Neurodiversity: A Behavior Analyst’s Perspective

A neurodiversity movement (NDM) has gained momentum, mainly driven by autistic self-advocates. The main argument of the NDM is that neurodivergent people experience discrimination that is on par with the historical discrimination of other minority groups. In this article, we propose a behavior analyst's perspective on the NDM. We first explore the history and emergence of the concept of neurodiversity and its neurological as well as psychological basis. We consider its potential for generating what some consider a zero-sum game, in which one group makes all the gains potentially at the expense of another group. We finish with the suggestion that a win-win situation is possible if the focus shifts proactively to advocacy for all persons with autism, including those with very high support needs who often are not able to advocate actively for themselves and who tend to benefit greatly from evidence-based behavior-analytic interventions.