Reference Guide
A plain-language, affirming glossary of neurodivergent words and ideas, from AAC to working memory. Clear definitions you can trust and share.
Have questions about your own neurodivergence? We are here to talk.
Book a Free ConsultationLanguage around neurodivergence has grown quickly, and not all of it is easy to find clearly explained. This glossary gathers the words and ideas you are most likely to come across, defined in plain, affirming language. It is meant for neurodivergent adults, their partners and families, and anyone who wants to understand the terms without wading through clinical jargon.
AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication)
Tools and methods, from picture boards to text-to-speech apps, that support or replace speech. Communication is communication, whatever form it takes.
ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis)Debated
A therapy that uses rewards to shape behavior, widely used with autistic children. Many autistic adults and advocates criticize traditional ABA for prioritizing compliance and discouraging natural traits like stimming; supporters point to newer, gentler approaches. A genuinely debated topic.
Ableism
Discrimination or prejudice against disabled and neurodivergent people, often built into everyday assumptions about what counts as normal. Internalized ableism is when a person absorbs those messages and turns them on themselves.
Accommodations
Adjustments that remove barriers so a neurodivergent person can take part fully, such as flexible deadlines, written instructions, or sensory adjustments. Support, not special treatment.
ADHD
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, a neurodevelopmental difference involving attention regulation, impulsivity, and activity level. Many ADHD adults describe it as a difference in how attention and motivation work, not a shortage of either. Learn more about ADHD-affirming therapy.
ADHD presentations
The three recognized patterns of ADHD: predominantly inattentive, predominantly hyperactive-impulsive, and combined. The older label ADD usually maps to the inattentive presentation.
ADHD tax
The extra money and time lost to ADHD-related challenges, such as late fees, missed returns, duplicate purchases, or forgotten subscriptions. Named with rueful humor by the community.
Alexithymia
Difficulty identifying and describing your own emotions. Common among autistic and ADHD adults; the feelings are present, but naming them is harder.
Allistic
A person who is not autistic. Useful when neurotypical is too broad, since someone can be allistic and still be neurodivergent in another way, such as having ADHD.
Anhedonia
A reduced ability to feel pleasure or interest. It can appear in depression and overlaps with autistic burnout and shutdown, where the capacity for joy temporarily narrows.
Aphantasia
Having little or no ability to picture images in your mind. A natural variation in how people think, and one that often goes unnoticed for years.
Apraxia (Childhood Apraxia of Speech)
A motor-based difference that makes it hard to coordinate the movements of speech, even when a person knows exactly what they want to say. Often supported with AAC.
Asperger's syndromeOlder term
A former diagnosis for autistic people without language or intellectual delay, folded into the single autism diagnosis in 2013. Some still identify with the word Aspie; others avoid it, partly due to the troubling history of its namesake.
AuDHD
A common shorthand for being both autistic and ADHD. The two can pull in opposite directions, which shapes a distinct experience all its own.
Auditory processing
How the mind makes sense of sound and speech. When auditory processing differs, spoken words can take longer to land, especially in noisy settings, even when hearing itself is fine.
Autistic / Autism
A neurodevelopmental difference in how a person processes information, senses the world, communicates, and connects. Affirming language treats it as a different way of being, not a disorder to be fixed. Learn more about therapy for autistic adults.
Autistic burnout
A state of deep exhaustion, reduced capacity, and heightened sensitivity that follows prolonged masking, overload, or unmet needs. Distinct from ordinary burnout and from depression.
Autistic inertia
Difficulty starting, stopping, or switching activities. Once in motion or at rest, changing states can take real effort, separate from how much a person wants to.
Autistic joy
The deep, whole-body delight many autistic people feel in a special interest, a sensory pleasure, or a moment of flow. A real and central part of autistic life, not a side note.
BFRBs
Body-focused repetitive behaviors, such as hair-pulling or skin-picking. They often serve a regulating function and are best understood as nervous-system responses, not bad habits.
Body doubling
Working alongside another person, in the room or on a video call, to make a task easier to begin and stay with. A common and effective ADHD strategy.
Bottom-up processing
Taking in details first and building toward the bigger picture, a thinking pattern common in autistic minds.
