Neurodiversity Affirming Schools: Transforming Practices So All Students Feel Accepted and Supported
By Emily Kircher-Morris and Amanda Morin
(Free Spirit Publishing, 2025 – Learn more)
Reviewed by Rachel Poirier
Amada Morin and Emily Kircher-Morris have provided an informative and comprehensive guide to the neurodivergent learning experience in Neurodiversity Affirming Schools, complete with detailed definitions of diagnostic labels, thorough comparisons of special education supports, and guiding questions for teachers on creating intentional spaces – academic, emotional, and physical – that nurture all students.
Their book is packed with information and offers some practical implementation strategies for educators who are striving to create accessible learning environments. From my experience, I found the following four suggested approaches particularly helpful for neurodivergent and neurotypical learners, as well as for teachers. These strategies can also be implemented immediately, should we be so inspired:
1. Incorporating Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. This allows for a supportive way to adapt to student learning needs while utilizing a strengths-based approach. Planning, delivering, and assessing content using the UDL framework intentionally considers the why, what, and how of learning, enabling educators to provide multiple means of engagement (lesson planning with the why in mind), multiple means of representation (teaching with the what in mind), and multiple means of action and expression (assessment with the how in mind).
2. Interpreting all student behavior, especially challenging behavior, as communication reflecting lagging skills in that particular moment.
3. Identifying barriers to student learning by starting with the end in mind. Not only is this a terrific way to model and build executive functioning skills, but it’s also a strong way to structure classroom rhythm – here’s one way that I like to do this on a micro level with daily task plans:
Rachel Poirier’s personal tool for teachers
4. Strengthening our own emotional competence through proactive stress management, self-reflection, and cognitive reframing (among other strategies). This advice is fabulous as a way to encourage more intentionality in our teaching practice. Not only will this serve us better, but this will then ultimately serve our students, families, and colleagues better.
Building cognitive flexibility
While there were many aspects of the neurodivergent learning experience Morin and Kircher-Morris presented that I appreciated, I found some of their arguments less compelling. The authors point out that schools often operate based on layers of power hierarchies; this “hidden curriculum” (pg. 218), from administration down to social structure within peer groups, can be perplexing for neurodivergent students. The authors suggest that educators should therefore reframe authority in terms of mentorship and guidance rather than dominance.
I agree that this reframing can be helpful within the school setting, and that the majority of educators come to the profession to guide and mentor students. However, as these inherent power structures and hierarchical systems exist throughout global communities and across every stage of life, I also see their existence and our engagement with them as an opportunity to build the skill of cognitive flexibility; inherent power structures also offer opportunities for teaching and interpreting literal nuance, which the authors speak to in their section on Social Acuity (…“by teaching neurodivergent students about social nuances and cues, you are equipping them with a map of the social landscape. They become aware of why certain behaviors or responses are expected in certain situations.” pg. 227).
A lack of intentional skill building in these areas may well lead to persistent social and academic difficulties for our neurodivergent students, and I therefore view the school environment as a naturalistic environment within which to teach some of these skills.
The authors’ further claim that, in order to be neurodiversity-affirming, one must acknowledge that “neuro-normative ways of being and communicating are the standard, thereby marginalizing and devaluing neurodivergent experiences.” (pg. 9) Statistically speaking, neuro-normative ways of being and communicating are, in fact, the standard – and I think that’s ok. It doesn’t mean that schools, teachers, and students shouldn’t be open to neurodivergent perspectives. However, the authors’ suggestion of integrating classroom lessons on the double empathy problem and neurodivergent communication styles feels like quite a heavy lift, particularly for K-8 classrooms and maybe even for high school classrooms.
This topic is probably more fitting for an introductory undergraduate elective course, particularly when considering that lagging executive function skills often co-occur with neurodivergence. Communication skills like conversational reciprocity and cognitive flexibility can be the very skills to focus on building within K-12 schools; these will serve all of our students in making and keeping friends and existing in community with others.
A valuable call to action
Overall, I appreciated the important insights and practical strategies offered by Neurodiversity Affirming Schools. The book serves as a valuable call to action, encouraging educators to reevaluate our practices and consider neurodiversity as a permanent and valuable component of equitable education. Some proposed approaches would require significant shifts in policy and mindset that are difficult to implement in already overstretched educational systems, and the authors readily acknowledge the broad systemic challenges that currently exist which impede genuine inclusion. Their outlook, however, remains hopeful – and that, dear readers, is wonderful.
Rachel Poirier M.Ed., Board Certified Behavior Analyst, is a parent coach and school consultant with expertise in Executive Functioning. Her passion for working with families was born out of her two-decades-long career as a middle years educator, teaching and training teachers both in the US and internationally, and her own unexpected parenting path. Her company, Pear Tree Behavioral Health, is committed to supporting children and their families with research-driven practices, and is bravely and intentionally parenting a remarkable tween.
