Short report: Evaluation of wider community support for a neurodiversity teaching programme designed using participatory methods

Children with neurodevelopmental diagnoses often experience discrimination from their peers at school. This may result from a lack of understanding, and intolerance of differences in their thinking, communication and social interactions. Learning About Neurodiversity at School (LEANS) is a teaching programme designed to educate primary school children about the concept of neurodiversity. The LEANS programme was created by a neurodiverse team, using participatory methods. In the current study, we evaluated whether the wider neurodiverse community endorsed the planned design generated by our participatory approach. Respondents (n = 111) rated their support for key elements of the planned LEANS content, via an online survey. Participants were majority neurodivergent (70%), 98% of whom reported moderate-to-high familiarity with neurodiversity concepts. Over 90% of respondents expressed support for the planned content presented, and 73% of respondents endorsed the draft neurodiversity definition provided. A small number of respondents provided open-ended comments giving further detail on their views. Overall, the LEANS programme plan received a high level of support from this independent, neurodiversity-aware sample – demonstrating the potential of small-group participatory methods to generate wider community support. The completed resource is now available as a free online download.