2022-2023 L'IMAGE comics
To cite this page: Taniguchi, Ai, and Haili Su. 2023. Mustafa's Story - Neurodivergence. In University of Toronto Language, Identity, Multiculturalism and Global Empowerment Project (L'IMAGE). Available online at https://www.linguistait.wixsite.com/mustafa-neurodivergence. Accessed on [date].
Mustafa's Story - Neurodivergence and English
L’IMAGE comic series: Mustafa’s story
Alt-Text with long description
COMIC
[Page 1, Title Page]
Upper left corner of page reads: UofT L’IMAGE Project: Language, Identity, Multiculturalism and Global Empowerment
Subtitle over light blue box: The lived experiences of real multilingual students at U of T
Title over bright red box: Mustafa’s story**
Under the title banners, the character Mustafa smiles at the readers. He has short, brown hair combed upwards and short beard. He has tan skin. He is wearing a beige-yellow hoodie.
Bottom left corner of page shows the University of Toronto logo.
Bottom right footnote: **Some stories in the L’IMAGE comic series employ pseudonyms at the request of the featured student.
[Long description of text and images in the comic strip:
The comic strips in the L’IMAGE comic series uses the font Ames, which is the standard font for comics. Ames is an all-caps font. However, Alt-Texts for this project are not written in all-caps so that they will be more accessible for screen readers.
The comic artist for the series is Dr. Ai Taniguchi. Her drawing style can be described as: Japanese manga inspired, cute, large eyes, intentionally sketchy and unpolished line art, simplified, expressive. The comic strips are all digital, but she uses a pen that mimics the line weight of a traditional fountain pen. Her line art is on average 0.5mm in width (relatively thin), but the line weight varies and looks hand-drawn.
The title page of each comic strip is in color. It has a University of Toronto color scheme: navy blue, light blue, and bright red. The background is white with a navy blue frame. The references and acknowledgements page and the “About the L’IMAGE project” page also have this University of Toronto color scheme.
The comic strips themselves are black and white, and employ digital screen tones for shading and backgrounds.]
[Page 2]
Top panel: Mustafa is sitting behind a table with his crossed hands on it. He is smiling.
Mustafa’s narration: Hello, my name is Mustafa and I’m a part-time student at UTM - I take classes at UTM, but I also have a job, and work to support my family.
Bottom left panel: Mustafa is smiling with his eyes closed. Besides him are two of his family members. The person who is left to him has long, dark hair parted in the middle. The person who is right to him looks younger and has short, dark hair with bangs.
Mustafa’s narration: My first language is Urdu - I moved to Canada from Pakistan with my family.
Bottom right panel: The top side of a human brain, which is roughly oval shaped with uneven surfaces and a deeper, vertical fold between the two hemisphere.
Mustafa’s narration: I’m neurodivergent, which means that my brain works differently than so-called "neurotypical" brains. I have my ways of thinking, communicating, and perceiving the world around me.
[Page 3]
Top left panel: A building with one side covered by a mural of the face ofa dark skinned feminine person.
Mustafa’s narration: My first job was in a neighbourhood in Toronto with a big Caribbean community.
Top right panel: Two of Mustafa’s neighbours are conversing with each other in the community variety of English. The neighbour on the right has dark skin, puff afro hairstyle tied in a high ponytail and wearing a pair of large earrings. The neighbour on the left has dark sin, short dark hair and beard. They are smiling at the readers.
The speech bubbles above these two neighbours say: “Ahlie?!”, “Wagwan fam?!”, “Mans missed the bus!”, and “Yo I’m about to link up with the man dem.” It can be inferred that these utterances employ Jamaican Patwah expressions.
Mustafa’s narration: So the kind of English that I first learned was a variety of English that seems to have a lot of influence from Jamaican Patwah.
Behind the speech bubbles in this panel, a pattern of light gray bubbles can be seen.
Bottom left panel: A skyline of four skyscrapers is shown in the background.
Mustafa’s narration: A few years later, I moved to a different neighbourhood of Toronto.
Bottom right panel: Mustafa is conversing with a neighbour from his new neighbourhood. The neighbour has short blonde hair and is wearing a shirt and a tie. He is smiling. He says “Hey Mustafa, there's water and stuff in the fridge!” to a slightly confused Max. Artistically, there are two four by four groups of dots forming a square above Mustafa's head.
Mustafa’s narration: There, I felt like I had to relearn English (felt like a whole different language, really).
