Â鶹´«Ã½

From Inés Antón Méndez, Madrid, Spain

To describe individuals with conditions such as ADHD, James Brown and Alex Conner want us to use new terms – “neurodivergent” instead of “neurodiverse”, for example. They think that “vague or inaccurate language reinforces stereotypes”(7 June, p 21).

I beg to differ. History shows it is naive to think changing the term for something is going to achieve a change in attitude towards it. While there is a close connection between language on one side and cognition and emotion on the other, this doesn’t necessarily mean it is possible to change the latter by manipulating the former.

Neurodiverse may appear less “proper” when considering the original meanings of diverse and divergent, but, if speakers have opted to use neurodiverse to refer to individuals, there is nothing wrong with it. By all means, try to change damaging attitudes, but let’s do it in a more efficient way. Changes in attitudes always drive change in language, but imposing new terminology often just results in the new terms inheriting the connotations of the old ones.