Video games and neurodivergent experience are usually discussed in terms of access, mechanics, or representation. Games are increasingly understood as learning spaces: environments that model ideas about productivity, resilience, and what it means to function well within a system. That said, most games also normalise the expectation that effort (working harder, doing more) should be sustained, […]
When a Digital World Feels Safer Than a School Hallway
For some neurodivergent students, digital spaces aren’t just helpful, they’re essential. Sometimes, a virtual world can be more welcoming, more manageable, and more conducive to learning than a school hallway. And that’s not just about comfort; it directly impacts how learning happens. During my doctoral research, I spoke with an autistic teenager, let’s call them […]
Video games are rotting your brain
If you’re autistic, ADHD, or both, chances are you’ve heard plenty of strong opinions about “screen time”, games being “a distraction”, or worse, “addictive”. You may have tried to explain that Minecraft helps you feel more settled, or that Animal Crossing is the only kind of social interaction you can manage midweek. Often, those explanations […]
When the Body Speaks Digitally
For years, communication research has privileged face-to-face interaction, as though digital interactions were somehow less authentic, less embodied, less human. But what happens when the virtual body, the avatar, takes on the expressive and affective qualities of the physical one? What if the avatar isn’t a poor substitute, but rather a different modality of human communication? […]
Autism Research Needs a Redesign — And Neurodivergent Voices Must Lead It
Despite increased awareness of neurodiversity, much of autism research and educational design remains shaped by outdated models. Autistic people are still too often treated as subjects to be studied, rather than collaborators with insight and agency. Their participation is controlled, their input filtered, and their strengths too frequently framed as symptoms. It is not simply […]
How Video Games Are Unlocking Real-World Skills in Autistic Learners
For decades, video games have been seen as distractions — the enemy of attention, productivity, and academic focus. But emerging research, particularly in neurodiversity studies, tells a different story: for many autistic and ADHD learners, video games are not an escape from learning — they are the gateway into it. Rather than diminishing cognitive skills, games […]
Why “Learning by Doing” Needs a Reboot in the Age of Neurodiversity?
Learning by doing is often relegated to vocational education — associated with apprenticeships, trades, and hands-on professions. But in an era defined by rapid technological evolution, this narrow view no longer serves us. Technology offers far more than digital whiteboards and online worksheets — it opens new pathways for active, embodied, and personalised learning. For neurodivergent learners, particularly those who […]
Play, Creativity, and the Holding Space – Understanding Your Neurodivergent Child Through Winnicott
If your child uses Minecraft to create intricate worlds, becomes absorbed in arranging objects or repeating symbolic routines, or seems more at ease in imaginative play than in structured tasks, they may not be avoiding learning—they may be doing it, just not in ways that conventional settings are equipped to recognise. The psychoanalyst and paediatrician Donald Winnicott proposed a […]
William James and the Plural Self – Understanding Learning in Autistic and ADHD Young People
As a parent of an autistic or ADHD young person, you may have noticed how difficult it is for the systems around your child—particularly in education—to reflect the full complexity of who they are. Schools often ask them to be consistent, linear, and externally regulated. But your child might not be consistent. They might be […]
Henri Bergson and the Rhythm of Learning: A New Lens for Understanding Autistic and ADHD Time
If you’ve ever noticed that your child takes longer to transition between tasks, becomes completely absorbed in an activity to the point of losing track of the world around them, or seems to struggle with keeping pace in the classroom—it might not be because they’re unmotivated or inattentive. It might be because they’re experiencing a […]