Camouflaging
Another word for masking: covering or compensating for neurodivergent traits to fit in. The two are often used interchangeably, with camouflaging stressing the effortful, strategic side.
Catatonia (autistic catatonia)
A state involving marked slowing, difficulty initiating movement, or becoming stuck, which can emerge in autistic people, often under high stress. It is treatable and deserves prompt, knowledgeable support.
Code-switching
Shifting how you speak, move, or present depending on the setting. Closely related to masking, and often tiring to keep up.
Cognitive load
The total mental effort a situation demands. Sensory input, social processing, and masking all add to it, which is why neurodivergent people can tire in settings others find easy.
Complex PTSD (cPTSD)
A response to prolonged or repeated relational trauma, affecting emotion, self-worth, and connection. It overlaps with, and is often mistaken for, neurodivergent traits.
Co-occurring
Describes two or more conditions that appear together in the same person, such as autism and anxiety. The affirming alternative to older, disease-framed clinical language.
Co-regulation
Settling your nervous system with the help of another regulated person. It is a foundation that later supports self-regulation.
Demand avoidance
A strong nervous-system resistance to demands, even ones a person genuinely wants to meet. Central to the PDA profile.
Diagnostic overshadowing
When a person's difficulties get attributed to one condition or label, so other needs go unnoticed. A common reason autism and ADHD are missed for years.
Disability pride
Holding your neurodivergence or disability as a valued part of who you are, rather than something to hide or apologize for.
Disclosure
Choosing whether, when, and how to tell others you are neurodivergent. A personal decision with real trade-offs, and always yours to make.
Dissociation
A protective disconnection from thoughts, feelings, body, or surroundings under stress. It can overlap with shutdown and is common after trauma.
Dopamine seeking
Reaching for novelty, interest, or stimulation in order to feel engaged. A common ADHD pattern, often misread as impulsiveness rather than a real difference in motivation.
Double empathy problem
The idea that misunderstandings between autistic and non-autistic people run both ways, a mutual gap rather than a one-sided deficit on the autistic side.
Dual diagnosis
Having two conditions identified at once, such as autism and ADHD. The affirming framing sees them as co-occurring rather than competing.
Dysautonomia
A difference in how the body's automatic functions, like heart rate and temperature, are regulated. It co-occurs with autism more often than once thought; POTS is one common form.
Dyscalculia
A specific learning difference affecting numbers and mathematics.
Dysgraphia
A specific learning difference affecting writing, from forming letters to organizing thoughts on the page. It sits alongside dyslexia and dyscalculia.
Dyslexia
A specific learning difference affecting reading and language processing.
Dyspraxia
A difference affecting motor coordination and the planning of movement. Also called developmental coordination disorder.
Echolalia
Repeating words, phrases, or sounds, sometimes right away and sometimes later. It can be communicative, regulating, or simply joyful.
Echopraxia
Mirroring another person's movements, sometimes without meaning to. A movement counterpart to echolalia.
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS)
A group of connective-tissue differences affecting joints, skin, and more, often with hypermobility, fatigue, and pain. It co-occurs with autism and ADHD more often than chance would predict.
Emotional dysregulation
Difficulty bringing big feelings back to a manageable level. Common in ADHD and autism, and not a lack of effort or maturity.
Emotional permanence
Holding on to the felt sense that someone still cares, or that a feeling will pass, even when they are not in front of you. It can waver in ADHD, much like object permanence.
Empathy (cognitive and affective)
Cognitive empathy is reading what someone else feels; affective empathy is feeling it with them. Many autistic people have deep affective empathy even when reading cues is harder, which is why the low-empathy stereotype is misleading.
Energy accounting
A way of tracking how much energy different activities take and give back, so you can plan around your real capacity. A practical cousin of spoon theory.
Executive dysfunction
When executive function processes such as planning, starting tasks, and organizing are harder to access. The intention is there; the bridge to action is not.
Executive function
The set of mental processes that handle planning, starting tasks, organizing, and switching between activities. It often works differently in ADHD and autism.
Eye contact
Direct eye contact can feel intense or uncomfortable for many autistic people, and looking away often helps them listen better, not less. Avoiding it is not rudeness or dishonesty.