[Page 4]
Top left panel: The background includes a series of randomly distributed dots of various sizes. Some dots are black, and some sots are gray. The background is white as usual.
Mustafa’s narration: I’ve had various jobs and have been exposed to various kinds of English, but wherever I go, I feel like I’m always trying to "connect the dots" in conversations, because I'm always trying to figure out what you're "supposed to" say by neurotypical standards.
Top right panel: A co-worker is smiling and asking Mustafa, who is out of the frame, a question.
Mustafa’s narration: one time a co-worker asked me.
Co-worker’s question, in a speech bubble: Hey Mustafa! Could you do this thing for me?
Bottom left panel: Half of Mustafa’s face is shown with eyes sliding to the left, indicating that he is thinking. The same four-by-four dots appear behind Max. There are more of them now.
Mustafa’s narration: It was a task that I hadn't done before. So logically, I couldn't be 100% sure that I would be able to do it successfully. (that makes sense, no?)
Bottom left panel: Mustafa replies while looking out of the frame supposedly at the co-worker. He shows a calm expression.
Mustafa’s narration: so, I replied.
Mustafa’s reply in a speech bubble: I can try.
[Page 5]
Top panel: The co-worker displays an angry expression with his mouth open, as he finds it unbelievable. The word ‘jeez’ is handwritten above his head.
Mustafa’s narration: I meant no disrespect in what I said: I meant what I said literally. I was honestly going to try to do the job to the best of my capability. But he was cheesed or something...
I was apparently perceived to be rude, incompetent, and lacking confidence.
Bottom panel: The background is full of dots with different sizes and shades similar to the ones from the last page. The dots are coming in in abundance from the upper left corner of the panel, and gradually decreasing in density into a cone shape, with the pointed end of the shape "pointing" to a generic person. This generic person figure stands in the front with the letters “NT” written over their face. Their mouth is open and a speech bubble to their right indicates that they say: “Sure no problem. I can do it!”
Mustafa’s narration: I analysed why the conversation "went wrong" afterwards, and concluded that the neurotypical norm is to speak with overconfidence, even if in reality, you are not sure of something.
[Page 6]
Entire panel: Mustafa is seen holding two of the dots seen in the previous panels, with the one in his right hand darker than the one in his left hand. He looks at the one in his right hand and displays an anxious expression with three drips of sweat dropped from the left side of his head. Two sets of two sequential question marks surround him, with one set on each side beside him.
Mustafa’s narration: I'm always worried that I might say "the wrong things" in a conversation-worried that I'll be perceived in unintended ways.
[Page 7]
Entire panel: On a black background, three individual hands are squeezing a heart, probably made out of clay or other malleable material, from different directions. The heart is an abstract “peach-shaped” heart. Words are written on each of the forearms. The one on the top says, “Don’t ramble”. The one on the bottom left says, “Don’t overshare”. The one on the bottom right says, “Do small talk, correctly.”
Mustafa’s narration: One thing I wish neurotypical people knew was how exhausting it is for me to constantly try to adapt to what they perceive to be "norms", whether it be language or other things.
[Page 8]
Top left panel: On a black background, different dots can be seen in a style similar to what is seen in previous panels but with light colours. Some of the dots are white, and some of them are gray. The dots are ascending upwards and rightwards to the next panel.
Mustafa’s narration: I wish more neurotypical people would also put in the effort to learn my way of thinking, my inclinations, my language. If they did that…
The narration is to be continued in the next panel.
Top right panel: The squeezed heart from the top panel is left on the black background. Two dots from the previous panel continues the pattern on the top left corner of the panel.
Mustafa’s narration: then maybe
Bottom left panel: On a black background, a hand reaches out from the top left corner with “we won’t assume you’re rude” written on the forearm. The hand reshapes the squeezed heart from the previous panels.
Mustafa’s narration: I could
Top middle panel: On a grey but lighter background, another hand reaches out from the top right corner with “We’ll communicate requests clearly” written on the forearm. The hand reshapes the heart from the right side, with its left side already recovered.
Mustafa’s narration: just exist
Top right panel: On a white background, the heart has fully recovered to its peach shape.
Mustafa’s narration: as me.
The complete sentence spread out across the previous and the current panels is: If they did that, then maybe I could just exist as me.
[Page 9]
Entire panel: A background full of sparkly, circle patterns that kind of looks like bokeh, evoking inspiration. Mustafa is standing in the middle. He smiles lightly.
Mustafa’s narration: My name is Mustafa. I’m uniquely me.
