Neurodistinct™

Normal to Asperger's What is Neurodiversity

Tim explains his concept of representing Neurodiversity as a cloud and how it work moving from normal to Asperger's. Tim questions where the point occurs that you suddenly change categories.

Sort of rough, but here is the Google automatic transcript of this video:

hi Tim gold senior here to talk to you
about my favorite topic which is
Asperger's and neuro diversity well as
you know me being an ass be have a
little bit of a concern and interest in
this whole ass burger thing and how it's
being dealt with in corporate America
today I wanted to talk to you a little
bit today about some ideas a hand here
so if you don't mind me checking my
notes once in a while to see if I can
keep myself on topic but what I wanted
to talk about was essentially this idea
of normal to assburgers and what is
neuro diversity a lot of people don't
have any idea what this whole concept of
neuro diversity actually is well nerd
adversity is the idea that our brains
and the way that they work and function
all are dependent upon how they're
shaped and how they grow and how they're
wired and the environments we grew up in
so that our brains very just as much as
the length of our fingers or how big our
nose is or well hope they get our ears
there how much our ears stick out all
those things we accept that they can
vary all over the place with different
people but for whatever reason we tend
to think that brains all work the same
and that if I think of something one way
you're going to take it a thing the
exact same way how many times have you
had a communication miscommunication
because the person on the other end did
not think and all the way that your
brain thought you thinking one thing and
they were thinking another thing and it
just was not a good scene of how it all
played out so the Hulk concept really of
neuro diversity is that we have this
whole range of different ways that the
brain can be structured and operate that
would all fit within what we would
consider normal for humans just as we
accept that somebody who can be
five foot tall can be a human we
accepted somebody six foot ten can be
human too so we have this great big
range and we're just accepting that the
person at six foot ten is going to have
a difficult time sometimes walking into
door frames on the other hand we accept
the person that five foot is going to
have a little bit of challenge every now
and then getting that luggage bag from
up over that top bin in the airplane so
we take Banyon's accommodation with no
problems whatsoever that physical
attributes can change and as those
physical attributes change that it also
causes us to have a different range of
capabilities and what you can expect us
to be able to do in a given situation
well in neuro diversity we're just
taking that exact same idea and we're
applying it to our brains now how our
heads work how they process how we think
so let me go into that just a little bit
more what the concept in neuro diversity
is is that as your brain is shaped and
worked and processes differently that
you're going to be interpreting and
interacting with the world differently
so i happen to have Asperger's which is
a condition that is often characterized
by poor social interaction oftentimes
poor communication so I'm kind of faking
you out right now a little bit that
those don't happen to be two of the
areas that I'm highly impacted in but it
also is characterized by things such as
speaking with no filter when the wrong
stuff comes out and guilty as charged on
that one it also characterized by things
such as in general higher IQs you'll
often see Asperger's and asperger type
traits associated with people in the
technical fields the engineers the
computer programmers the you know
spreadsheet wants in
onions department all those type of
people tend to have brains that are
oriented to left hands I thinking and as
a left lobe thinking person they tend to
be very illogical very analytical and
that can often be not just that the
person learned how to do that but what
if we think of it as the way that their
brain is formed and shaped and wired
that is what suits their abilities the
best be very interesting different way
to look at it we look at sports teams
that way and we accept that if you want
to say American football and you want
your defensive line those going to be
some pretty big guys in order to I get
through that offensive line on the other
side that's huge guys just trying to
stop you so we recognize that we're
trying to select four different ones as
these traits for different particular
applications and very much true when we
get to our heads by selecting using what
is it that the skill sets that this set
of brain arrangement gives you how can
we accommodate maybe the differences in
how you act and react so that we can
allow it to fit into our environment
while still getting all the best of that
inspiration and intelligence and insight
you have from your unique perspective
and somebody with a different processing
different why you're different working
brain while at the same time making it
that we can all get along happily and
communicate and recognize that hey you
know not all of us are seven feet tall
and I'm not the world's greatest person
to ask about getting something off the
top shelf I met 58 so let me move on
here to another little note that they
had and this is really I'm kind of how
my brain works and this gives you an
idea of what I'm talking about
