Putting the pupil first: First steps towards truly neurodiverse classrooms 

Education columnist Jennifer Horgan consults experts in the field of neurodiversity for simple approaches that work for all children across schools.

Molly Kinane works as a support network manager at the Rainbow Club. She puts emphasis on sibling support, having grown up with an autistic brother. Picture: David Creedon

Joan McDonald is an autistic teacher who has recently contributed to a book written by autistic educators.

She works part-time in Middletown Centre for Autism, which offers vital training for Irish schools and is pleased to see a general shift in various organisations from a behaviourist/deficit model to something more person-centred.

“Organisations have been listening to autistic people. They understand now that if you have a cactus in a field of evergreens, it’s going to require different conditions.

"Neurodivergent people are people whose needs are not being met. Punishing or rewarding anyone is inappropriate in this context.”

Ms McDonald says the best approach starts with the child’s interests, gaining their trust and working from there. Autistic people pay attention to the world in a different way, so we must respond to that, she says.

This is not about pandering to them; it is about genuinely understanding them.

"Autism classes must support students to embrace, not hide their true selves and to develop into confident adults who know their needs and capabilities and have no shame in that.”

Ms McDonald acknowledges the challenges faced by teachers in over-populated classrooms.

“Teachers are usually the first people outside the family to support children’s learning.

"Since understanding of autism has been only through the medical lens, teaching strategies historically aimed to ‘fix’ the faults in children.

"This medical lens has been used for a long time and medical research still gets huge funding, so we mostly hear about deficits like a social-communication disorder with restrictive behaviours.”

Building trust

Far more important, says Ms McDonald, is the building of a strong relationship and trust, through a person-centred, interest-led approach; if the relationship is on the child’s terms, we can truly support them.

Neurodiversity Ireland is an organisation keen to change the atmosphere around additional educational needs.

Co-chair of Neurodiversity Ireland Nessa Hill says: “There are all these awards for school staff in Ireland, but none are dedicated solely to working with children with additional needs.

"We came up with neurodiversity awards for teachers and SNAs (special needs assistants) for this reason. It’s hard for parents to get children with additional needs into schools as it is so we really need to celebrate the people who help them once they’re in there.”

Neurodiversity Ireland is looking for nominations of great staff who work with neurodivergent children throughout the month of September.

Anyone can nominate: The student, a parent/guardian, or grandparent. The nominations can come from mainstream schools, special schools, or early years facilities, Ms Hill says.

We agree with the idea that it only takes one good adult.

"Reading through the nominations is really inspiring. There are teachers and SNAs out there doing incredible work with vulnerable children and we want to mark and celebrate that.”

Ms Hill is not saying the situation for children with additional needs is good enough, far from it.

“Very few of us parents have had a positive experience when it comes to schools and admissions and it’s certainly not the way it should be.

"But that doesn’t mean we can’t bring some positivity and brightness into the space. That’s still important for us as parents because having a neurodivergent child can present difficulties."

She is particularly critical of the medicalised terms used in the field.

“The use of the word ‘unit’ is awful. Our children are not a different breed. They might be different in certain aspects but not all.” Alongside the awards, Neurodiversity Ireland is launching a separate campaign called “LETMEBE”.

Race competitors from the Rainbow Club at the start of the 41st Echo Women's Mini-Marathon last month. Picture: Larry Cummins

Director of Neurodiversity Ireland Dairine Cullen says that a rigid approach to teaching and the class environment can be incredibly difficult and damaging for some young people with hidden or learning disabilities or additional needs.

Small things can make the biggest difference.

“Being dyslexic, I dreaded school starting. I was just so fearful of having to write on the blackboard or read out loud in class. However, when I had a teacher who understood why and challenged me in different ways, it was life changing. 

"Also, as the mother of an autistic girl I am relieved — and so is she — that her school is very supportive. She struggles with the sensation involved in wearing the school uniform, but luckily her school is very flexible, and she can wear clothes that let her feel comfortable and safe.”

