This is my first blog I am writing for my non-profit, LinguaLink. I founded this non-profit to empower the neurodivergent community and hope to achieve this with the cutting-edge research being done in the field of Computational Linguistics.
I have a friend who is neurodivergent. The way he talks is different from the way many others talk. He often gives long-winded explanations filled with intense detail, and if you let him, he will talk for hours straight. This has led many of my peers to write him off as “weird,” but I’ve always enjoyed his enthusiasm. I started to do research and realized that my friend wasn’t alone. Reading stories online, I learned that neurodiversity is incredibly broad, but there are many similar challenges. This realization inspired me to do something to help neurodiverse individuals facing communication barriers.
To understand this more, I explored ways to get involved as a volunteer in my school’s special options program; which, unfortunately, did not pan out. I then requested a meeting with Mrs. Faith, our coordinator for this program, to learn more about the challenges with neurodivergent community. My meeting with her was eye-opening. After speaking to her, it made sense why we are divided into two study programs of regular and special options , but my urge to break the barrier became stronger as well. From Mrs. Faith, I learned about the two biggest hurdles she notices. First, there is a struggle in detecting the tone of communication. Neurodivergent individuals often cannot understand sarcasm, anger, or excitement and joy in spoken speech. Due to this, they are not able to interact seamlessly in a neurotypical society where non-verbal cues are as important as verbal cues. Second, they often experience differences in executive functioning, which can impact their ability to complete tasks. This includes things like being able to organize their work, plan their tasks, and manage time.
I will take a two-pronged approach with my non-profit. I will do my part in creating awareness of neurodiversity, so that each of us is more sensitive to their needs and makes conscious efforts to assimilate them into society. I will also expand my horizon in artificial intelligence and, more specifically, computational linguistics to build an app that can help with the two primary things Mrs. Faith told me about!
I hope to gain support from my larger community on this journey and continue to write blogs to share my thoughts and learning with you all!