Fawn response
A stress response of appeasing or people-pleasing to stay safe, alongside the better-known fight, flight, and freeze. It overlaps heavily with masking.
Flat affect
Showing less outward expression in face or voice than others expect. It does not mean a person feels less; the feeling and its outward show can simply be uncoupled.
Flow state
A state of deep, absorbed engagement in an activity. Many neurodivergent people reach it most easily through a special interest, where focus comes naturally.
Functioning labelsDebated
Terms like high-functioning or low-functioning. Many neurodivergent people reject them because they erase real needs and real abilities at once. Support needs is the affirming alternative.
Gestalt language processing
Learning language in chunks or whole phrases first, then breaking them down, rather than building word by word.
Giftedness
Marked ability or intensity in one or more areas. It can co-occur with neurodivergence, sometimes hiding it, in what is called twice-exceptional.
Glimmers
Small moments that bring a feeling of safety, calm, or delight. The gentle opposite of triggers, and worth noticing and collecting.
Hyperarousal and hypoarousal
Being above your window of tolerance, keyed up and on alert (hyper), or below it, shut down and flat (hypo). Both are the nervous system trying to cope.
Hyperempathy
Feeling others' emotions very intensely, sometimes to the point of overwhelm. Common among neurodivergent people, and the opposite of the low-empathy stereotype.
Hyperfixation
An intense, often temporary absorption in a topic, activity, or person, common in ADHD. Distinct from an autistic special interest, which tends to be more enduring.
Hyperfocus
A state of intense, absorbed concentration on something engaging, common in ADHD and autism. A real strength, and at times hard to interrupt.
Hyperlexia
Reading words early or with unusual fluency, sometimes ahead of full comprehension. Often seen in autistic children and adults.
Hypermobility
Joints that move beyond the usual range. It co-occurs with autism and ADHD at higher rates, and can bring fatigue and pain.
Hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity
Being more sensitive (hyper) or less sensitive (hypo) to sensory input than is typical. A person can be both, in different senses and at different times.
Hypervigilance
Being constantly on alert for danger, scanning for threat even when safe. Common after trauma, tiring to carry, and closely linked to hyperarousal.
Identity-first language
Saying autistic person rather than person with autism. Preferred by many in the community because it treats neurodivergence as part of who someone is, not an accessory.
Infodumping
Sharing a large amount of information about a topic you love, often as a genuine expression of connection and care.
Intellectual disability
A difference in intellectual functioning and everyday adaptive skills that begins in childhood. It can co-occur with autism, though the two are distinct.
Intense world theoryDebated
A theory that autistic experience involves heightened sensitivity and intensity rather than a lack of feeling or awareness. It reframes overwhelm as too much, not too little.
Interdependence
The affirming idea that needing and giving support is part of being human, in place of prizing independence above all. Needing help is not a failing.
Interest-based nervous system
A community way of describing ADHD motivation: attention and energy come most readily for what is interesting, novel, challenging, or urgent, rather than simply important. Not a matter of willpower.
Interoception
The sense of your internal body state: hunger, thirst, temperature, and the early signals of emotion. It often works differently for neurodivergent people.
Justice sensitivity
A strong, sometimes intense response to unfairness, whether it affects you or someone else. Common among neurodivergent people and rooted in a deep sense of fairness.
Late-identified
Recognizing your neurodivergence in adulthood rather than childhood. It often brings a mix of relief, grief, and a reorganizing of self-understanding. Also called late-diagnosed.
Levels (autism support levels)Debated
A clinical system describing how much support an autistic person needs, from level 1 to level 3. Many find support needs more accurate, since needs shift with context.
Literal thinking
Interpreting language at face value, taking words to mean just what they say. A common autistic trait that can make sarcasm, hints, and figures of speech harder to read.
Lived experience
The knowledge a person gains from living something firsthand, valued as real expertise. Affirming care treats it as essential, not secondary to professional opinion.
Low-demand
An approach that lowers pressure and demands to help a nervous system settle, often used with the PDA profile. Less about doing nothing and more about reducing the load to what is workable.
