More and more individuals are being born with learning differences due to a Heart/Right Brain Orientation. My experience as a teacher convinced me this is a “connective learning difference” rather than what we have misunderstood as an Autism Spectrum Disorder or related Deficit. See below for a listing of spectrum different-learners.* ADD redefined and applying to all spectrum individuals is ATTENTION DIFFERENTLY DIRECTED.
These individuals are here with a Connective Intelligence: sensitive, inspired, empathic, visionary and in some way, large or small, creative. But, lacking a left-brain filter, they can also easily be overwhelmed by linear input, sensory overload, and chemicals.
Why this experiential paradox? Sensitive, gentle, beautiful intelligences while lacking basic coping and living skills?
My name is Peggy Magilen and I have long looked at these and other questions regarding “learning differences.” What I saw while teaching were heart/right-brain connective individuals struggling and reacting to a left-brain-driven world of information and separation.
With sabbatical research, I found extensive support for paradigm-shifting answers hidden within what we’ve called disorders. Retiring early, I hoped to generate more understanding about spectrum individuals, and about the balanced use of our intelligences.
Spectrum individuals are here, in greater and greater numbers, in our extended families, and in the families of friends. They are compelling us to consider and honor both their connective intelligence and their extreme sensitivities to the separatist world we have created.
Formerly using the words “gifted” orientation, I now find “connective” orientation is a more inclusive and accurate description of the sensitive, gut-empathic, caring and uniquely creative intelligence that all on the ADD-autism spectrum have. This now applies to my use of “gifted” in all the papers I have written, for this orientation is the gift for these individuals and for the world around them.
*These different learners are those “with”: Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, Asperger’s Syndrome, and autism. (Many of these are now termed as Autism Spectrum Disorders.)