neuro diversity so we're going to deal
with an interest and this happens to be
an interest that I got involved with in
the late 90s and what it was is using
computers to control and operate various
pieces of equipment with the goal to be
operating a bunch of little metal
working equipment so I'm looking to see
if I have any metalworking pieces around
here to hold up but got nothing right
immediately around me the idea that was
I got really just involved with it and
at that point it was just really moving
from being a industrial technology to
barely were it was starting to enter
into the oh I would say hobbyist to semi
engineer kind of level and most people
would get involved with a particular
interest or hobby and they would start
pursuing it and they do some things with
it and they might have somebody and some
people telling them that they're
obsessed with it because they want to go
golfing every weekend or something like
that and that's generally about as far
as it goes it doesn't change their
career path on arc and you know it
doesn't change their circle of friends
very much maybe you don't pick a friend
a drop off friend it doesn't involve a
golf but for the most part not a huge
impact in life just this interest that
does consume some money and time so I
got involved with CNC and this interest
became all-consuming which when you have
Asperger's that is very common for your
interests to become all-consuming it
becomes everything you want to do
everything you want to talk about
everything you want to be about becomes
that interest they say it's because it
makes the dopamine fire in our brains
and it's essentially like we're being on
drugs and jacked up and juiced up when
we
pursuing this exciting stuff so I don't
know if that's true or not true but it
certainly grabs my brain and gets me
excited when i get really wrapped up
into one of my special interest so to
bring a story to a quick conclusion my
special interest went on to the point
that i kept getting bigger and bigger
machines and decided finally that i
really wanted a full industrial C and C
which is computer numeric control
machine that is roughly the size of a
car and that spits metal out of it at a
rate you just wouldn't believe we're
talking big industrial production
equipment so I ended up because I have
Asperger's and this is my special
interest and I was into it on top of my
normal job in the computer industry I
started a company bought two pieces of
this kind of equipment and launched into
the manufacturing business knowing
nothing more than having run little tiny
hobbyist machines that ended up being
the kind of thing that I made parts for
in my manufacturing business so there's
a little example of the level of
obsessiveness that somebody with
Asperger's can possibly have and you can
see where that obsessiveness can be very
very useful if we were on a project team
together and you were needing somebody
to help push to come up with the ideas
and how we can make it happen you
probably want somebody like me on the
team on the other hand if you're the
kind of manager who likes things to just
kind of go smooth and nobody the
question status quo you probably don't
want me on the team because I'm the kind
of guy that is likely to say why are we
still doing that stupid stuff that
everybody just takes when they get on
their desk and throw it out anyways so
that's one of the advantages that you
have from neuro diversity is you have
another way to look at things well let
me move into another little plane here
and this has to deal with
we're dealing with neuro diversity we're
dealing with a number of different
syndromes and primarily we're dealing
with one myth referred to as the autism
spectrum disorder so in asd autism
spectrum disorders and it's considered a
continuum so on this continuum we have
at one end we have somebody who is quite
high functioning and at the other end we
have somebody who is low functioning and
by high functioning and low functioning
we're talking about how well can they
integrate into society and act
independently so somebody on the high
functioning end it can be quite
independent on their own and probably is
the type of people you're already
working with you're working around it
could be your boss it could be the
helpdesk person it could be the engineer
you deal with it could be some any
accounting department where are those
people that manage to sneak in because
we do have enough social and interaction
skills to allow us to work in the normal
workplace but we do bring some of those
special traits with us that gives us
just strength and makes us perform super
well in those particular kinds of roles
but oftentimes we're also a little bit
of problem children we don't know when
to shut up we don't know when to keep
our tongues bit tight between our teeth
and not let some of those words come
hang out we have a number of issues that
fall around that area but point being is
your offer around these kinds of people
all the time already but the thing is
you're not recognizing what it is that
makes the person act the way they do and
because nobody has made you familiar
with the different idea of neuro
diversity and how it really works and
functions and fits together into the
whole workplace in life then you're not
recognizing that that person likely will
you could enter gauge and converse much
better with them if you were to
understand a little bit more of what
their mental environment really looks
like and conversely if they can
