Acceptance

Supporting neurodivergence

A neurodiversity-affirmative approach in Early Years settings

Early Years settings can encourage acceptance and inclusion by adopting a neurodiversity-affirming approach.

Neurodiversity-affirming means that the focus is on children’s strengths and interests, with practitioners supporting areas of need through child-centered approaches.

Adopting a neurodiversity-affirming approach requires settings to re-think their current practices and values in order to be inclusive of all learners.

Key features of a neurodiversity-affirmative setting include:

• Training for all staff on the principles of neurodiversity and neuro-affirming practice.
• Comprehensive policy for inclusion developed in collaboration with neurodivergent staff, learners and stakeholders.
• Peer awareness modelled through whole class activities and interactions.
• Structured and predictable classroom environment.
• Supports provided to meet a range of needs and available for all to use without judgement; not just children with a medical diagnosis.
• All play is valued and supported through observation and planning.
• Support for non-verbal forms of communication and access to AAC technologies.
• Adopting an interoceptive approach to co-regulation which supports the child to notice and act upon their body signals using appropriate aids.
• Identification and removal of practices which may unintentionally disadvantage neurodivergent learners (e.g. public displaying of ranking/reward systems, incentivising attendance, demanding eye-contact / sitting still).
• Proactive school or system-level approaches, rather than reactive planning focused on individuals

Talking about neurodivergence

Using inclusive language and being mindful of the ways in which we speak to and about neurodivergent learners can help all children feel a sense of acceptance and belonging in the classroom.

Language surrounding neurodiversity is constantly evolving to reflect the preferences of the neurodivergent community. The terms below reflect current best practice.

This social story illustrates the different ways in which students may access the learning environment, helping children to understand there is  “room for us all to learn together”.

The following documents may be helpful in evaluating the approach to inclusion in your setting:

Belonging in Schools

Neurodiversity & Ableism Reflection Tool