay
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The Constellation of Intensities: Neuroqueering the Spiky Profile
Why even the “spiky profile” still measures us against a grid — and what a constellation of intensities offers instead.
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Neurodiversity Infinity Symbol: History, Time, and Collective Becoming
The neurodiversity infinity symbol has a story worth knowing. Rotate it and it becomes an hourglass holding time, community, and collective becoming.
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Stimming, Glimmers & Solidarity: Celebrating Autistic Pride Together
What is Autistic Pride Day? Explore its history, stimming, and glimmers with NeuroHub Community, Stimpunks & Autistic Realms.
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Penguin Pebbling: Theory, Practice and the Five Neurodivergent Love Locutions — A Guide for Practitioners
Penguin Pebbling is a low-demand, neurodiversity-affirming card game built around the Five Neurodivergent Love Locutions — five relational modes natural to many Autistic and neurodivergent people: infodumping, parallel play, support swapping, penguin pebbling, and deep pressure
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Why Attachment Theory Fails Autistic People, and What Might Work Instead
If you have spent any time navigating schools, social care, or therapy as an Autistic person or supporting a loved one, you have likely encountered attachment theory. You may have been blamed for your children’s difficulties and said they were due to attachment disorders and perhaps your parenting issues, or you may have been told…
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No Space Is Neutral: Safe Spaces, Imagined Neutrality, and the Work of Belonging
: No space is neutral. Exploring minority stress, the Double Empathy Problem, and what it really takes to build safer, neuroqueer spaces together.
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Being With People & The Value of Intensive Interaction
Helen Edgar draws on twenty years of practice alongside people with PMLD to explore why Intensive Interaction — when practised with genuine neuro-affirming care — is not just a communication approach. It is a way of being human together.
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Neuro-Affirming Practice Is Not a Framework. It’s a Way of Being.
Neuro-affirming practice isn’t a framework or a checklist. It’s about being human — kind, compassionate, and truly present with people, just as they are.
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What Would A Neuroqueer Pedagogy Be?
“What would a neuroqueer pedagogy be?” By Ombre Tarragnat (English translation with permission from Genre en Cours article Feb 2026)
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Intensive Interaction as Neuro-Affirming Relational Practice
Intensive Interaction isn’t about “fixing” or prompting communication. It’s about meeting someone where they are—through connection, attunement, and shared flow. A neuro-affirming, relational framing to support those with profound and multiple learning disabilities.
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Weird Pride in a Hostile World
Weird Pride is a practice of becoming. A refusal to shrink. A quiet, feral devotion to staying alive as ourselves in a world that keeps trying to make us something else.
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The Autistic Rhizome: Community, Liminal Spaces & Belonging
Autistic belonging grows through community, from liminal spaces, not conformity.
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Re-Storying Autism
Re-Storying Autism A Framework For Families, Parents, And Carers: Reimagining Support For Autistic People. #1 Amazon Bestseller
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Re-Storying Autism: A New Course & Workbook Now Available!
Re-Storying Autism: A Framework for Families, Parents and Carers Reimagining Support For Autistic People Neurodiversity Affirming Neurodivergent Competent
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Beyond “Complex Needs”: Neuro-Affirming, Relational Practice with Children with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities
A neuro-affirming, relational approach to supporting children with profound and multiple learning disabilities, centred on safety, communication, and being-with.
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Stimming as Embodied Sensory Language
Reframing stimming beyond “behaviour” as embodied sensory language, monotropic flow, and neuroqueer, interdependent connection with the world.
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Free 2025 Advent Calendar & Neuro-Affirming Autism Resources
Free 2025 Advent Calendar & Neuro-Affirming Autism Resources
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What schools and parents need to understand about supporting Autistic and neurodivergent children
What schools and parents need to understand about supporting Autistic and neurodivergent children
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Join NeuroHub Community Space
Join me & David Gray-Hammond in our new community NeuroHub. Access to exclusive webinars, resources and space to connect with others! Hope to see some of you there!
