Nova has many sensory issues, which can make everyday life difficult, as sounds may be painful, clothing may be unbearably uncomfortable, and the textures of certain foods might cause anxiety. When Nova has her meltdown, it is because of a combination of emotional anguish and sensory overload; when she is upset, she has a more difficult time filtering out the agitating sounds around her. In 1986, it is possible that her reaction—hurting herself, screaming, flopping to the floor—would have been called a “fit” or “tantrum,” but I chose to have Francine identify it as a meltdown because I felt it was important for readers to understand that what Nova experienced was the result of being overstimulated and overwhelmed. It was not a tantrum.

One label that Bridget and Nova particularly dislike is “severely mentally retarded.” The diagnosis “mental retardation” was originally brought into use to replace other hurtful labels like “idiocy” starting around 1895, but over time came to be harmful in its own right. By the 1960s, “retarded” was used as both a diagnostic term and as an insult, and the two uses continued to overlap for over forty years. When Nova was twelve, “mentally retarded” would have been one of her official diagnoses, while “retard” would have been a cruel name for another kid to call her, as Carrot Krystle does during Home Ec.

It has taken a long time for the “R-word” to be replaced. In 1992, the Association for Retarded Citizens of the United States changed its name to the Arc of the United States. In 2007, the American Association on Mental Retardation was renamed the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. In 2010, President Obama signed Rosa’s Law, which mandated changing “mentally retarded” to “individuals with intellectual disabilities” within federal labor, health, and education documents. And finally, in 2013, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) was updated, reclassifying “mental retardation” as “intellectual disability,” though other terms like “cognitively delayed” and “developmentally delayed” are also in use today.

When I was little, I was labeled “particular,” “picky,” and a “space cadet” because of my vast and varied sensory issues, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and overactive imagination. It was not until adulthood that I was told (initially by a board-certified behavior analyst) that these traits combined with others could indicate Asperger’s, as the disorder often presents differently in girls than in boys (and had previously not been extensively studied in girls). When writing Nova, I based some of her spectrum behavior on myself, but I also made her nonverbal, a late reader, and unable to write, which greatly isolated her in the days before the electronic communication devices. Now, with the release of the DSM-5, which expanded the criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder, Asperger’s is no longer its own diagnosis.