I’m pleased to share that my latest article, Supporting Autistic Girls: Practical Strategies for Inclusive Teaching, has been published in Teaching Times.
The article explores a pattern that many teachers recognise but don’t always name: the quiet, compliant girl who appears to cope, yet may be working harder than anyone else in the room simply to stay unnoticed.
Autistic girls are frequently under-identified in school settings. Their differences are often masked by conscientiousness, perfectionism or social imitation. As a result, need is not always signalled through disruption or disengagement. Sometimes it is signalled through absence – the pupil who never asks for help, never causes difficulty, and rarely draws attention to herself.
In the article, I consider how inclusive practice can move beyond reactive support towards proactive classroom design. Rather than focusing on individual accommodation after difficulty emerges, the emphasis is on building environments where safety, predictability and fairness are embedded from the outset.
This includes thinking carefully about:
- how classroom routines communicate safety
- how sensory demands affect access to learning
- how collaboration is structured
- how teacher language shapes participation
- and how consistency across adults supports confidence
At its core, the article argues that inclusion is not an add-on or a specialist skillset. It is an act of noticing – noticing who receives our attention most often, and who quietly remains outside of it.
My hope is that this article contributes to a growing conversation about autistic girls in education: not as a niche group requiring exceptional measures, but as learners whose needs invite us to refine the environments we create for everyone.
The full article is available to subscribers via Teaching Times here: Supporting Autistic Girls: Practical Strategies for Inclusive Teaching
I’ll continue to write about inclusive literacy, neurodiversity-informed teaching and the intersection between research and classroom practice. If this is an area you’re working in, I’d be glad to connect.
Related posts and writing
- No Mask for Us: Why Recognition Matters for Autistic Girls
- Inclusive Education for Autistic Students: Evidence, Gaps, and Urgent Questions
- Rethinking Behaviour and Belonging
- New Publication: 6 Ways to Support Autistic Girls in Your Classroom
Written by Kate Coldrick, an educator and writer based in Woodbury near Exeter.
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