← Lexis1 Mar · 40 min

Episode 81 - Jessica Aiston & Eltham Hill School students on the language of neurodiversity

Episode 81 - Jessica Aiston & Eltham Hill School students on the language of neurodiversity1 Mar40 min

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Welcome to episode 81 of Lexis, a special student takeover edition which features Freya and Miles from Eltham Hill School in South London in conversation with Dr Jessica Aiston, postdoctoral research assistant in Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London (and who previously appeared on episode 50 talking about critical discourse studies). The episode is all about the language of, and around, neurodiversity, including:<ul><li>Why this episode exists and why Freya and Miles wanted to record it</li><li>What we mean by ‘neurodiversity’ and other helpful definitions</li><li>The neurodiversity paradigm</li><li>Terms, labels and the history behind these</li><li>The pros and cons of certain labels</li><li>The importance of autistic people having agency in the terms being used </li><li>Semantic reclamation and euphemism cycles</li><li>Person-first and identity-first terms</li><li>The importance of autistic people centering themselves and being centered in linguistic research</li><li>Using the lens of CCritical Discourse Analysis for exploring discourse around autism and neurodiversity</li><li>Jess’s current work on the Autism in Affinity Spaces project</li></ul>Jess has supplied the following references based on the topics raised in the show:<ul><li>Kenny, L., Hattersley, C., Molins, B., Buckley, C., Povey, C., & Pellicano, E. (2016). Which terms should be used to describe autism? Perspectives from the UK autism community. Autism, 20(4), 442-462. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361315588200">https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361315588200</a> </li><li>Botha, M., & Cage, E. (2022). "Autism research is in crisis": A mixed method study of researcher's constructions of autistic people and autism research. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1-22. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1050897">https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1050897</a> </li><li>Botha, M., Hanlon, J., & Williams, G. L. (2023). Does language matter? Identity-first versus person-first language use in autism research: A response to Vivanti. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 53, 870-878. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04858-w">https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04858-w</a> </li><li>Cage, E., Crompton, C. J., Dantas, S., Strachan, K., Birch, R., Robinson, M., Morgan-Appel, S., MacKenzie-Nash, C., Gallagher, A., & Botha, M. (2024). What are the autism research priorities of autistic adults in Scotland? Autism, 28(9), 2179-2190. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613231222656">https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613231222656</a> </li><li>Botha, M., Chapman, R., Giwa Onaiwu, M., Kapp, S. K., Stannard Ashley, A., & Walker, N. (2024). The neurodiversity concept was developed collectively: An overdue correction on the origins of neurodiversity theory. Autism, 28(6), 1591-1594. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241237871">https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241237871</a> </li></ul>Jess’s paper on the importance of inclusive linguistics research: Aiston, J., Koteyko, N., & van Driel, M. (2025). Discourse-based approaches to autistic focussed interests: Understanding shared focus, mutual accommodation, and multimodal expression, Applied Linguistics <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaf006">https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaf006</a> The project website for Autism in Affinity Spaces can be found here: <a href="https://autisminaffinityspaces.org/">https://autisminaffinityspaces.org/</a> Jess on ResearchGate: <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jessica_Aiston">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jessica_Aiston</a> Jess’s work on CDS featured on this episode of Lexis: <a href="https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/6XMKoRtp90b">https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/6XMKoRtp90b</a