Thriving Over Surviving: The Importance of Creating Affirming Environments for Neurodivergent Learners

Increasing numbers of learners within the education system are neurodivergent with many encountering situations that impact their education, often in negative and exclusionary ways. This chapter highlights the importance of building understanding relationships with neurodivergent learners so that they can be authentic. The first section considers the importance of developing a neurodiversity affirming culture and identifies approaches to create and support this. Links are made to Universal Design for Learning and the importance of rejecting and moving beyond deficit discourses and practice whilst prioritising the development of a culture in which all learners can be and feel authentic, without pressure to conform to societal and educational norms. The aim of this being to support meaningful and positive experiences of education for neurodivergent learners. The second section identifies areas in which adaptations may be useful for neurodivergent learners based on common neurodivergent traits and shares practical examples of support from education.