Masking
Hiding neurodivergent traits, knowingly or not, to appear more neurotypical. It can be protective in some settings and deeply tiring over time.
Medical model of disability
The view that disability lives in the individual as a problem to be fixed. Contrast with the social model, which locates much of the difficulty in the barriers around a person.
Meltdown
An intense response to overwhelm in which a person temporarily loses the capacity to regulate. It is involuntary, not a choice and not a behavior problem.
Misophonia
A strong aversion to specific sounds, such as chewing or tapping, that can bring on distress or anger. A real sensory response, not impatience.
Mixed-neurotype
Describes a relationship or group where people have different neurotypes, such as an autistic and a non-autistic partner. The affirming alternative to treating one person as the standard.
Monotropism
A theory that autistic attention tends to flow deeply into a few interests at a time rather than spreading across many. It helps explain focus, flow, and the difficulty of switching tasks.
Neuroception
The nervous system's automatic read of whether a situation is safe or threatening, below conscious thought. A term from polyvagal theory.
Neurodivergence
The state or quality of being neurodivergent.
Neurodivergent
Having a mind that works differently from what is treated as typical, including autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and more. The term was coined within the community.
Neurodivergent-affirming
An approach that treats neurodivergence as a difference to understand and support, not a defect to correct. It shapes how care is offered, from language to pacing to goals.
Neurodiversity
The natural variation in human minds across a whole population. A fact about people, not a goal to reach.
Neurodiversity movement
The social movement holding that neurological differences are natural human variation deserving acceptance and rights, rather than disorders to erase. The related neurodiversity paradigm is the worldview beneath it.
Neurominority
A group sharing a neurodivergent way of being, understood much like other minorities, with shared experience and a claim to rights and respect.
Neuronormativity
The assumption that neurotypical ways of thinking, communicating, and behaving are the default and the ideal. Naming it helps reveal hidden bias.
Neuroqueer
Embracing and expressing your neurodivergence freely, and questioning the norms that say minds and bodies must work one certain way. Both an identity and a practice.
Neurotype
A person's particular kind of mind, such as autistic, ADHD, or neurotypical.
Neurotypical
A person whose neurology falls within what society treats as typical.
Nonspeaking
Communicating without spoken words, all or some of the time. Many nonspeaking people communicate richly through AAC, text, or other means. Preferred over the older term nonverbal.
"Nothing about us without us"
A disability-rights principle that decisions and policies affecting disabled and neurodivergent people should be made with them, not for them. A cornerstone of self-advocacy.
Object permanence (in ADHD)
The everyday sense that things out of sight can slip out of mind, from people to unpaid bills. A common ADHD experience, used loosely rather than in its strict developmental meaning.
Overstimulation
When sensory or social input exceeds what your nervous system can comfortably handle, moving toward overwhelm, meltdown, or shutdown. Also called sensory overload.
Parallel presence
Being comfortably together while doing separate things. For many neurodivergent people, it is a real and valued form of closeness.
Pathologizing
Framing an ordinary difference as a disorder or defect. Affirming care works to undo this where it has crept in.
Pattern recognition
Noticing patterns, details, and inconsistencies that others miss. A common neurodivergent strength, sometimes experienced as knowing something before you can explain why.
PDA
Persistent Drive for Autonomy, also known as Pathological Demand Avoidance. A profile marked by a strong need for autonomy and a powerful resistance to demands.
Penguin pebbling
Showing love by sharing small things you find meaningful, like a link, a snack, or an interesting fact. A warm, common neurodivergent way of saying I am thinking of you.
Perseveration
Getting stuck on a thought, phrase, or action and returning to it repeatedly. It can be soothing or distressing depending on the moment.
Person-first language
Saying person with autism. Preferred by some people, though many autistic adults choose identity-first language instead. Respecting each person's own preference matters most.
Polyvagal theory
A framework describing how the nervous system shifts between states of safety, alertness, and shutdown. It helps explain regulation, co-regulation, and overwhelm.
Presuming competence
Assuming a person can understand, think, and have something worth saying, even when they cannot show it in expected ways. A foundation of respectful, affirming support.
Processing time
The time a person needs to take in information and respond. Needing more of it is about how processing works, not about ability or interest.