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The Neuronormative Paradigm: Naming The Systems That Harm
The Neuronormative Paradigm, conceptualised by Nick Walker, names the systems that define and enforce what society considers normal. This exploration piece contrasts the neuronormative paradigm with the neurodiversity paradigm, which recognises all ways of being as vital to human diversity.
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Monotropism: A Poem
A poem about monotropism for children, young people, families and educators to open conversations about Autistic & ADHD experiences.
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Ethics & Values of Autistic Realms
Autistic Realms is grounded in values of authenticity, autonomy, and relational care for the human rights of Autistic or otherwise neurodivergent and disabled people. These guiding principles align closely with the ethics and principles of both the Therapist Neurodiversity Collective (TNDC) and the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (which I am a member of – ASAN),…
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Inclusion Needs Recognition, Not Erasure: A Neurodiversity-Affirming Approach
When headlines claim that autism and ADHD are “invented labels,” it’s more than rhetoric, it’s erasure. A explores why removing neurodiversity from education would harm the very children inclusion is meant to protect.
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Why “Interest-Led” Isn’t Enough: Embracing Monotropism & Neuro-Affirming Practice
Many approaches claim to be “interest-led,” but true neuroaffirming practice goes deeper. Being monotropism-informed means honouring Autistic attention, autonomy, and sensory safety; not using children’s passions to shape compliance. Real inclusion celebrates authentic joy, not conformity.
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Protecting the Meaning of Neuro-Affirming Practice
Discover what genuine neuro-affirming practice looks like — beyond tokenism and “neurodiversity-lite.” Explore how to protect the heart of the neurodiversity movement and uphold its community-led roots.
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Discovering Belonging: Creating Neuro-Affirming Animations with Thriving Autistic
Discovering Belonging: Neuro-Affirming Animations with Thriving Autistic. Celebrate Autistic identity through the Discovery Programme and new animations that explore belonging, strengths, and community.
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Creating Autistic Safety and Belonging: 10 Ideas for Neurodivergent Competency
10 Principles of Neuro-Affirming Practice: Building Neurodivergent Competency Together
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Beyond “Neurodiversity Lite”: Why Neurodiversity-Affirming Practice Matters
Explore the difference between true neurodiversity-affirming practice and “neurodiversity-lite,” and why justice, and lived experience matter.
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Monotropism and Polytropism Explained
Learn how monotropism differs from polytropism, plus research showing ADHDers and AuDHDers score higher on the Monotropism Questionnaire.
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Why PBS is Harmful for Autistic and Neurodivergent Young People
Exploring why and how Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) can harm Autistic people. #Neurodiversity #AutismAcceptance #PBS #DisabilityJustice
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Neuroqueer Learning Spaces: Free Training for Reimagining Education
Neuroqueer Learning Spaces: Free Training for Reimagining Education By Autistic Realms & Stimpunks Foundation
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Awe, Wonder and Different Ways of Knowing: Cavendish Space and Helen De Cruz
Honouring the brilliant philosopher Helen De Cruz, whose work on wonder, thinking, and inclusion helped shape and inspire our Neuroqueer Learning Spaces and Cavendish Space. Her ideas continue to guide how we create space for divergent minds to thrive.
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Autistic Pride: Rest, Resistance & Monotropism
Written for Autistic Pride Day 2025: what Autistic Pride means to me, from monotropism and the cost of masking to reclaiming rest and finding belonging in community.
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Mingling with the universe: Autistic Perception
Mingling with the Universe” exploring Autistic meaning-making as sensory, felt, and more-than-human, where solitude becomes connection, and the world speaks in textures, rhythms, and resonance. It’s not about escaping, it’s about finding belonging otherwise.
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Unmasking: Reclaiming Our Monotropic Attentional Resources?
Exploring masking and unmasking: reclaiming our monotropic attentional resources, reconnecting with ourselves and community
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Mossy Minds & Monotropism
An exploration of moss and monotropic ways of being. An invitation to slow down, sink in, and reconnect through sensory depth and shared presence in liminal spaces.
