To implement in your classroom for neurodivergent children, that benefit everyone!
1. Visual supports, schedules and communication aids
Visual timetables, boundaries (e.g. tape/labels defined spaces) and communication cards present clear structures/routines, offer non-verbal communication options, increase independence, and state expectations.
• Keep them accessible – student’s eye-level, in known, consistent places.
• Keep them simple – not too cluttered, or too bright.
• Model their use – use visuals even when you think they’re not necessary.
2. A sensory-friendly environment
Visual stress and sensory overwhelm are silently dysregulating, stack up, and lead to meltdowns/outburst that “come from nowhere”. Movement is essential for regulation, fundamental to learning, and a crucial part of cognitive development.
• Reduce clutter on walls and surfaces - keep colours minimal, avoid haphazard placing.
• Turn off the whiteboard when not in use.
• Ensure site team attend to broken lights etc. ASAP.
• Switch off overhead lighting when possible.
• Create openly-accessible quiet / sensory spaces (i.e. not for specific ‘quiet time’)
• Schedule movement/sensory breaks into lesson planning.
• Allow “fidget” items.
• Consider sensory circuits, the Daily Mile, mindfulness etc. not as ‘add-ons’, but core curriculum.
3. Clear, structured instructions
To over-stimulated systems, multi-step, even simple instructions can be impossible to implement. Dysregulated, auditory and cognitive processing is slower than you expect.
• Break tasks into clear, separately-communicated steps.
• Consider using ‘This’ then ‘That’ cards or signs.
• Set expectations for task switching with several notices of the end of an activity.
• Expect that some children will find transitions hard, maybe letting them complete a task will be less disruptive overall, than insisting they finish with everyone else.
• Count to five before repeating a phrase/instruction to allow processing time.
4. Contextualising rules and expectations
Societal and school rules seem arbitrary without context, and children, particularly neurodivergent ones, have a strong sense of justice sensitivity.
• Explain the context of rules, encourage curiosity, not blanket compliance without understanding.
• Don’t equate eye-contact and stillness with readiness to learn. Maintaining that can be taxing, meaning a child’s focus is on ‘performing’ readiness, rather than actually being ready.
• Encourage intrinsic motivation (i.e. doing right because they understand why it’s right) rather than extrinsic (i.e. doing right to avoid getting into trouble, or to get rewarded).
• The root of the word ‘discipline’ means ‘learn’, not punish, not restrict, not condition. Correction must be educational, not punitive, consequences natural, not arbitrary.
5. Assume nothing
We have expectations of children that we don’t have of adults. We hydrate when we need to. We stretch our bodies, use the bathroom (with obvious caveats around employment), avoid people, dodge work/tasks, and when we’re overwhelmed, we have the vocabulary to articulate it.
• Don’t enforce group/pairs work, or push the concept that ‘we’re all friends’ and must get along. Some children don’t want/can’t handle company.
• Assume nothing about children’s understanding of why or what’s being demanded of them.
• Assume you know nothing of what a child is bringing to school (i.e. a bad night’s sleep, a poorly grandma, a row with siblings, belly ache etc).
• Consider that rewarding attendance and punctuality is discriminatory for children with chronic conditions and neurodivergence. Children attend, and do well, when they can. A regulated, calm, ready-to-learn child arriving twenty minutes late, is preferable to a child arriving on time, but stuck in fight or flight, entirely unable to learn.
To learn more, or to book a consultation with Ciara on how best to create an inclusive and supportive environment for neurodivergent children, click
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