Profound autismDebated
A newer term proposed for autistic people with high support needs, often nonspeaking or with co-occurring intellectual disability. Some find it clarifying for planning support; many worry it revives functioning-label thinking.
Proprioception
The sense of where your body is in space. Differences here can affect coordination and the urge to move.
Prosopagnosia (face blindness)
Difficulty recognizing faces, even familiar ones. It co-occurs with autism, and leaning on voice, hair, or context is a common workaround.
Regulation and dysregulation
Regulation is keeping your nervous system within a manageable range; dysregulation is when it tips outside that range. Neither is a moral state.
Restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs)
A clinical category covering repeated movements, routines, and intense interests. The community often reframes these warmly as stimming, special interests, and a need for sameness.
RSD
Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, an intense emotional response to perceived rejection or criticism. Common in ADHD.
Rumination
Looping over the same worry or memory without resolution. Common with anxiety and ADHD, and different from helpful reflection.
Sameness
A preference for the familiar and predictable, which can be deeply settling for the nervous system. Changes to routine can feel disproportionately hard, and that is real, not stubbornness.
Savant syndrome
A rare profile in which a person has an exceptional, specific skill alongside disability. Despite the movie stereotype, most autistic people are not savants, and the idea can set unfair expectations.
Scaffolding
Temporary support that helps a person do something until it becomes easier, then eases off. A core idea in affirming, strengths-based help.
Scripting
Using prepared or familiar phrases to navigate interactions. A useful tool, not a failure of spontaneity.
Selective mutism
An anxiety-based difficulty speaking in certain settings despite being able to speak in others. Sometimes called situational mutism. Not a refusal or a choice.
Self-advocacy
Speaking up for your own needs, rights, and access, and being recognized as the expert on your own life. A central value in the neurodiversity movement, and the phrase at the heart of ASAN's name.
Self-identification
Recognizing yourself as neurodivergent without a formal assessment. Widely respected in the community, especially given the real barriers to diagnosis.
Self-regulation
Managing your own emotional and sensory state to stay within a workable range. It usually grows out of earlier co-regulation with safe others.
Sensory diet
A planned mix of sensory input across the day, such as movement, deep pressure, or calm, that helps keep a nervous system regulated. Here, diet means a balanced intake, not food.
Sensory needs
The sensory conditions that help a person feel regulated, and the inputs that overwhelm them. Needs, not issues.
Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)
A condition in which the nervous system has ongoing difficulty taking in and responding to sensory input. It can stand alone or co-occur with autism and ADHD.
Sensory seeking and sensory avoiding
Reaching for more of a sensory input, such as movement or deep pressure, or steering away from it. Most people do some of both, and neurodivergent profiles can lean strongly either way.
Shutdown
A response to overwhelm in which a person withdraws, goes still, or loses access to speech. The inward counterpart to a meltdown.
Sluggish cognitive tempo (Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome)Older term
A pattern of dreaminess, slow processing, and drifting attention, now more often called Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome. It overlaps with, but differs from, ADHD.
Social battery
The limited amount of social energy a person has before needing to recharge. For many neurodivergent people, it drains faster and refills with solitude.
Social model of disability
The view that people are disabled as much by the barriers and attitudes around them as by their own differences. It shifts the question from fix the person to remove the barrier.
Special interest
A deep, sustained interest in a topic that brings focus, joy, and genuine expertise. A defining strength for many autistic people.
Spiky profile
A pattern of uneven abilities, strong in some areas and genuinely harder in others. Common across neurodivergence.
Splinter skills
Areas of marked strength that stand out from a person's other abilities. Part of why neurodivergent profiles are often spiky.
Spoonie
A self-chosen label for someone living with limited daily energy from disability or chronic illness, drawn from spoon theory. More a marker of shared community than a diagnosis.
Spoon theory
A metaphor that uses spoons to describe a limited daily supply of energy. Running low on spoons means capacity is nearly spent.
Stimming
Self-stimulating behavior such as rocking, hand movements, or repeating sounds. It regulates the nervous system and expresses feeling. Healthy, and worth protecting.
Strengths-based
An approach that builds on what a person can do and cares about, rather than centering deficits. It shapes affirming therapy, education, and support.
