WORD OF THE WEEK: Neuro-Typical

Summary: Is your brain neuro-typical? If so, you have what's considered to be 'normal' brain chemistry. But that doesn't mean you can always escape the brain challenges that come with emotional overload.

As a Communications Coach, I specialize in what I like to call "the challenged brain"—clients who may have ADD/ADHD, clinical depression or Seasonal Affective Disorder, even Asperger Syndrome, which is on the tip of the autism spectrum.

Challenged brains experience an inordinate amount of problems in communication. Because challenged brains don't produce a balanced amount of neurotransmitters (chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, epinephrine and others that specifically regulate emotion), people who have challenged brains are often flooded with emotions. And when that happens, the ability to make decisions—like what to say next that's appropriate to the situation—significantly diminishes.

But even people with neuro-typical brains experience moments of "brain challenge." This happens when an abundance of emotion floods the brain, and the neuro-typical person has a fight-or-flight response to what's in front of her or him.

You can probably figure it out from context, but just to be certain, here's the definition of neuro-typical (sometimes spelled without the hyphen):

Neuro-typical (NER - ro - TIP - i - kal) - (adj.) having neurological developments and states that are balanced, or 'normal' for the average human being. Often abbreviated as NT , the term was coined by the autism community to reference those not on the autism spectrum, likely beginning in the 1980s. It has since been adopted by other brain-centered communities and groups, especially throughout the United Kingdom. (Please note: This week's word pronunciation comes from HowJSay.com, and has two pronunciation keys—the first in standard U.K. English and the second in American English.)

For a little more insight into emotional overload and the challenges this causes a neuro-typical brain, click here to read this opinion piece by James Williams, a speaker and advocate for the autism community who, himself, has High Functioning Autism.


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