[Page 10]
Page title: About the L’IMAGE project
Project PI and comic artist: Ai Taniguchi, Assistant Professor, UTM Department of Language Studies
Research Assistant: Haili Su, MA Student, UTSG Department of Linguistics
Special thanks to: Gilbert Lin, Assistant Director, Intercultural & Global Initiatives, UTM International Education Centre
With the generous support of: UofT International Student Experience Fund, UTM Department of Language Studies, UTM International Education Centre
Learn more: http://www.lingcomics.com
Bottom right of page shows the University of Toronto Mississauga logo and the University of Toronto logo.
INFOGRAPHIC
[Page 1]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: What is neurodiversity?
Everyone's brain is unique! We all act in different ways and have different lived experiences as a result. The term neurodiversity refers to this fact that everyone's brain is different. This is a term that emphasizes difference rather than deficits. Traditionally, fi my brain worked in a slightly atypical way compared to some other people, doctors might have said that my brain development is "abnormal" while other people's were "normal". The neurodiversity movement doesn't put these kinds of "good brain" vs. "bad brain" value judgments on brains. They are different brains.
Ai is seen smiling at the bottom left of the page. She is wearing a hoodie whose hood looks like L’IMAGE Aji. She is facing a group of 6 side-portrait silhouettes of people in yellow, sky blue, green and teal colours. On each of their heads, there is a lighter shape indicating their brain regions.
[Long description of infographic pages:]
Each page of the infographic is in color. It has a University of Toronto color scheme: navy blue, light blue, and bright red. In this particular infographic, many of the illustrations have a color scheme based on the U of T visual identity guide (although most readers would not know this). In addition to the main U of T colors navy blue, light blue, and bright red, secondary colors include: A steel blue, orange-ish red, bluish green, light blue, yellow green, dark magenta, medium yellow, and light blue. The lay person should just know that these colors go very well together, look cohesive together, and complement the main navy blue and red colors very well. The U of T visual identity guide can be accessed here: https://brand.utoronto.ca/guidelines/
L’IMAGE Aji is a fish character drawn in a style reminiscent of Sanrio characters like Hello Kitty. It is generally round in its silhouette and features. It has a pastel blue body with a yellow stripe, white belly, and yellow fins. It has two round eyes and round, pink blush on the cheeks, with a cat-like smiling mouth. There are bubbles coming out above it.
[Page 2]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: types of neurodivergence
Neurotypical is a term that is sometimes used as a descriptor for people who have a brain that is “typical” by some cultures’ socio-political standards. The term neurodivergent is sometimes used to describe people who diverge from this standardized profile.
Types of neurodivergence include: Autism, ADHD, OCD, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia, Dyslexia, BPD, Schizophrenia, Tourette's, depression, PTSD, anxiety, and more. Some types of neurodivergence, you are born with (e.g., autism and ADHD). Other types of neurodivergence can be acquired (e.g., anxiety, PTSD). It is not necessarily the case that a neurodivergent person falls into just one of these subcategories. e.g., Someone can be both autistic and ADHD.
Under the text, on the left there is an illustration of a human brain with gradient colors from green to yellow. On the right, there is a series of illustrations showing different stages of growth as a human child: first an infant crawling on the ground, then a toddler, then a young child, then a teenager.
[Page 3]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: What is ADHD
Note that ADHD is commonly known to stand for "Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder," but people who have been diagnosed with ADHD don't always see their condition as a "disorder" - they see it just as a part of who they are. It's important to understand how a person's ADHD traits can affect their ability to do certain activities in the world that we live in, and there are many approaches that can help a person with ADHD manage their traits. At the same time, it's equally important to remember that "ADHD" is a natural part of that person's neurotype, not a "disorder" that needs to be cured.
In the spirit of the neurodiversity movement, some people prefer the term condition rather than disorder (e.g., Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Condition, etc.).
Under the text, there is an illustration of a brain with the left hemisphere being various flowers in UofT secondary colors, and UofT navy blue.
[Page 4]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: What is ADHD
In the case of ADHD, the stuff before the second "D" ("Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity") is already sort of a misnomer anyway, since it's not really an attention "deficit". As I said in PI Journal #5, I feel like it's more of an uneven distribution of attention; it's not that lack attention altogether. I wonder if we just need to call "ADHD" something entirely different!
The traits of each ADHD person vary. Someone with ADHD may struggle to start and stay focused on certain tasks (like me!). Some may be very forgetful (also like me!). Some people might have difficulty sitting still (this isn't me!). Some people might be very impulsive (me, sometimes!).