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Autistic Pride: Restorying & Unknowing Autism
Restorying is how we reclaim our Autistic voices, honour our ways of knowing, and build futures rooted in connection, not correction.
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Being With People with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities Through Attunement and Shared Time
There’s something incredibly powerful in the simple idea of being with someone. Not doing to or even doing with or for, but truly being with. For people with PMLD, attunement, emotional connection, and flexible shared time can help to create more space for trust and support wellbeing.
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Neurodiversity Affirming Reading Recommendations
Looking for neurodiversity-affirming reads? I’ve have a growing collection of books listed by autistic authors, advocates, and researchers. Perfect for parents, professionals, and curious minds alike. Explore stories that affirm, not fix. Neurodivergent voices centred. From education to identity, burnout to belonging.
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Monotropism, Spiral Time, and the Rhizome of Memories
Memory may not be linear for neurodivergent people. It may feel like a spiral of felt sensations. Being monotropic shapes how I re-sense moments, navigating echoes and threads of sensory experiences rather than always recalling events.
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Sintering: Neurodivergent Community Building
When snow first falls, its flakes are delicate and vulnerable, but over time, a quiet transformation begins. Sintering is the process through which individual snow grains gradually begin to bond. Tiny necks form between them, bridging the gaps, making the snowpack stronger, more resilient, and more resistant to collapse. Sintering In Theory of Water: Nishnaabe…
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Reclaiming Rest: Autistic Burnout, Monotropism, and Resistance
Rest can become a radical act in a world that often equates our worth with productivity, especially for Autistic or otherwise neurodivergent people navigating the tides of burnout, where even our ways of resting may look different.
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Neuroqueering Monotropic Time: A short summary
Autistic/ADHD people are more likely to be monotropic and resonate with the theory of monotropism. Dinah Murray, Wenn Lawson, and Mike Lesser developed the theory of monotropism in the late 1990s. It is typically described as a neuro-affirming theory of Autism, but I think it is also a temporal mode. I am considering whether being…
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Neuroqueering Time: Bergson, Deleuze, and Monotropism (an exploration)
Time as a double temporality problem, exploring interest gravity for monotropic people and flow as a temporal home…..
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Monotropic Time – A Short Blog
Monotropic Time: A Different Rhythm If you are Autistic, ADHD, or AuDHD, time may not feel like a straight line, and you may feel you are constantly battling against the time on the clock. Your internal perception of time may feel more like a spiral, looping, stretching, expanding and contracting, sometimes speeding up and other…
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Monotropic Time & Neuroqueering Temporalities
Monotropic Time & Neuroqueering Temporalities Dwelling in Resonance: Monotropism, Monotropic Time, Spirals & Neuroqueer Temporalities
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Monotropic Time
Each person’s experience of time is likely to be influenced by culture, age, disability and neurodivergence. For Autistic/ADHD/AuDHD people, time is anything but linear or neutral and is not a universally accepted given.
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Testimonials for Autistic Realms
Testimonials gathered from National Diversity Awards nomination feedback 2024 and 2025. Feel free to vote for me and others here: Helen is breaking new ground in the dismantling of neuronormativity while working tirelessly to grow and deliver her practice as an Autistic Advocate. I have known of Helen’s work for over 20 years and she…
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Neuro-Affirming Research in Practice: Supporting Autistic Students, Embracing Monotropism In The Classroom And Beyond
Written by Tanya Adkin and Helen Edgar, based on the presentation we delivered to the National Autistic Society Professionals’ Conference in March, 2025. Shared with permission from NAS. We will explore the importance of the theory of monotropism and the significance of flow states and suggest some practical strategies educators can implement to create more…
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Challenges for Autistic & Neurodivergent Families Navigating the SEND System: We Need to Understand the Double Empathy Problem & Embrace Monotropism
(Blog based on a presentation I delivered to London Met University 14th March 2025, updated April 24th 2025 following the research published by…. Introduction The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system is designed to support children with additional needs, yet for many neurodivergent families, it presents more barriers than solutions. Families navigating this system…
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What does ‘neuro-affirming’ mean for Autistic young people?
