Neurodiverse Affirming Teaching Practices - Part 1

9 July

Written By Belinda Whitlock

Let them draw,

It is not whimsical,

a waste of time or

a distraction.

Consider this:

Rachel is a Year 1 student and attends a mainstream state school. She is 6 years old and turning 7 in the middle of the year. On her second day in the class, her teacher explained that the class will ‘write’ about their holidays. Rachel and her class were provided with ‘writing’ books that consisted of blue lined A4 exercise books. Rachel and her class were instructed on how to write the date at the top of the page and the teacher modelled to all the students an appropriate way of beginning their narrative. ‘In the holidays I…..’

Rachel stared out the window remembering her holiday at the beach with her family: how the feeling of sand on her feet as she ran down to the water, icy cool as she jumped into the waves making her skin tingle, and the soft melted ice-cream her parents bought her to mark the end of the day at the beach made her want to lick her lips.

Her teacher’s loud reminder to start writing abruptly brought Rachel back to her classroom. She looked down at her page and saw a sea of blue lines. She didn’t know what to write on those lines, but they did remind her of the flat blue sea on a calm night. She remembered looking out the window at the moon sitting on the sea like a huge white balloon and thinking how magical it looked.

Her teacher came over and scribed the sentence starter for Rachel ‘In the holidays I…’ and she could see other kids had already done this themselves and also filled some of their lines with ‘words’. Rachel began to feel worried. She still didn’t know what to write. Her memory brought back feelings. She didn’t know how to write feelings. She wondered if she could draw what was in her mind instead and raised her hand to ask her teacher. She was reminded this was a ‘writing’ task and she needed to ‘write’. Rachel felt sad. She could see others placing their writing books away and getting ready for home time.

Rachel did not complete the ‘writing’ task that day. When she got home she was angry with her mother ‘apparently for not having her favourite type of cheese in the fridge’. She stormed off to her bedroom, put on her headphones and whilst listening to her favourite song on repeat, took out her colours and paper and drew that big old moon sitting on a dark blue sea. She wrote down three words: silver, icy, and amazing. Her teacher never got to see Rachel’s response. Instead, she noted down three judgements of Rachel that day.

She wrote: a daydreamer, easily distracted & reluctant to write.