#hyperlexia

[chronic-melon]

Reblog if you understand that disability is not a monolith and two people with the same disability do not have identical experiences ✨

[kujokomi]

please stop associating the term neurodivergent with JUST autism and adhd. like please. there are so many ways to be neurodivergent and it’s not fair to assume that it’s just about autism adhd.

[0bscvr1ty]

Thinking about how, when I turned twelve, my parents sat me down for "the talk" and I said hastily, "I already know."

They got suspicious and a bit mad and asked how. I reminded them I was hyperlexic as a child and read thousand-page encyclopedia for fun.

I've known what sex is and how it works since I was seven.

[starfishinthedistance]

Shoutout to neurodivergents who were punished or marked down in assignments for using too complex language, and also shoutout to neurodivergents who were punished or marked down in assignments for using too simple language, and also shout out to neurodivergents who were punished for both of these depending on the most recent way they fucked up

[onetrackminded]

Autistics who were precocious, charismatic, articulate, and considered "wise beyond their years" as children are ultimately harmed by the constant praise they receive by adults for their supposed maturity

They're assumed to have the same emotional abilities as adults, and therefore are left to fend for themselves under the assumption that they aren't really a kid in need of caregiving and guidance

The child's ability to mimic adult mannerisms is put on display like a freak show but the praise is always conditional; as the child ages and begins to struggle more, all that praise turns into "wasted potential"

Just because a child has a large vocabulary and speaks like an adult doesn't change the fact they're still a fucking child, and an autistic child at that, who will often need more support and guidance than neurotypical children

[hamcheesesammich]

[squeakthefangirl]

alexithymia and hyperlexia combo is a bitch, like

hey sorry I can’t tell you what I’m actively feeling at the moment but ☝️ I could write you a multi-page poem describing it so we can both try to decipher it like the fucking Emotional Hardy Boys TM

[northstareclipse]

I'm so torn about the gifted label.

On the one hand, I think the name "gifted" in itself is too hierarchical both for my liking and for the phenomenon it describes to be taken as anything more than "people trying to be special". Like, with a name like "gifted", yeah, I see where people draw that conclusion.

On the other hand, the phenomenon the term describes is very much real. It's part of mine and many other peoples' lived experiences - a heightened inquisitiveness and awareness of/preference for complexity. Gifted/multi-exceptional spaces are some of the only in which I feel like my true experiences and needs are reflected and affirmed. If it's all just "privileged nonsense" (which it isn't - many people who have these traits are often underprivileged in many ways and will have a very different, usually negative experience with these traits as opposed to people who have the same traits but are better-off, better-liked, and tick fewer minority boxes), then all my feelings and needs and those of thousands of other people are, what, nothing? That is an incredibly ignorant stance, and if you hold it, I hope my words can make you reconsider.

I don't know what to do, who to listen to - I don't like being told "just listen to ur heart!!!" bc I doubt myself too much for that, it's not a matter of "just" doing anything. I have these experiences, I have these needs, and I'm tired of being given negative value judgments just for acknowledging them! More importantly, I'm tired of feeling like I'm alone in them. I don't want to feel like a "special exception", I want to hear that I'm not crazy, I want to see that the world has room for me in it.