We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” 

-Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968, Letter from a Birmingham Jail) 

Today, I will explain why I believe understanding the science of change is essential. The neurodiversity movement needs new paradigm science to support our goals and improve turbulent systems. I will explain why by telling another neurodiversity story and sharing what the science of change has taught us about all social justice movements.

Social justice movements start with internal tensions inside individuals. They spread because others see the same patterns in need of change. Our goal is for the neurodiversity movement to change system tensions. This is the only way for turbulent systems to improve. 

All Social Justice Movements Have a Connection 

Neurodiversity movement leaders sense tensions in the same way Dr. Martin Luther King Jr sensed them in the 1960s. In those days, people did not understand how we sense system turbulence. Scientific research has taught us how it happens.  

Individuals feel social system tensions in our bodies. Neuroscientists call this interoception or a felt sense (https://www. https://attunementsolutions.com/blog/introducing-a-neurodiversity-peace-process-in-2024/). Now let’s consider how interoception helps turn a sense into an action.

First, the science of change tells us it relates to timing. Some of us are born sooner so we live longer in the early phases of future-oriented change. Second, neuroscience tells us this relates to something that is pivotal to our neurodiversity movement. It depends on our neurotribe. 

Some neurotribes are more sensitive to felt sense cues from turbulent social environments. We can only guess or create scientifically grounded theory now but, later we may know. This is likely to be a future explanation for today’s van life trend on YouTube. Followers of many van life videos experience second-hand, the feeling of escape from social turbulence and return to a simpler life on the road. 

Scientific Analysis of Overwhelming Social Turbulence 

Now, we will consider how individual actions create the collective system tensions that generate social justice movements. The individual actions of a few can increase conscious awareness in others. This means that a movement leader’s actions expose the tensions that others already feel.  

Science of change principles tell us how to record and make analytical sense of the influence of turbulent felt sense cues. We start by recording experiences in the form of a story (https://www. https://attunementsolutions.com/blog/the-neurodiversity-movement-a-transformative-start/. During turbulent times, those stories include a high number of system paradoxes that can now be analyzed as data. 

Today’s System Turbulence

During turbulent times, the tension people feel from interdependent pairs lead to problem-solving confusion. Confusion causes alarming system paradoxes. System paradoxes mean people, teams, and system leaders have stopped addressing real causes of their problems. It’s a lot like a doctor addressing symptoms and ignoring a disease.  

The science of change suggests that lots of paradoxes exist in highly regulated systems. One reason this happens is because of the separation between powerful system decision-makers and tensions they unknowingly create. I have known for about 15 years that schools, academic institutions, and some types of healthcare organizations are well-known for these system problems.  

Due to the feeling that problems can’t be solved, system leaders commonly develop unhelpful habits. Since they have no idea what is causing their problems, they try to solve them without knowing their cause. It took me years to understand the felt sense cues that are a natural part of being in turbulent social environments. Here is a bit of the neurodiversity science behind that reality. 

Research on Human Thinking Strategies 

Interdisciplinary research shows that we all need to know how and when to use our ability for both vertical and horizontal thinking. It also shows that we each have a preference. This was the unrecognized scientific truth that created layers of system paradox in my multi-system Neurodiversity Peace Process Story. 

Since I am a trauma-informed therapist, I knew that stress leads to problem-solving confusion. One form of problem-solving confusion causes people to use vertical thinking to solve problems with an uncertain cause. This turbulent Neurodiversity Peace Process story explains how I came to this conclusion and how I’ve known that the neurodiversity movement needs new paradigm science.

A Turbulent Neurodiversity Peace Process Story 

Neurodiversity Peace Process Paradox #1 

As an occupational therapist in schools and as a faculty member in both university and community college systems, I saw system-wide preference for students with vertical over horizontal thinking. Any time a class-focus is on preparing students quickly for tests, horizontal thinking students have a disadvantage. When test outcomes depend on rote memory, vertical thinking students will shine. 

I saw the same neurodiversity paradoxes in all three systems. Since both academic positions were preparing students for a helping profession that serves neurodivergent people, this felt ironic. Paradox is perceived as irony. I didn’t know at the time that high system paradox means we are experiencing a turbulent system.  