understand somewhat your mental
environment looks like then they'll be
able to converse back much better also
one of the things that really just kind
of drives me crazy and this this whole
idea is we have the autism spectrum
which goes from you know they said you
know a high functioning royal
functioning and a whole range in between
and that is very much the largest
contingent of what we talk about when we
talk about neuro diversity but there's
also a number of other conditions and
syndromes that would fall underneath the
umbrella of being neuro-diverse and that
would include things like ADHD OCD
Tourette's syndrome quite a range of
different conditions that are caused by
neurological structures of processing
that would make you act or react or
process or interact differently than
what we would consider that baseline
normal person then never really quite
fit for me that you have this one
spectrum for things but then you have a
bunch of these other pieces that can
sometimes fit in and we call over that
girl diversity so what finally dawned on
me is I think neuro diversity is not a
spectrum like that I think we're looking
at it wrong to me it works more as this
big fluffy cloud and it's like this big
fluffy cloud there's all these different
characteristics and traits that you
would associate with just normal people
so let me show you an example and we'll
go through the example a little bit and
i'll try to explain what i'm thinking as
far as being a cloud a different way to
look at it
so the way we look at it right now we
have that one line which would be
Asperger's all the way down to you know
the highly non functional and of autism
and then we had these other traits I
think the way it fits a lot better is if
you take and look at it from the
standpoint of looking at all these
different words together and what these
words are are these are just different
personality attributes and when you look
at just what we're going to call a
normal person so neurotypical which is
kind of an interesting phrase because it
doesn't point to anything specific it's
really saying that people that have
these range of traits are what we
generally consider to be normal and when
you look through them they do have a
variety in their traits first off they
have lots and lots of different traits
at different levels oftentimes there's
lots of little ones that can be called
upon that trait as they need it but they
also have other trades which are bigger
and they are more large part of who they
are and their personality for instance
in this example we're looking at now
this particular person is reliable they
are sociable and appreciative those look
like some of the biggest traits they're
agreeable and as you can see the traits
go down to smaller and smaller not that
they don't have them but that they're
not as predominate in their personality
so to me the way we have to look at this
is neuro diversity is merely how all
those traits are arranged how many
different traits are present and how big
and prevalent which traits are compared
to other traits so let's take a look at
the opposite end because it's real easy
to designate one end and the opposite
point the hard part is one
to somebody go from being neurotypical
or normal to suddenly being oh my gosh
they're girl diverse and they have ass
burgers well medically we have cut off
points we use but realistically I just
don't think they set and we'll show you
why I believe that so we've already gone
over the end point for a neurotypical
person as we saw lots of different small
traits in there along with in to varying
degrees larger and larger traits that
are more predominant pieces their
personality but overall very
well-balanced personality the traits are
all nice social traits they'd be a nice
person to be around they're smart
they're tough and a little timid the
reliable the pretty sociable oh don't
really nice person now let's go to the
opposite end and we're going to take
somebody who I'm going to say is heavy
on the asperger scale and very brilliant
and very obsessed and when we look at it
just looking at the picture that what
you can see is first off there's a lot
less range in the trade that are even
present so this person just doesn't have
those set of tools in their toolbox to
be able to handle all the situations
that the girl typical person had the
other thing you can see is this person's
personality is highly skewed towards
some specific traits which are very very
dominant and they're ones that we would
consider both the negatives and the
positives of having Asperger's so we
have in the negative flight on sociable
obsessive well excessive can be good if
you're trying to get something done
brilliant obviously good moody well not
so good at one rigid definitely a
description that said somebody who tends
to be on the asperger scale so you can
see in this what we're dealing with is
over the balance has shifted there's
less
skills the draw from and there's more
specific skills that are the predominant
aspects of the personality that comes
through now will be the picture of
somebody in the middle and at this point
what do you say do they have the
condition or do not have a condition you
know that you're starting to see here
there's the narrowing down there's a
little bit less of the whole range of
skills and there's a little bit more of
particular skills becoming a larger
piece of the personality but at this
point it's not so over the top that you
would say hey that person is a little
