UK schools testing a neurodiversity friendly program
Does malarky have a dormant phase before re-emerging?
According to a story in The Economist, some schools in the UK are pioneering a fresh approach to addressing special needs education. Some Dear Readers of Special Education Today may wonder whether the practices are actually innovative—or just reheated leftovers from decades ago.
In “A fresh approach to helping children with special educational needs: An experiment with ‘neurodiversity profiles’ is spreading across England” the unnamed author of The Economist article explained that some schools are responding to high rates of identification of students has having special education needs by delaying referral for formal identification by collaborating with parents to describe students’ needs in a “neurodiversity profile.” Here is the first paragraph of the story:
Panels with colourful drawings hover over the canteen at Mayfield School in Portsmouth, a sprawling new building for nearly 1,500 pupils aged four to 16 years. It is more than decor: they are part of recent measures to make hallways calmer. Sensory problems, such as heightened sensitivity to noise or bright lights, are common in people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd), autism and other “neurodivergent” conditions. They can make a child feel overwhelmed.
The story continues. There is a paragraph about how many students are identified, in the particular school and nationwide, as having special educational needs. That’s followed by another paragraph explaining that parents who waited for long periods of time to obtain identification as having special educational needs then found that the “diagnosis does not resolve the child’s problems.”
In 2022 Portsmouth pioneered a different model, which is now being tested in other parts of England, including Bristol, Cornwall, Kent and Manchester. In Portsmouth, students with behavioural and learning difficulties are no longer referred to the nhsautomatically for a medical diagnosis. Instead, each school’s send co-ordinator or a designated teacher sits down with parents to draw up the child’s “neurodiversity profile”. The goal is for teachers and parents to understand when the child is at their best and at their worst. This helps identify specific things that can help, including the child’s strengths (creativity, say, or a keen eye for patterns).
The adaptations are often simple. At Mayfield, some students have a timeout pass to leave class for a few minutes when they need a quiet space to reset or a short break to run up and down the stairs. Tinted plastic overlays help children with dyslexic symptoms (the colour stops letters and words from dancing on the page). Teachers use an empathetic approach for things like missing the uniform’s tie: a friendly greeting before asking nicely about the tie’s whereabouts prevents the build-up of tension.
Hmmm…colorful pictures to keep walking in the hallways from being over-stimulating? Permits to take a break (leave class?) when one feels the need? Tinted overlays to make letters stop dancing? Dear Readers, please raise your hand if you’ve heard of any of these innovations. Now, keep your hands raised if you have heard of reputable research indicating that the practices are actually helpful in students learning academic knowledge, skills, and social competence. Sigh.
Fortunately, at least one UK observer understands that this innovation is, well…uhm…malarky. David Didau, who writes the often excellent ‘stack, The Learning Spy, called out the story. Here’s a paragraph from his post entitled “The consequences of being wrong: How the most vulnerable in society have forced to pay for the mistakes of education reformers,” which is a commentary on how rarely popular education reformers have to face the consequences of their faulty recommendations:
In other news, The Economist’s account of Portsmouth’s “fresh approach” to special educational needs captures, almost unwittingly, the persistence of well-meaning but superficial reform. The coloured overlays, sensory panels, and timeout passes described at Mayfield School are meant to show compassion and responsiveness, yet they exemplify the displacement of cause by symptom. Instead of confronting the underlying literacy and behaviour issues that leave so many children floundering, the system reaches for aesthetic palliatives. These interventions soothe adults more than they help children, creating the impression of progress while leaving structural deficits untouched. The hard, unglamorous truth is that no overlay will compensate for a child who was never systematically taught to decode print, just as no fidget toy will restore the authority stripped from teachers. The Portsmouth model, like so many of England’s educational innovations, reflects Sowell’s law in miniature: it is ridiculously easy to be wrong1, when the costs are borne by children with special needs!
So, Dear Readers, at least you know you’re not alone in wondering what the heck educators are expecting when they adopt tried-and-failed methods. Mr. Didau is already calling out “Malarky! Malarky!”
I consider it fortunate that late in the article in The Economist, the author reported hat “researchers are just starting to look at what difference this approach makes.” Sadly, the author then notes that some officials “reckon it improves school attendance.” Hmm…uhm…is that the best outcome? Does anyone care whether kids have greater academic and behavioral competence?
Oh my! Double sigh.
Here’s a link to “A fresh approach to helping children with special educational needs: An experiment with ‘neurodiversity profiles’ is spreading across England” (published 30 October 2025). Note bene: Reading the post requires a paid subscription to The Economist.
Now, I’m just curious. Does anyone know where discredited practices, programs, procedures, and such go when they’ve been debunked? Is there maybe some giant lake in a remote part of Earth where colors overlays, learning styles, rapid prompting, and similar innovations are breeding? How do some of the offspring migrate back into our local systems? Are Malarky and Bologna actually some sort of zombies?
Wait a second…I’m now moving past my sighing fit. You don’t even have to hand me a spoon, because if I think enough about this fresh approach to helping our kids, I will just start gagging.
Footnote
Read David Didau’s article to learn more about Thomas Sowell’s “law.”