The LETMEBE campaign suggests the following simple steps among others:

• Creating a “LETMEBEME” learning culture, by moving away from insistence upon historical, rigid learning methods which are unproductive, towards an inclusive and child-centred approach, creating an environment that supports each child’s differences and unique skills (eg not insisting upon “whole body listening”);
• Assessing and recording children’s needs and adapting and evolving teaching as those needs evolve creating or ensuring the best physical learning environment for each child (eg by assessing the physical environment for and reducing as far as possible sensory stress and by providing such equipment as may be possible to facilitate sensory regulation);
• Maximising opportunities for integration with the class, school year, school community, and the wider community;
• Creating opportunities to ensure that each child with additional needs feels included in their class and school setting, by removing markers, references, systems, or labels which have historically set those children apart from their peers (such as removing references to “ASD unit/special class”, movement breaks might be for the whole class rather than for one child, etc).

The Rainbow Club works outside the school system and offers invaluable insights on school experiences for neurodivergent students.

Social sessions run in its Cork centre from 1pm to 6pm every weekday, catering for people from two years old to 23 years old. Its approach is entirely led by the young person, by their needs and interests.

The Orange room in the Rainbow Club, Cork.

The club’s Molly Kinane explains: “We feel it’s important to support children beyond the age of 18. The place will still be there for them. We support over a thousand families and it’s never a one-size-fits-all approach.

"In fact, we see the result of that approach in the education system. We have so many young people coming to us with high levels of anxiety because of school.

"They often struggle with the social aspects of school, the noise, the expectations in classrooms. Of course, there is an issue with resourcing in schools but there is an urgent need for all schools to be inclusive in their approach to students.”

Ms Kinane sees the immeasurably good work alternative settings do to support children.

“Youth Reach, Cork Life Centre and National Learning Network do amazing work, offering a sanctuary for children who encounter difficulties in mainstream schools — who far too often end up anxious or potentially self-harming.”

Sibling support

The Rainbow Club puts great emphasis on sibling support. During these sessions, neurotypical siblings come and learn more about autism. Ms Kinane’s brother Sean was diagnosed with autism when he was five and Molly was 10. She struggled with it through her teenage years.

“Sean had a lot of regressive behaviours. Our home life was difficult. He was in and out of the school system. I was trying to navigate being a teenager at the same time and felt very angry and frustrated.

"If I had been educated I would have been less scared, less upset. Sean is doing really well now, but I wish I had known more back then.” Ms Kinane believes this education need to happen across schools, for all students.

“It’s not just teachers that need to understand. This is a societal issue.

Other kids need to understand it too, they need to be educated towards understanding.

This mirrors Graham Manning’s approach. A teacher and autism class coordinator who oversees the running of three autism classrooms in his school, he spends time educating students in full-time mainstream education also. He gives classes on autism to all first-year students.

Teacher Graham Manning gives classes on autism to all first-year students. Picture Dan Linehan

“I ask students in our classrooms, we call them ‘home rooms’, if they want to attend. They rarely do, but sometimes one student might be happy to share their experiences. Then I do a second lesson on how people process the world differently. I have great fun banging pots and pans whilst asking them to complete tough maths tasks. I turn on hairdryers, blare music. It just gives them an awareness of what the world might be like for someone else, and that awareness is key.”

He also sets up tours of the home room for neurotypical students and reports how much pride students feel in showing their classmates around. Every student in the school visits at some stage. It is very much part of the broader school community.

“When I started working in a special class in 2008, I don’t think people would have had a notion what I was talking about. But autism is much more known these days and schools have a duty to build on that.”

Knowledge and communication

Mr Manning also believes that knowledge of each child is key. He visits incoming students in their primary setting. He observes their class, without speaking to the child directly. He reads their reports, but often they’re out of date due to delays in this system.

He invites the child into secondary for a quiet walk around so they can get their bearings before school starts. He invites them to take pictures and videos. Then he invites them to transition in the month of May, so they can focus on settling in and having fun.

I often joke that I’m not a proper teacher.

"A lot of my job is administrative, organising timetables, getting weekly reports from the team of SNAs and teachers.

"Communication is so important, and nothing changes for these children without parent consultation and parent consent. All parents have my personal number, and I am happy to speak to them between 7am and 7pm. If a child has had a difficult experience it is imperative that myself and my team know about it.”

Asked what other schools are doing wrong, he is very clear in his response. “I would say that the primary issues and solutions to them are structural and often beyond schools’ control. However, in certain instances I think the wrong people are in the job. This is not just about training. This is a very specific job and it’s not for everyone.”