Support needs
An affirming way to describe how much and what kind of support a person needs, replacing functioning labels. It can vary by day and by setting.
Synesthesia
A blending of senses, such as seeing colors when hearing music or linking letters with colors. More common among neurodivergent people.
Task paralysis
Feeling frozen and unable to begin, even with something you want to do. Often tied to executive function and overwhelm rather than laziness.
Theory of mindDebated
The idea of understanding others' thoughts and feelings. Older accounts claimed autistic people lack it, but the double empathy problem reframes this as a two-way difference, not a one-sided deficit.
Tics and Tourette syndrome
Tics are sudden, repeated movements or sounds. Tourette syndrome involves multiple motor and vocal tics. They are involuntary, and they can co-occur with autism and ADHD.
Time blindness
Difficulty sensing the passage of time or estimating how long things take. Common in ADHD, and not the same as carelessness.
Transitions
The shifts between activities, settings, or states. Many autistic and ADHD people find transitions genuinely hard, which connects to autistic inertia and the need for sameness.
Trauma-informed
An approach that assumes trauma may be part of someone's history and works to stay safe, predictable, and free of re-harm. Increasingly paired with neurodivergent-affirming care.
Twice-exceptional (2e)
Being both gifted and neurodivergent or disabled. The two can mask each other, so both are often missed.
Understimulation
When there is too little input to stay engaged, leading to restlessness or boredom. Common in ADHD, and a real driver of seeking stimulation.
Unmasking
The gradual process of releasing the mask and letting your authentic neurodivergent self show. Often freeing, and often tender work.
Vestibular sense
The sense of balance and movement, centered in the inner ear. Differences here can shape coordination and the craving for or avoidance of motion.
Waiting mode
The ADHD experience of being unable to settle into anything when something is scheduled later in the day. The whole day can feel held hostage by a single appointment.
Wall of awful
A term for the emotional barrier that builds in front of an avoided task, made of past frustration and shame. The wall, more than the task itself, is often the real obstacle.
Weak central coherenceOlder term
An older theory that autistic thinking favors details over the big picture. Many now reframe it as a strength in noticing what others overlook, rather than a weakness.
Window of tolerance
The zone in which your nervous system can handle stress and stay regulated. Outside it, you tip into overwhelm or shutdown. The window can be widened with support.
Working memory
The mental space that holds information while you use it, like keeping the steps in mind while you follow them. Often more limited in ADHD.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does neurodivergent mean?
Neurodivergent means having a mind that works differently from what is treated as typical. It is an umbrella that includes autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and more, and the term was coined within the community.
What is the difference between neurodivergent and neurotypical?
Neurotypical describes a person whose neurology falls within what society treats as typical. Neurodivergent describes a mind that works differently from that, such as an autistic or ADHD mind.
Is it better to say autistic person or person with autism?
Many autistic adults prefer identity-first language, autistic person, because it treats neurodivergence as part of who they are. Some prefer person-first language. The most respectful approach is to follow each person's own preference.
What does AuDHD mean?
AuDHD is shorthand for being both autistic and ADHD. The two profiles can pull in opposite directions, which creates a distinct experience.
What is the difference between a meltdown and a shutdown?
Both are responses to overwhelm. A meltdown turns outward, with a temporary loss of regulation, while a shutdown turns inward, with withdrawal, stillness, or loss of speech. Neither is a choice.
What does masking mean?
Masking is hiding neurodivergent traits, knowingly or not, to appear more neurotypical. It can be protective in some settings and exhausting over time. Unmasking is the gradual process of letting it go.
What is stimming?
Stimming is self-stimulating behavior such as rocking, hand movements, or repeating sounds. It regulates the nervous system and expresses feeling, and it is healthy and worth protecting.
Why does affirming language matter?
The words we use shape how people see themselves. Affirming language frames neurodivergence as a difference to understand rather than a defect to fix, which supports self-respect and better care.
Understanding the words is a good place to start.
If you are exploring your own neurodivergence, or want care that speaks this language fluently, Sagebrush Counseling offers ND-affirming virtual therapy for adults and couples across Texas, Maine, New Hampshire, and Montana.
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