Neurodiversity 2.0: Contemporary Research, Evolving Frameworks, and Practice Implications

Next month, I’ll be speaking at NIEPID (National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities) on a topic I’ve been thinking and writing about for some time: what it means to take neurodiversity seriously without flattening disability.

This is a training-focused talk, aimed at educators, clinicians, and rehabilitation professionals who want research-grounded tools for understanding communication differences and nervous system responses to unpredictability.

Rather than framing autism only through strengths or only through deficits, the session draws on contemporary neuroscience to show how difference, disability, and context interact in real life.

I’ll be offering a plain-language overview of research relevant to education and rehabilitation, including:

• sensory processing and sensory–motor integration
• interoception and regulation
• motor planning and coordination
• nervous system responses to unpredictability and stress

The goal is not to provide a single “correct” model of autism, but to offer a research-informed lens that helps professionals better understand distress, communication differences, and participation across diverse support needs.

 Date: 7th February 2025
 Time: 7:00 PM (Indian Standard Time)
 Platform: Google Meet. Link(https://meet.google.com/ocp-mozi-vrf)

Talk Abstract: This talk introduces Neurodiversity 2.0 as a way to move beyond polarized debates about autism (medical vs. social, strengths vs. challenges, independence vs. dependence) and focus on a more realistic “both–and” understanding. Alongside this framing, I present a plain-language overview of contemporary neuroscience that is relevant to education and rehabilitation contexts, including sensory processing, interoception and emotion labeling, motor planning, and nervous system responses to unpredictability. The goal is not clinical instruction, but a research-informed lens that can help trainees think more clearly about distress, communication differences, and participation across a wide range of support needs.