Mr Manning says he’s always learning because every child is different. He relies on a good system of communication and support.

“My managers are excellent. They are both SEN-trained and they support everything I do. The purpose of a good school is to make it so that everyone is replaceable. I have become a good delegator because no system is effective if it depends on one person. And if we can do it with limited resources, any school can do it. But it takes will and commitment and the right people.”

Warning against projection of neurotypical expectations

Founding CEO of Therapist Neurodiversity Collective Inc Julie Roberts is an international speaker, consultant, and writer. She is a late-diagnosed autistic speech-language pathologist who has been practicing for over 20 years. She warns against a projection of neurotypical expectations.

“Social stories are often used in schools, but we need to be very careful with them. Social stories can be helpful, or they can be harmful and shaming. If created correctly they are individualised informational tools that provide prior knowledge of an impending activity or situation to help a child reduce or alleviate uncertainty. They should be child-led, child-written,” she says.

According to Ms Roberts, research indicates that anxiety is the most common co-occurring condition in autistic children and that anxiety impacts concentration, learning, behaviour, and the autistic child’s ability to perform to the best of their abilities. The biggest cause of anxiety for autistic children is intolerance of uncertainty.

Some ways to relieve anxiety, she outlines, are to provide an accurate daily schedule, transition warnings, clear and concise directions with visuals, and consistently notifying the autistic student about activities, events or situations that may cause anxiety.

“A well-conceived, personalised social story may possibly be a helpful informational tool to help with these things, but I rarely see them written without judgmental and even shaming overtones of negative reactions from others if the student does not comply with behaviour expectations.” Ms Roberts is deeply critical of behaviour-based models in schools.

Denis Leamy, CEO of Cork ETB, with Gobnait Burke, Cork ETB and Rainbow Club volunteer and Karen O'Mahony, CEO/founder Rainbow Club Cork, at the Rainbow Club Cork HQ. Picture: Jim Coughlan

“I have students cry in my office because their teacher moved their clip from green to yellow, or red on the classroom behaviour chart that day. Many of them exhibit chronic anxiety in anticipation of the public shame they experience when they must walk across the room and move the clip themselves. Neurodivergent children on my caseloads have either had rewards withheld or lost rewards for things such as non-harmful stimming or fidgeting, not being able to sit still, for having a melt down or shut down in the classroom.”

She acknowledges how difficult it can be for teachers to manage very large class sizes.

“It can be overwhelming to have students with varying levels of support needs and communication abilities in the classroom when you have a certain curriculum to teach. I feel that inclusion is very important. I do support small group learning for individual subjects if the child thrives better in that kind of environment, but not excluding them from mainstream classes just because they are autistic.”

She believes the best way for teachers to manage large classes that include autistic and other disabled children is to first learn about autism.

“There are autistic researchers and educators who provide free or low-fee training online and who better to learn about autism and school experiences from than an autistic person?” Ms Roberts offer the following questions to support educators/parents when a student exhibits a “challenging behaviour”

• Is this behaviour due to sensory reactivity or the environment, including people in the environment? What is the unmet need? A focus on addressing your autistic learner’s needs instead of compliance will make the school environment better for the students and the teachers.
• Are transition or schedule changes occurring without the accommodations of warning and daily schedule?
• Is the student experiencing a loss of ability to communicate with spoken language because they are overwhelmed, including their ability to effectively self-advocate?
• Do you have low-tech augmentative and alternative communication (ACC) in place? There are lots of free AAC boards online which allow children to communicate clearly.
• Are they being bullied? Seventy per cent of autistic kids are bullied in school.
• Is this communication breakdown an example of the double empathy problem? Autistic v non-autistic perspective?
• Is the meltdown a result not being able to effectively mask an autistic trait? Autistic students can’t mask autistic behaviours all the time without detrimental outcomes.

Finally, Ms Roberts suggests that there may also be a teacher bias. This bias is often unconscious but needs to be identified.

“Research shows that teacher relationships with autistic students are poorer, sometimes significantly poorer than with their peers. The more teachers can learn about autism, other than the autism is a tragedy narrative, the better equipped they will be when they have autistic students in their classrooms.”