Joy-of-learning software is currently being used to teach creative kids who do lots of horizontal thinking (https://www.seesaw.com). We now know these kids learn best by following their interests and natural motivations. They learn better this way than being told what to do or memorizing an answer.  

This software is a technology application for a student group that is often still called neurodivergent. I now view neurodivergence as a biased term. That leads to Neurodiversity Peace Process Paradox #2. 

Neurodiversity Peace Process Paradox #2 

Next, I started an occupational therapy private practice to embed a special needs program in a local church. I dealt with some of the same and many different paradoxes there. In all four systems, a superficial understanding of neurodiversity still favored vertical thinkers.  

Neurodiverse thinking strategies weren’t yet accepted because vertical thinking strategies felt like the right way to teach. I knew that horizontal thinking is more objective thinking. This experience left me with a paradoxical question about the future of our society and the world. 

When we act on the belief that nice people behave in a certain way, we are using vertical thinking that is filled with bias. This means we are basing our opinions of the “niceness” of a person on a preconceived idea. Unlike vertical thinking, objective thinking is without bias.  

Are we now depending on a neurodivergent minority to be our future for objective thinking? Most of us wouldn’t want to believe so and yet, my life experience said to me that it might be true. I thought, if there is a preference for biased thinking in a church, where can I find less neurotribe bias? This leads to Neurodiversity Peace Process Paradox #3.  

Neurodiversity Peace Process Paradox #3 

I moved my private practice into a healthcare organization and school for neurodivergent learners. I specifically chose this location because a medical doctor there shared my interest in the use of muti-sensory environments for treating people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We both loved having students from nearby academic institutions. 

Together this medical doctor and I hoped to turn the organization into a Sensory Center of Excellence. We envisioned producing publishable research showing positive outcomes of using this intervention (https://www.attunementsolutions.com). We were fortunate to have a potential university partnership for this research last year and became excited.  

Scientific researchers believe vertical thinking should be avoided when developing grounded theory on interventions with uncertain variables. Vertical thinking is considered an advantage only when direct causal relationships are clear. This means that scientific researchers believe horizontal thinking is the only way to avoid research bias (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/bias).  

The university collaboration fell through as had a few before. Then I learned that most academic research in America is taught and carried out as a vertical thinking process (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/thinking-strategies-vertical-vs-horizontal-malik-tubaishat/). Academic institutions reward vertical thinking research because it produces faster results.

Professors prefer vertical thinking research projects because it builds academic research reputations faster. This felt like a paradox since vertical thinking is more likely to create flawed research when causal relationships are unclear. That leads to Neurodiversity Peace Process Paradox #4. 

Neurodiversity Peace Process Paradox #4 

Of course, I’m not saying vertical thinking is bad. We don’t have to think long to develop a good case for vertical thinking. Vertical thinking is quick and action oriented.  

Vertical thinking has great value in many occupations. An obvious example of a healthcare profession that requires lots of vertical thinking is the job of an Emergency Medical Technician or EMT. EMTs can do this because they know the techniques and strategies they use have been thoroughly researched.  

Horizontal thinking is too slow for an EMT responding to an emergency. Vertical thinking is too dangerous to use for solving problems when we don’t know the cause. This is the case when people are dealing with complex social problems. 

Complex problems don’t have simple solutions. They create confusing tensions between interdependent pairs. Many are impossible to solve by using vertical thinking. 

This has been a story of how the Neurodiversity Peace Process came to be. It also tells how I grew into a healthcare system leadership coach. I love helping healthcare system leaders as they learn to spot and shift stress-based patterns before they have a chance to multiply their problems. 

Finding Balance in a Neurodiverse World 

One thing is for sure, neurodiversity and today’s scientific paradigm shift are changing the ground we once stood on. Our human tribe worldview is starting to look different. With more cultural diversity, it is logical to believe that we have more neurodiversity. 

New paradigm science supports neurodiversity movement goals. The science of change is essential for us to make our case. My evidence for coming to that conclusion is… Neurodiversity Peace Process Paradoxes 1 through 4, ready for analysis and ready to prove the neurodiversity movement needs new paradigm science.

Please, keep sharing questions that pop into your mind by email or in the chat space! Answers are welcome too. By sharing our neurodiverse stories, our social justice movement will grow stronger and more resilient.