Under the text, Ai is seen on the left corner of the page.
[Page 5]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: What is autism?
In addition to ADHD, autism is probably a type of neurodivergence that you have heard of. Autism affects how you experience the world around you, including how you think, how you learn stuff, how you communicate, and how you adjust to a new environment. Both autistic people and allistic (non-autistic) people have their own strengths and weaknesses.
Ai is seen speaking at the bottom left of the page. She is wearing a hoodie whose hood looks like L’IMAGE Aji.
[Page 6]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: What is autism?
An autistic person may have social communication differences compared to an allistic person. An autistic person may focus intently on their own interests. Autistic people may value consistency, thrive in predictable situations, and may enjoy the company of people who have predictable behaviors. Some autistic people might love talking, and others might communicate in other ways.
Below the text is the brain with a floral left hemisphere from earlier, with more flowers in the same color scheme surrounds the brain in the bottom of the page.
[Page 7]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: Autism spectrum?
What I’ve mentioned are just some examples of how an autistic person might be; it’s certainly not the entire picture. Autism is a spectrum condition, meaning that there are many different ways to be autistic. There are traits that are common to autistic folks, and each one of those traits exists on their own spectrum, making each autistic person unique in their experiences.
Ai is seen speaking at the bottom left of the page. She is wearing a hoodie whose hood looks like L’IMAGE Aji. On the bottom left there is a color wheel in U of T primary and secondary colors with the following texts written around it: Language, Motor Skills, sensory, perception, executive function.
[Page 8]
Title: Content note.
Text: The next two slides discuss neurodiversity, trauma, and mental health. These slides briefly make reference to Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria and briefly mention childhood psychological abuse (no details are discussed), and panic attacks (no details are discussed).
Please read the next two slides only when you have the emotional and mental space for them, and feel free to skip over them if you need to.
[Page 9]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: Neurodiversity and trauma
When I say "let's celebrate neurodiversity!", I am not saying it in a way to minimize, erase, or trivialize the harsh judgment, prejudice, harm, and discomfort that many neurodivergent people have experienced in their lives as a result of others not understanding and accepting them.
My therapist told me one time that my mind and body are in a sort of constant fight-or-flight mode as a result of being criticized, rejected, and psychologically abused for much of my childhood and adolescence. A lot of the criticism I received was in response to ADHD traits that I didn’t even know were ADHD traits at the time. Many people like me experience what is sometimes called Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD): an extreme reaction to the perception of having been rejected or and/or criticized. For me this includes, but is not limited to, panic attacks when I feel like I have failed at my job.
[Page 10]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: Neurodiversity and trauma
Many neurodivergent people experience RSD and other trauma responses as a result of many instances of miscommunication in their lives. Trauma is serious, and it affects your mental and physical health. Please keep all of this in mind as we discuss neurotype language differences in this lesson.
As much as I advocate for neurodiversity and hope for a world where people are treated with respect and dignity regardless of neurotype, I also want to acknowledge people's painful past experiences that cannot be undone. If what I am saying resonates with you, in solidarity, I am wishing you an abundance of love, healing, and understanding, all of which you deserve.
[Page 11]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: Neurodivergence and language
Some of the traits of a neurodivergent person have to do with their language use. Each type of neurodivergence is associated with various kinds of language traits. Let me tell you how my neurodivergence shows up in my language.
Under the text, Ai is smiling.
[Page 12]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: ADHD and auditory processing
I have ADHD. People with ADHD often have auditory processing difficulties. Auditory processing has to do with what your brain does with the information you hear: understanding what was heard, remembering it, combining it with other perceptual information (e.g., what you see), and effectively using the information.
Under the text, Ai seen confused, with a question mark above her head on the right. Her left ear peeks out of the hoodie opening.
[Page 13]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: ADHD and auditory processing
I always watch TV and movies with subtitles on, even if they’re in English or Japanese (languages I’m fluent in)! When people give me a list of things orally, I can’t remember the information well. When my partner says something kind of random while at home, I often have to ask him to repeat what he said many times.
Under the text, Ai is on the left conversing with her partner, who is wearing a green shirt, on the right. He is pointing at a boat that is on fire.
There are unrecognizable scribbles in Ai’s partner’s first speech bubble.
Ai’s speech bubble 1: What
There are more unrecognizable scribbles in the partner’s second speech bubble, with recognizable letters TH in the beginning and ORT in the end.
Ai’s speech bubble 2: What
Partner’s speech bubble 3: There’s a boat on fire by the airport!!!