This blog was written by myself, Helen Edgar of @autisticrealms for GROVE. I am delighted to work with Grove Neurodivergent Mentoring and Education as their Training, Education & Resource Specialist. This blog was edited by Jess Garner, GROVE’sFounder/Director. The blog, ‘What does ‘neuro-affirming’ mean for Autistic young people?’ is available to read on GROVE’s website, along with many other resources and information…
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Obstacles in the way of Neuro-Affirming Practice in Educational Settings & Ways Forward
Implementing neurodiversity-affirming practices in education, healthcare, and other systems is often hindered by pervasive narratives and biases. Recognizing and addressing these obstacles is crucial for fostering inclusive and supportive environments for neurodivergent and disabled individuals. Here are some common barriers that I have been working on with Stimpunks, who have a more in-depth page with…
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The Map of Monotropic Experiences: A Summary
The Map of Monotropic Experiences now has a home of its own. You can explore each of the twenty areas in more depth at monotropicmap.org. The free training and downloads are on the main Map of Monotropic Experiences page. The Map of Monotropic Experiences, created by Helen Edgar of Autistic Realms in collaboration with the…
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Neuronormative Domination, Monotropism & The Map of Monotropic Experiences
The Map of Monotropic Experiences now has a home of its own. Read more about neuronormative domination, the water the whole map sits in, at monotropicmap.org, and explore each of the twenty areas of the map there too. In collaboration with Stimpunks, I created a Map of Monotropic Experiences. This is a revised edition of…
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Map of Monotropic Experiences
The Map of Monotropic Experiences now has a home of its own. Visit monotropicmap.org to explore each of the twenty areas, mark your own map and find the free training. You can also find the free training and downloads further down this page. Monotropism seeks to explain Autism in terms of attention distribution and interests. …
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Caverns, Pleats and Folds
Cartographers are people who create maps, and they transform physical geography into an accessible format so people can navigate in and through the spaces of the world. I recently watched a National Geographic documentary about caving ‘ Explorer: The Deepest Cave | Disney+ (disneyplus.com’). It led me to consider the underground maps inside the earth, the…
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Monotropism and Collective Flow
In Milan Kundera’s novel, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ (1981), he described the heaviness of life, the restrictive oppression and boundaries that can tie us all down, yet there is freedom in the possibilities the mind can bring and in the choices we can make. We can subvert the restrictions of neuronormative society; we can,…
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Neurodivergent Base-Camp
Explaining what it is like to be autistic to non-autistic people can be difficult. To quote Dawn Prince-Hughes (Cultural Autism Studies at Yale), being autistic is like “being human without the skin”. This can be difficult for non-autistic people to understand. Seeing and feeling the blank looks and Double Empathy Problem (Milton, 2012) at a…
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Neuroqueering in the Liminal Spaces
Neuroqueering in Liminal Spaces “By silencing our bodyminds, they (neurotypical society) have halted the growth of a chaotic self. We are no longer able to move fluidly through our experience, instead frozen like ice on an arctic tundra” (Gray-Hammond, 2023) David Gray-Hammond (Emergent Divergence) and I are responding to each other’s blogs to help expand the…
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Top 5 Neurodivergent-Informed Strategies
Top 5 Neurodivergent-Informed Strategies By Helen Edgar, Autistic Realms, June 2024. 1. Be Kind Take time to listen and be with people in meaningful ways to help bridge the Double Empathy Problem (Milton, 2012). Be embodied and listen not only to people’s words but also to their bodies and sensory systems. Be responsive to people’s…
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Neuroqueer Collaborative Work Flow Spaces
A behind-the-scenes look into the collaborative workflow between Helen Edgar (Autistic Realms) and Ryan Boren (Stimpunks) as we write about Neuroqueer Learning Spaces (NQLS) and continue our neuroqueering journeys, connecting with awe-inspiring people and discovering new ideas to explore along the way. Liminal Spaces Ryan Boren (Stimpunks) and I are neuroqueering ourselves and the spaces we…
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Autistic Community: Connections and Becoming
Everyone seeks connection in some way or another. Connections may look different for autistic people. In line with the motto from Anna Freud’s National Autism Trainer Programme (Acceptance, Belonging and Connection), creating a sense of acceptance and belonging is likely to be more meaningful for autistic people than putting pressure on them to try and…
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Neurodiversity Affirming Glossary of Key Words – for families and professionals
For the words of theory and philosophy that More Realms is written in, from neuroqueer and rhizome to Ma, monotropic time and bodymind, see the companion glossary Key Words: A Glossary of Neuroqueer Theory and Philosophy, and the Stimpunks glossary I helped to build. (Glossary written & and originally published for THE PDA SPACE…
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Monotropism, Autism & OCD
Exploring similarities and differences between Autistic and OCD monotropic flow states. Can attention tunnels freeze, and thoughts get stuck?
