Isabelle Finn-Kelcey
@isabellefk.bsky.social
MEd MRes Interested in narratives of neurodiversity, inclusive education, double empathy, EOTAS, neuroqueering. She/her.
Landscape changing v quickly. Edexcel has online iGCSEs with remote invigilation - pricey though, and not all access arrangements offered. Modular iGCSEs also coming in. Autumn exam season quieter than summer in centres - suit ND & anxious candidates. Obvs hard for schs to use these options.
November 11, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Landscape changing v quickly. Edexcel has online iGCSEs with remote invigilation - pricey though, and not all access arrangements offered. Modular iGCSEs also coming in. Autumn exam season quieter than summer in centres - suit ND & anxious candidates. Obvs hard for schs to use these options.
Great to hear this!
November 11, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Great to hear this!
Further Turing-style test:
Are we even remotely getting near to mainstream T&L being able to bridge (or appear to bridge) the #doubleempathy gap between (often) neurotypical teacher and #neurodivergent learner?
Evidence suggests - no.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Are we even remotely getting near to mainstream T&L being able to bridge (or appear to bridge) the #doubleempathy gap between (often) neurotypical teacher and #neurodivergent learner?
Evidence suggests - no.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Neuro-Normative Epistemic
Injustice – Consequences for the UK Education Crisis and School Anxiety - Emmie Fisher, Keren MacLennan, Sinéad Mullally, Jacqui Rodgers, 2025
The UK education system is failing to meet needs, leading to an attendance and school anxiety crisis. However, the system faults those disproportionately and mo...
journals.sagepub.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Further Turing-style test:
Are we even remotely getting near to mainstream T&L being able to bridge (or appear to bridge) the #doubleempathy gap between (often) neurotypical teacher and #neurodivergent learner?
Evidence suggests - no.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Are we even remotely getting near to mainstream T&L being able to bridge (or appear to bridge) the #doubleempathy gap between (often) neurotypical teacher and #neurodivergent learner?
Evidence suggests - no.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Good ideas. Could the aims, parameters, measures etc be agreed/coproduced with children & families - including NDs?
November 11, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Good ideas. Could the aims, parameters, measures etc be agreed/coproduced with children & families - including NDs?
I guess, for some children, learning via AI is less likely to result in poor MH & burnout than going to school? But this isn’t because AI T&L is good - it’s because schools are super harsh.
researchfeatures.com/children-fro...
researchfeatures.com/children-fro...
Children at the frontline — neurodivergence and school distress
Cognitive neuroscientist Dr Sinéad Mullally and her team surveyed over 900 parents of children displaying school distress.
researchfeatures.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:47 AM
I guess, for some children, learning via AI is less likely to result in poor MH & burnout than going to school? But this isn’t because AI T&L is good - it’s because schools are super harsh.
researchfeatures.com/children-fro...
researchfeatures.com/children-fro...
and only an offer of different forms of domination & alienation, depending on where we are positioned.”
@drrobertchapman.bsky.social calls it.
www.plutobooks.com/product/empi...
@drrobertchapman.bsky.social calls it.
www.plutobooks.com/product/empi...
Empire of Normality - Pluto Press
This is the rise of the anti-capitalist neurodiversity movement
www.plutobooks.com
November 9, 2025 at 9:22 PM
and only an offer of different forms of domination & alienation, depending on where we are positioned.”
@drrobertchapman.bsky.social calls it.
www.plutobooks.com/product/empi...
@drrobertchapman.bsky.social calls it.
www.plutobooks.com/product/empi...
Burning out the young, perhaps
November 9, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Burning out the young, perhaps
This looks great!
November 9, 2025 at 3:46 PM
This looks great!
You’re welcome 😀
November 9, 2025 at 3:42 PM
You’re welcome 😀
I was super lucky to have been in SE Asia when he was ed sec 😁
November 9, 2025 at 3:41 PM
I was super lucky to have been in SE Asia when he was ed sec 😁
It’s an interesting concept. It helps us to notice who is being facilitated to communicate & who isn’t. I think Jim is right to mistrust the (inevitable) imposition of oracy frameworks, resources etc, because they won’t be local, strengths-based etc.
November 9, 2025 at 3:37 PM
It’s an interesting concept. It helps us to notice who is being facilitated to communicate & who isn’t. I think Jim is right to mistrust the (inevitable) imposition of oracy frameworks, resources etc, because they won’t be local, strengths-based etc.
uncorrected, naturalistic comms opportunities that are just as important as more polished, performative comms. So I guess that’s why ‘oracy’ is now needed?
November 9, 2025 at 3:09 PM
uncorrected, naturalistic comms opportunities that are just as important as more polished, performative comms. So I guess that’s why ‘oracy’ is now needed?
PGCE French in my 20s, learnt Chinese in China in my 30s, MEd in special ed: autism in 40s etc. I tend to think that communication ‘affordances’ are down to the environment (eg facilitative vs non-facilitative) as much as anything. Post-Gove classrooms imv don’t favour the casual, spontaneous,
November 9, 2025 at 3:09 PM
PGCE French in my 20s, learnt Chinese in China in my 30s, MEd in special ed: autism in 40s etc. I tend to think that communication ‘affordances’ are down to the environment (eg facilitative vs non-facilitative) as much as anything. Post-Gove classrooms imv don’t favour the casual, spontaneous,
I’m sure it did. I think when I was at 2ndary sch (Yorks, comp) in 80s/early 90s, and when I was an ECT (Wilts, comp) in the late 90s/00s, there was much less deficit discourse re CYP’s use of lang & comm in relation to (notional) ‘standard’ English. I’ve been round a few blocks lang- & comm-wise:
November 9, 2025 at 3:09 PM
I’m sure it did. I think when I was at 2ndary sch (Yorks, comp) in 80s/early 90s, and when I was an ECT (Wilts, comp) in the late 90s/00s, there was much less deficit discourse re CYP’s use of lang & comm in relation to (notional) ‘standard’ English. I’ve been round a few blocks lang- & comm-wise:
Unfortunately, schools often take happy, healthy children and make them unhappy & unhealthy - esp autistic children. Dismissing this issue as a small problem in comparison with otherwise favourable outcomes is problematic.
researchfeatures.com/children-fro...
researchfeatures.com/children-fro...
Children at the frontline — neurodivergence and school distress
Cognitive neuroscientist Dr Sinéad Mullally and her team surveyed over 900 parents of children displaying school distress.
researchfeatures.com
November 9, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Unfortunately, schools often take happy, healthy children and make them unhappy & unhealthy - esp autistic children. Dismissing this issue as a small problem in comparison with otherwise favourable outcomes is problematic.
researchfeatures.com/children-fro...
researchfeatures.com/children-fro...
Better than bolt-on oracy imv
November 9, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Better than bolt-on oracy imv
Modifying the default social (& sensory) harshness of schools helps reduce eg stress & anxiety for eg autistic children - & therefore builds a better communicative env.
Fab OT perspective here on improving ed environments to facilitate communication:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Fab OT perspective here on improving ed environments to facilitate communication:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Exploring interpersonal and environmental factors of autistic adolescents’ peer engagement in integrated education - Yu-Lun Chen, Maxwell Schneider, Kristie Patten, 2022
Autistic students often struggle to engage with peers in integrated education; however, research has largely focused on individual characteristics rather than t...
journals.sagepub.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Modifying the default social (& sensory) harshness of schools helps reduce eg stress & anxiety for eg autistic children - & therefore builds a better communicative env.
Fab OT perspective here on improving ed environments to facilitate communication:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Fab OT perspective here on improving ed environments to facilitate communication:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 9, 2025 at 11:34 AM