‘Diff‐ability’ not ‘disability’: right‐brained thinkers in a left‐brained education system

Abstract

This article draws on critical disability studies, challenging the exclusion of right‐brained thinkers from an education system designed to privilege left‐brained thinkers. It focuses on individuals who are labelled dyspraxic, providing data from qualitative interviews with adults about childhood experiences in school and the impact on their emotional well‐being and peer relationships. Utilising Ornstein's pioneering research on the bilateral specialisation of the brain and hemispheric dominance in addition to a critical disability studies theoretical framework, this article innovatively argues that the fact that education in England continues to be delivered in a logical sequential form, even 40 years after Ornstein's work, is systemic discrimination in which dyspraxic children are constructed as ‘deviant’. The article concludes by arguing that individuals with dyspraxia should be seen as having a ‘diff‐ability’ in thinking style rather than a disability and therefore recommends both change and awareness‐raising at institutional level in the education system.

The Purpose of Play

“…• Dyspraxia (often co-occurring with autism [44]) is the diagnostic term for differences and difficulties in motor coordination for everyday tasks. Resulting challenges in academic performance are related to a systemic mismatch not attending to these differences [47]. • Trisomy 21 (also known as Down Syndrome) is a genetic variation where the 21st chromosome pair is a triplet.…”

Sensory Compensation in Children Following Vision Loss after Trauma and Disease

“…Phantom limb pain has been well documented [5] where patients continue to experience pain and sensations in the amputated limb; and those with prostheses often become accustomed to the loss and to the artificial limb [6]. Edmonds [7], suggests differences in ability might be termed "diffability" rather than "disability", emphasizing individual differences instead regarding them as losses.…”