Ai’s speech bubble 3: OMG.
[Page 14]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: Auditory processing accommodations
There are many ways to accommodate people with auditory processing difficulties. As I said earlier, subtitles/captions in videos are very helpful. For audio, transcripts are helpful. When students ask me to do something after class, I always ask them to email the request to me. Similarly, when there are department meetings, I need to have instructions written down, not communicated to me orally. I’m always writing things down in a little notebook I carry (or in the Notes app on my smartphone), and I never go to the grocery store without my shopping list on a physical post-it note.
Under the text, Ai is on the right facing four post-it notes on the right.
From left to right:
Yellow post-it 1: Please
Red post-it 2: write
Blue post-it 3: it
Yellow post-it 4: down!
[Page 15]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: Accommodations
If you are ever organizing an event or a meeting, please consider the neurodiversity in your audience and implement appropriate accommodations!
Under the text: Ai is on the left facing L’IMAGE Aji.
[Page 16]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: Autism and language
Let’s talk about autism and language next. Autistic people and allistic (non-autistic) people may have different rules of communication in their minds. How so? There are many ways that they can differ, but let’s look at one example here.
Just for clarification: I’m not sure if I’m autistic or not. This is some-
thing I’m still trying to figure out. But when I’ve read about autistic
language tendencies, I definitely relate to some of them!
Let’s say that you’re at work, and your co-worker says this to you:
“There are donuts in the kitchen.”
What does this sentence mean to you?
Ai is on the right edge of the page. Under the text on the right, there are three pink donuts.
[Page 17]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: Autism and language
My gut reaction to “There are donuts in the kitchen” would be: “Am I… am I allowed to have the donuts or no?” How about you? Did you take this utterance to be an invitation for you to eat the donuts? Or were you like me and take it only to safely mean, quite literally, ‘I present to you an observation I have: there exists a plurality of donuts in the kitchen’?
One common trait of autistic people is that they tend to interpret utterances in very literal ways.
Beside the text of Ai’s gut reaction, she is seen with a perplexed facial expression. She is looking at a pink donut on the left. There is a red question mark in between them.
[Page 18]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: Allistic language and autistic language
So what do we do in these kinds of situations where allistic language and autistic language collide? How do we make sure in the future that I know to eat the snacks in the kitchen?
Under the text there are two donuts. The one on the left has a pink glaze and the one on the right has a blue glaze. They are both covered in rainbow sprinkles.
[Page 19]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: Mixed neurotype interactions
A fairly outdated way of thinking about this kind of situation is that the autistic person has a communication deficit. The autistic person "did language wrong", because they should've used the allistic language rules to "correctly" read between the lines and infer that the utterance was an invitation to eat donuts. Unfair, don't you think? Why are they penalized for the brain that they have?
The neurodiversity movement challenges this kind of thinking. Why is neuro- typical language the norm? Why is neurodivergent language use being judged according to neurotypical standards?
Afar more equitable way of thinking about mixed neurotype interactions like this is: We need to try to understand each other's language rules and culture better.
The donut situation is essentially a case of intercultural miscommunication.
On the upper right corner near the discussion of autistic language, there is the light blue donut. On the bottom left corner near the discussion of intercultural miscommunication, there is the pink donut.
[Page 20]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: Conversational logics
An allistic person may have one set of cognitive processes and conversational logic. Their conversational logic might say, "Just stating that a food item exists would be an uninformative and unhelpful thing to say, and the addressee knows that I’m' not an unhelpful person! So, I have faith in the fact that they'll connect the dots and infer that I’m' giving them helpful information (in this case, the fact that they can eat the donuts)."
Now, an autistic person may not have that same conversational logic! Their logic perhaps is, "Simply stating that a food item exists on its own is not uninformative; perhaps sometimes, people simply want to state an observation. If they wanted me to do something
with the given observation, they would avoid obscurity and ambiguity and say it in a clear way.
On the left edge of the page, there are the previously seen two donuts, with the pink one on top and the blue one on the bottom. The pink donut is next to the paragraph discussing allistic language. The blue donut is next to the paragraph discussing autistic language. Readers may start to recognize around this point in the infographic that the donuts are probably symbolic of the two neurotype languages.
[Page 21]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: Second guessing
I've heard that allistic people would confidently interpret "There are donuts in the kitchen" to be an invitation to eat the donuts.