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Middle Entrance
I am starting my new blog in the middle. I am in the middle of what is known as ‘midlife’ as I am forty-five; I am also mid-career, having resigned from teaching and not yet working in any other defined role. I also live much of my life in and between the online (primarily neurodivergent)…
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Autism & OCD – What Could Help
Updated October 2026. Autism and OCD overlap in ways that are easy to mistake for one another, and getting that wrong leads to the wrong support. This post sets out the differences and what could help; for the attention side of the story, Monotropism, autism and OCD explains why thoughts can loop, and the monotropism…
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Autism is fluid
Updated October 2026. “Being Autistic” is one of the searches that brings most people here, so a word on where this post sits now. It is a short statement of the neurodiversity paradigm: autism is a way of being, not a disorder to fix, and Autistic needs are fluid. If you want the vocabulary behind…
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Neurodivergent Friendly Classrooms
Updated October 2026. I wrote this for Twinkl in 2023, and the attendance crisis it describes has only deepened. The classroom ideas still apply. Since then I have written about why behaviour-based approaches such as PBS do harm, and about the monotropism that underlies so much of what teachers see; both are worth reading alongside…
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Supporting pupils through Autistic Burnout (Neuro-Affirming Teacher Guide)
Supporting pupils through Autistic Burnout (Neuro-Affirming Teacher Guide)
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Supporting autistic students experiencing OCD in a school setting
Updated October 2026. More pupils are living with OCD alongside being Autistic than most schools realise, and the support that works is rarely the standard behaviour plan. This guide is still my starting point for teachers; read it with Autism and OCD: what could help and, where burnout is part of the picture, the Autistic…
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Autism, OCD, Alexithymia & Interoception
Updated October 2026. Alexithymia and interoception are two of the least understood pieces of the autism and OCD picture, and I still get messages about this post every week. Since writing it I have explored the same territory through monotropism, which helps explain why anxious thoughts loop, and gathered the support side in Autism and…
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Education Crisis – Neurodiversity Affirming Teacher Training Needed
Language Identity First Language: In line with preferences from the Autistic community I will be using Identity First Language (ie. Autistic person, NOT person with Autism) Neurodiversity – This relates to the biological fact that human brains and minds differ from each other. Neurodiversity aligns with the idea that all children are unique and…
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Language matters, relationships are essential
It can be difficult and confusing to understand the language surrounding neurodiversity. It can be seen to be creating further divisions and potentially isolating some people by getting hung up on the specifics. I know I have my own anxiety about not using the ‘right’ language (despite writing this!). In response to my previous…
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‘Profound’ in relation to those with PMLD / PIMD
PIMD / PMLD The International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities – IASSIDD) supports individuals and their families who have profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD). They define this group of people by saying that ‘they are characterized by very severe cognitive, neuromotor and/or sensory…
