At last I have got around to responding to Professor Dame Uta Frith's TES piece, in which she questions the autism spectrum

In a nutshell, I disagree...

"yes, autism is a broad and diverse category — that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with the category itself"

medium.com/@suefletcher...

Experts At Hand: A good idea built on wishful thinking and shaky foundations — Special Needs Jungle Matt Keer looks at the DfE's Experts At Hand SEND plan: big funding, unclear delivery, weak accountability and a serious specialists shortage

NEW POST: A good idea built on wishful thinking and shaky foundations. Matt Keer looks at the Department for Education's Experts At Hand SEND plan: big funding, unclear delivery, weak accountability, and a serious shortage of specialists www.specialneedsjungle.com/experts-at-h...

Campfire Learn Together: Solving the Frankenstein Problem For our weekly Campfire Learn Together, we watched "Keynote: Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang | Solving the Frankenstein Problem: Why all learning is social, emotional, cultural and cognitive to the brai...

Campfire Learn Together: Solving the Frankenstein Problem

For our weekly Campfire Learn Together, we watched and discussed “Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang | Solving the Frankenstein Problem: Why all learning is social, emotional, cultural and cognitive to the brain“.

stimpunks.org/2026/04/19/c...

“Masking is a form of oppression rather than a way of resistance. This is why it’s not code-switching or world traveling.”
- @el-dewar.bsky.social

When we talk about people being 'neurotypical' it just means that they're *treated* as being typical. They may never have a pressing need to think about how their processing differs from other people's.

That doesn't mean it doesn't actually differ!

It means they fit with neuronormative standards.

The Missing Guidebook to Neurodiversity Studies (and Why We Wrote It) Introducing a Very Short Introduction

I've written a brief post about our new book, why its important to me, and what we hope to achieve with it.
open.substack.com/pub/neurodiv...

Brian in an orange hat at St Andrew’s

Gathering for the @stalbansdiocese.org annual pilgrimage from (perhaps) the southernmost parish.

Fried egg sandwiches ready; have just misplaced a church warden.

A reminder for folks who are going to #INSAR2026: Last year the Autism Science Foundation provided branded badge lanyards for all attendees. If you would prefer to not chance signal-boosting an anti-neurodiversity, anti-autistic advocacy org, bring your own lanyard. #TheMoreYouKnow #neurodiversity

I’ll see you at the Jesus Arms

This is so, so well-articulated.

Good - Etymology, Origin & Meaning "o") "excellent, fine; valuable; desirable, favorable, beneficial; full, entire,… See origin and meaning of good.

Today’s rabbit-hole; the etymology of ‘good’.

From the Old English gōd meaning pious through Middle English meaning holy which stuck in Good Friday.

Now confusing nieces who know good as in ethical… which doesn’t sit as well with the Easter story.

www.etymonline.com/word/good

Looking foward to this.
Laura’s work (and that of Karen Goldberg and the Neurodivergence Task and Finish Group) set the standard for what other policy should echo.

Looking at you short-on-details SEND white paper.

Holding a flyer for ‘What I (don’t) know about autism.

Just back from “What I (don’t) know about Autism” by The Sixth Sense Collective at The Arts Theatre Cambridge

Won’t lie; the reading of the names of autistic folk with a LD who have died at the hands of their families nearly broke me.

They set it to the music of michaelhowellmusic.com. Haunting.

Book scan: In this dreadful exigence, Mentor appeared not only fearless and calm, but more than usually cheerful; he encouraged me to hope, and, as I spoke, I perceive myself inspired with invincible fortitude.

For my fellow mentors

From 1715;
Messire François Salignac de la Mothe-Fenelon‘s Adventures of Telemachus p.13

The mind visualisation paper is classic Galton:
Starts - invents new statistics - shows visualisation is a different in wasp men and boys - concludes he can be racist.

Maybe even the 1870s. Thomas Galton wrote how many ‘men of science… protest that mental imagery was unknown to them’

But he also kick-started eugenics; so read with care.

galton.org/essays/1880-...

#NeurodiversityCelebrationWeek
Some transdiagnostic work from our recently wrapped up SuPer project.

A storm of PostIt Notes
doi.org/10.1177/2754...
5 themes on focus from autistic, AuAdhders, ADHDers and the PNT (predominant neurotype):
1/6

Co-Constructing Creative Methods for Voice with Sarah Parsons [5-MAR-25] Most research that includes the voices of autistic children and young people uses traditional research methods (interviews and surveys), which can exclude many from participating. ACoRNS research focuses on the co-creation of creative methods to enable autistic children and young people to contribut

In case you missed it, the last #CRAEwebinar is now up on YouTube:
'Co-Constructing Creative Methods for Voice' with the lovely Sarah Parsons from @acornsoton.bsky.socialwhere.

Theoretical limitations on mindreading measures: commentary on Wendt et al. (2024) This paper sees potential problems with traditional ToM tests by identifying the types of skills that are necessary for ToM judgements. Often, as psychologists, we are attempting to design experime…

On the tests:

crae.ioe.ac.uk/theoretical-...

UK energy prices are soaring – and propagandists want to sell you a false reason why | George Monbiot The war on Iran has put fossil-fuel prices centre stage, but don’t believe those who tout ‘maximising the North Sea’ as our salvation, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

If it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between fossil-fuel lobbyists and the billionaire press, that's because there isn’t one.
My column on the politicians, journalists and junktanks using the Iran crisis as an excuse to extract our remaining gas and oil.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

As part of our exam equity for neurodivergent students project, CRAE is now inviting UK-based centres with students taking Pearson GCSE examinations to take part in the next phase of this really important project.

If you work at a UK secondary school, could you help?
🧵 read on...
1/3

"...all these attempts at Windows of Safety can’t be done alone, ... Autistics need not only to protect one another, which we do as fiercely as possible, but we need our allies, too, to help us create sanctuary"

Let's practice niche construction & build Cavendish Space
stimpunks.org/glossary/cav...

No, autistic people are not ‘mind blind’ – here’s why The idea that autistic people lack a ‘theory of mind’ has shaped ASD research for 40 years. The evidence never supported it – and it’s time to move on.

There’s a good piece in The Conversation on the issues with ToM as a concept in describing autism (and it refs our Geoff Bird’s work)

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Delighted to have our new paper, “Eliciting the views of autistic adolescents attending specialist schools on what friendships mean to them”, published in @journalautism.bsky.social! 🧵

#autres #openaccess

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Alongside the government's #SENDwhitepaper the The Neurodivergence Task and Finish Group have published their recommendations for mainstream education.

assets.publishing.se...

So chuffed to have arrived at #A-Fest; amazing speakers lined up including the brilliant @petewharmby.com and @dean-beadle.bsky.social

It is!

All hail the sacrificial pancake; without your rubbery pile non other would be crispy.

Today, UCL turns 200. 🎉 For two centuries, our community has opened doors, challenged convention and pushed the boundaries of knowledge across every discipline. Thank you to everyone who’s been part of the UCL story, here’s to the next century. ✨

#UCL200 #LoveUCL