strange and a little weird this is what
I personally refer to as having ass
burger or neuro-diverse type traits and
it shows where the difficulty becomes at
what point if we just continue when you
think through we were start taking from
here and start taking away traits and
cranking up a few other ones at what
point do they go from just being a very
driven neurotypical to being somebody
with Asperger's hmm i think this
presents a completely different way to
look at the ats burgers spectrum and to
look at neuro diversity and to recognize
that neuro diversity is really just this
entire whole range when we deal with it
of going through from the neurotypical
to the person in the middle to the heavy
Asperger person and all of that is neuro
diversity at each piece they can bring
something unique a completely different
way to look at the world in a different
way to process it and think about it and
by using those best ideas the best
thoughts that we have of the most
brilliant minds and combining it along
with the best thoughts and practices and
abilities of the rest of the minds we
can get this phenomena
strength that allows us to come together
and support each other where were weak
but depend on each other where we have
these strengths that can just hold up
for each other so what can we do how can
we make this thing work well first
you've just got to recognize that the
mental toolkit that makes us better at
different things makes us worse at other
things and you may have a toolkit that's
just phenomenal at producing error-free
work this is you have a great skill at
that well I'm not so great on that skill
so if we were to work together we'd be
much better off and then if I try to get
better at doing what I do poorly and you
try to get better at what I do good but
you do poorly so just recognize the
toolkits change so that means the skills
change another thing is except that
these different tool kits make us
capable and incapable of different
things so this is even a step further
that they become a complete process it's
much like when you take and put
something into the computer different
programs can do different things with
different inputs but if you take the
same input and put it into multiple
programs you're going to get a variety
of different outputs and again that's
the different brains we have except
everybody different tool kit different
outlook different processing matter of
fact even when you speak to them the
words will have different meanings as it
comes to them so accept that and accept
in neuro diversity you're going to run
into a lot of people who are very very
literal so take them for what they say
don't add to it and lastly learn to stay
I understand that everybody's abilities
very
while I happen to be able to communicate
fairly well which was you know directly
to you looking right at you a lot of
people that have Asperger's can't do
that maybe they're much better if you
give them the opportunity to respond
back in writing so don't force a person
to have to work in a mode that is not
suited to them if you can give them some
kind of alternative so in my realm where
I've worked quite a bit as a developer
in the DI in database market we often to
stand up and in stand ups every morning
the developers get together and have to
real-time stand up and converse back and
forth with each other on what's supposed
to be just three questions but if that's
an area you have difficulty you have a
challenge with then that standing up in
the morning is going to do you motivate
you it's going to make you an employee
that's frustrated you're going to be
angry because you're being forced to do
something that you're not comfortable
doing so how hard is it to adopt for
that person to give them the ability to
maybe type up their notes and send an
email to the scrum master ahead of time
let them read the notes for them or use
one of the products that are designed to
enable you know dispersed work groups to
work together and to have scrums
together or stand up together and use
those tools even though your local one
of the wonderful ones out there is a hip
chat which I by a lassie and software
and very nice product and get some very
interesting approaches of how you can
use these kinds of software's to
overcome some of the issues by treating
the person in a way that gives them the
environment they work in best but in the
way that works best for everybody so
maybe they work best as a remote tape
and play but they can pick up a lot of
knowledge by being around the office so
let them be remote while they're in the
office so that they can accommodate
where they have troubles but you can get
the best of their
strength well that's not all I got to
tell you is to tell you today I kind of
went on probably longer than I really
thought I was going to but really wanted
to get into this whole concept of the
neuro diversity is really more this idea
of a cloud with all these different
traits in here and some of the traits
are bigger and some of the traits are
smaller and some of the traits are real
tiny and some people are lots and lots
of little traits and some people have
very few just big trades and that really
is probably a great model of neuro
diversity to have in your mind so Tim
goals name your neuro diversity
communication expert I sure hope this
helped you and if you want to know more
please just come to my website Tim Gulf
name.com and you can get some extra
information there reach out and contact
me love to hear from you thank you very
much by now