autism culture is i have dyscalculia and hyperlexia so i can spell anything im a spelling superhero but i just pulled out my phone calculator to do 25 minus 9 because i tried multiple times and couldnt get the same answer

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fuck it. shout out to "high functioning" neurodivergents

the ones who can mask easily, the ones who can get social cues, the ones who have managed to go most of their life not even knowing they were ND because they didn't present as the stereotypical ND person.

the ones who can pay attention in class, understand social etiquette, who understand societial expectations

the ones who don't feel neurodivergent enough bc they don't struggle in the same ways/areas a lot of NDs do, or they can't relate to other NDs' experiences because they always understood these things easily

the ones with high empathy, the ones who DO get the joke, the ones who are constantly told that they can't possibly be neurodivergent because they don't act like what you'd expect a neurodivergent person to act like.

you are neurodivergent enough. you are valid, and so are your experiences. not struggling as much as others do in some places doesn't mean you dont struggle at all. your condition and diagnosis is valid. your symptoms are valid. YOU ARE VALID. not checking all the supposed boxes doesn't mean you aren't neurodivergent. you are enough. you are valid. you are loved. you are valued. you matter. you belong in neurodivergent spaces, you deserve to use whatever resources are available to you, you are allowed to take up space in these communities. and i am so, so proud of you.

feel free to, and actually, i encourage you to reblog this with your experiences. we belong in this community as much as anyone else. please also tag this w/ any neurodivergent conditions i may have forgotten 💙

since this is getting lots of notes I'd like to add, even if you're undiagnosed or maybe self diagnosed, for whatever reason, (i.e. can't get access to a diagnosis, not being taken seriously, or just not wanting an official diagnosis, etc.) this still applies to you. actually especially to you folks. don't think for a second you're not valid just bc you don't have the paperwork or whatever to say it

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

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.

Common Autistic Strengths

Excellent memory skills

Can teach self difficult skills, like how things work

May have extensive knowledge in certain topics

Hyperlexia: may read words at a younger age

May excel in music, art, science, math, computer

Can hyperfocus on areas of interests

May know letters, numbers, shapes, and colors early

Mrs Speechie Pi

i am convinced that "eccentric" is just the pre-discovery-of-neurodiversity word for neurodivergent. yeah hes "eccentric" oh you just mean he has autism. that's why he's weird bro. he just has adhd. anyway in other news i think i might be eccentric?

the dyscalculia and hyperlexia combination goes crazy honestly. learning disability? yeah, dis ability to read 😎😎😎😎😎 also i cannot do basic multiplication

I love how I implied in my last post that reading the Swedish dictionary is a treat, like, unironically.

Allistic people are like "reading the dictionary is a punishment".

No. Dictionaries are great. The regular one is amazing. The synonyms one is fabulous. Foreign language dictionaries are stupendous.

I'm telling you, reading the dictionary is a treat. Stop using it as a threat.

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dyscalculia and hyperlexia culture is getting diagnosed late bc everyone always held all ur other skills to ur reading/english skills and just said u "weren't trying hard enough" in math.

dyscalculia and hyperlexia culture is internalizing that and feeling stupid and lazy for years until u realize... it's just the way ur brain works. it's just a learning disability and u can't help it

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I was todays years old when I discovered that I have hyperlexia and me devouring books like some kind of word demon as a child was actually part of my audhd with an actual name and not just a random quirk I had!!!

Have you read any Merlin fanfiction? I really like Merlin fanfic. What kinds of fanfic do you like to read?

I have read a lot of Merlin fanfiction. But I have also always loved reading in general! Ever since I was very young.

I like to read lots of different types and tropes and fandoms and lengths and styles. I just love to read, always have. I make very general wide searches then just scroll scroll scroll and click on anything that looks interesting! (Which is a lot of the fics that show up, honestly!). As much as people praise ao3’s search tab, I quite like to stumble across new things in a more natural manner. So I start off with a very wide search (the tag for an entire TV programme, for example), then try things until I find something I like and then I may search for more of the same… then go back to my wider original search and continue scrolling and reading.

There is only a few things that make me click out of a fic. Usually it has to do with visual clutter and too big chunks of paragraphs that I can’t follow. Or if I am just utterly confused and don’t know what is going on (sometimes people write in a very poetic way which is very pretty but I can’t really follow). But also if it is very pretty words and nice rhythm to it (or just generally seems well written) I might read it anyway, even when I don’t know what is going on 🤷🏻‍♂️.

When I attempt to read much longer fics (like similar/same as a novel length, or longer, with many long chapters), I will usually have it open in one tab and switch between reading that and reading short “one-shots”, or re-reading my bookmarks. I often have about 3 or 4 ao3 tabs open at the same time!

I have always been a fast reader, in terms of how fast I visually recognise the words. But then I don’t process the meanings of most of it… my hyperlexic brain wants to skim read all of the words as fast as possible, but my level of comprehension and processing speed can’t keep up!! I end up re-reading most things because of this. I finish a short fic and immediately go back to the start and read slower again (sometimes several times - up to 10).

A longer fic (novel length or longer), I tend to take in sections, so I will read a few paragraphs and then go back over and over and over until I feel like I absorbed it and understand what is going on. I also often have to refer back to earlier chapters or sections to connect the pieces together in a linear fashion.

That is also how I have always read books^. And why I have always had groups of favourites (single books or series) that I go back to time and time again. I can’t really “take in” everything after only one read - even when read my way with the sections and the repetition and always going backwards before I can continue forwards - so I solve that by even more repetition of my process!

can't wait to start getting anons telling me I can't have both dyslexia and hyperlexia like they're opposite ends of one spectrum and not two different things (also hyperlexia isn't even diagnosable)

Hyperlexia

Mrs Peechie P

"burnout" this, "former gifted kid" that, where are all my 2E people who fucked off throughout the entirety of K-12 because we didn't see the point and/or didn't get the chance to nurture our "gifts" because it was more urgent for the education system to address the other side of our "exceptionality" at the time and who are clawing for our chance to shine now, today, as adults?

Bro the tism is tisming so hard today 😭😵‍💫🤯🫠

like apraxia of speech is kicking my ass 🫣😭

I’m not making any sense speaking but also I’m still hyperlexic and hyperverbal (with selective mutism) so I’m vomiting out words like it’s my fucking job. Fuck.

shit at least my typing okay.

Auctober day 25!

I don't recall if I was hyperlexic or not, but I do know that Pokémon enriched my vocabulary from a very young age