Rethinking Wellbeing of Neurodivergent Children in School with Charlotte MacDougall

Coping is not the same as wellbeing – and for too many neurodivergent children in our schools, the two are being confused.

Charlotte MacDougall, a neurodivergent specialist, joins Dale to discuss how we need to rethink wellbeing for neurodivergent children in school.

Charlotte argues that much of what schools offer as wellbeing support amounts to sticking plasters – well-meaning interventions that treat the symptom without addressing the cause. The cause, she suggests, is an education system that demands an enormous and largely invisible amount of energy from neurodivergent children, simply to get through the day.

A child who attends school and a child who is truly well are not always the same thing.

Dale and Charlotte explore the difference between a child who attends school and a child who is truly well, why the end-of-term explosion so many families recognise is a sign of a battery running on empty rather than a failure to cope with change, and why asking neurodivergent children to show more grit misses the point entirely – because many of them are already using every bit of it just to be in the room.

About Charlotte MacDougall Charlotte MacDougall is a neurodivergence specialist, education consultant, former school leader and founder of Nurture & Thrive. Combining professional expertise with lived experience as a neurodivergent parent, she works with parents and schools to better understand and support neurodivergent children.

Charlotte is the author of Reclaiming the Narrative and Thriving with SEND: Rethinking Success for Young Neurodivergent Minds, now in its second edition, and has written for the TES.

She recently spoke at the East Sussex Wellbeing Show on neurodivergent wellbeing and the impact of chronic stress and misunderstanding on children and families, and continues to provide training and consultancy for schools alongside parent programmes through Nurture & Thrive.

Free guide: building confidence in neurodivergent children

Reclaiming the Narrative and Thriving with SEND (book)

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