The thing for me (and other autistic people, from what l've read in studies) is that I would’ve guessed that "There are donuts in the kitchen “was an invitation to eat the donuts, but that tiny bit of possibility that I might be wrong would prevent me from confidently making that conclusion. It’s because I've made the wrong inference in the past before and have been shamed for it.
In this situation, probably would've sadly not eaten the donuts in case they were not for me (frowny face emoticon). Or I would've waited to see if my colleagues helped themselves to the donuts.
Under the text on the right, Ai is seen crying. On the left bottom corner of the page, there are three pink donuts surrounding the text.
[Page 22]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: Learning each other’s language
We saw two different types of reasoning by two types of people. What the neurodiversity movement says is, we tend to make poor guesses about the other group's thoughts, so let's mutually fix this by learning about each other.
It shouldn't be just the neurodivergent person's responsibility to learn and adapt to the neurotypical thought process. The neurotypical person should also make an effort to learn about the neurodivergent person's way of thinking and language rules, too.
The way to overcome the intercultural miscommunication situation with the donut may look as simple as the allistic person saying: "There are donuts in the kitchen: please help yourself to one.
Under the text, Ai is on the left facing a row of 8 donuts that alternate between pink and light blue.
[Page 23]
Subtitle: Five-minute linguistics with L’IMAGE Aji!
Main title, over the red banner: Neurodivergence & Language
Sectional title: Lived experiences
In thinking about how we can eliminate neurotype inequity like this in our everyday communication, it is important that we see, hear, and read the stories of actual neurodivergent people.
Please see the resources listed on the next page to learn more! Thank you for caring about neurodiversity.
Under the text: Ai is on the left facing L’IMAGE Aji. Both are smiling.
[Page 24]
References
Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In Speech Acts (pp. 41-58). Brill.
Lange, K. W., Reichl, S., Lange, K. M., Tucha, L., & Tucha, O. (2010). The history of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders, 2(4), 241–255.
McCracken, C. (2021). Autistic identity and language learning: Response to Kissine. Language 97(3), e211-e217.
Milton, D. E. (2012). On the ontological status of autism: The ‘double empathy problem’. Disability & Society, 27(6), 883-887.
Milton, D., Ridout, S., Murray, D., Martin, N., &Mills, R. (2020). The Neurodiversity Reader: Exploring concepts, lived experiences and implications for practice. Pavilion.
Stoller, L. (2014). ADHD as emergent institutional exploitation. The Journal of Mind and Behavior, 21-49.
Furman, L. (2005). What is attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)?. Journal of Child Neurology, 20(12), 994-1002.
Wilson, A. C., & Bishop, D. V. (2020). “Second guessing yourself all the time about what they really mean…”: Cognitive differences between autistic and non-autistic adults in understanding implied meaning. Autism Research, 14(1), 93-101.
Learn more
-
A short history of ADHD: https://chadd.org/adhd-weekly/more-fire-than-water-a-short-history-of-adhd/
-
What are phatic expressions?: https://actuallyautistic.wiki/wiki/Phatic_expression
-
Autism and “camouflaging”: https://embrace-autism.com/autism-and-camouflaging/
-
What is “Aspie supremacism”?: https://thinkingautismguide.com/2023/02/we-need-to-talk-about-aspie-supremacists.html
-
Experience of a non-speaking autistic person: https://beyond6seconds.com/inclusive-education-with-jordyn-zimmerman-nonspeaking-autistic-advocate
-
Dodman, E. (2022). An Autistic Letter to a Neurotypical Friend (Creative Intervention). Studies in Social Justice, 16(2), 474-477.
-
Hughes, J. M. (2016). Increasing neurodiversity in disability and social justice advocacy groups. Washington, DC: Autistic Self Advocacy Network.
Acknowledgement
Expert Consultant**
Brianne Leeson
Sensitivity editor, AuDHD peer support coach, speaker, writer.
Tamara Sorenson Duncan
Assistant Professor, School of Linguistics and Language Studies Carleton University
**Errors, if any, are the PI’s oversight.
[Page 25]
Page title: About the L’IMAGE project
Project PI and comic artist: Ai Taniguchi, Assistant Professor, UTM Department of Language Studies
Research Assistant: Haili Su, MA Student, UTSG Department of Linguistics
Special thanks to: Gilbert Lin, Assistant Director, Intercultural & Global Initiatives, UTM International Education Centre
With the generous support of: UofT International Student Experience Fund, UTM Department of Language Studies, UTM International Education Centre
Learn more: http://www.lingcomics.com
Bottom right of page shows the University of Toronto Mississauga logo and the University of Toronto logo.