Concepts
Some of the most useful ideas in sensory and neurodivergent experience aren’t diagnoses. Monotropism explains why a transition can be harder than the task. Interoception explains why a child may not notice hunger until it becomes a meltdown. These concepts describe how something works, which is often what a diagnosis leaves out — and understanding them frequently changes what helps more than the label does.
How attention and experience work
Monotropism
A theory of attention: interests as deep tunnels, and why moving between them is so costly.
Interoception
The sense of what is happening inside the body — hunger, thirst, needing the bathroom, and the physical side of emotion.
Communication
Regulation and demand
Pathological demand avoidance
An anxiety-driven need to avoid everyday demands — including things a person wants to do.
Autistic burnout
Exhaustion and loss of skills after sustained overload. Distinct from depression, and recovered from differently.
Stimming
Repetitive movement as self-regulation, and what suppressing it actually costs.
Movement and the body
Crossing the midline
Reaching across the body’s center line — a small motor skill that underpins larger ones.
W-sitting
The sitting position parents are most often warned about, and what the evidence actually supports.
Looking for a condition rather than a concept? → Sensory processing · Autism · ADHD · Not sure where to start
Disclaimer. For general educational purposes; not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.