This article critically reviews medical conceptualisations of Asperger’s syndrome and challenges the assumption that autism-related differences should be understood primarily through deficit-based diagnostic frameworks. It argues for a more socially informed understanding of difference and highlights the need to move beyond reducing individuals to lists of symptoms.

This article introduces the Sustainability Model of Educational Participation. It argues that outward participation does not always indicate secure underlying functioning, because engagement may be maintained through regulatory effort, contextual support or compensatory strategies. The model identifies five key domains for understanding participation sustainability: effort intensity, environmental dependence, contextual
consistency, transition response and temporal durability.

This article develops a participation-based framework for inclusive decision-making. It argues that educational and statutory systems should not rely only on observable functioning, such as attainment, attendance or behaviour, when judging whether a child’s needs are being met. Instead, it proposes that professionals should consider whether participation is sustainable, effortful, context-dependent or fragile over time.

This empirical study analyses statutory SEND documentation across refusal-to-assess decisions, later EHC plans and annual review records. It examines how educational participation and provision sufficiency are represented over time. The findings highlight the importance of evidencing whether a child’s participation is independently secure or dependent on structured support, adult mediation, environmental adaptation or specialist provision.

This article explores how children may appear to cope in the classroom while hidden barriers to participation remain unrecognised. It extends Marc’s wider research on hidden educational need, masking, participation sustainability and the importance of interpreting school evidence carefully.

This study explores whether early signs of emerging SEND vulnerability can be identified before a young person reaches crisis point. Drawing on four retrospective case studies of pupils aged 12–15 who later experienced school refusal or withdrawal, it examines how early indicators were visible within everyday school life but often overlooked because pupils appeared to be coping.

The findings suggest that outward competence, reliance on support, differences between home and school presentation, and the effort required to maintain participation can conceal growing difficulties. Crisis may occur when these compensatory strategies become unsustainable, particularly during transitions such as moving to secondary school.

The study highlights the importance of looking beyond attainment, attendance and behaviour when identifying need. Schools may need to consider how sustainable participation is, how much effort it requires, and whether the learning environment is a good fit for the pupil.

This article explores how autistic pupils can appear to cope successfully in mainstream school while their participation remains effortful, environmentally dependent and difficult to sustain over time. Drawing on nine practitioner assessment narratives, it introduces the distinction between observable participation and sustainable participation, highlighting the importance of considering not only whether a pupil is participating, but how that participation is achieved, what it costs and whether it can be maintained as demands change.

This article explores what it really means for pupils to belong in school. It argues that inclusion should be judged not only by the support, interventions or adjustments a school provides, but by whether pupils are genuinely able to participate, build relationships, have a voice and feel that they matter.

It introduces the Belonging-Led Inclusion Framework, which identifies six key areas that shape pupils’ experience of belonging: recognition, participation, relationships, curriculum access and identity, agency, and mattering.

The article offers a practical way for schools to think beyond provision alone and consider how the organisation, culture and everyday life of school can help all pupils become valued and meaningful members of the school community.

This article explores how autistic masking may be visible in the kinds of assessment reports and professional records that are routinely produced about children and young people.

Research into masking has traditionally relied heavily on interviews and people describing their experiences after the event. This article argues that professional assessment narratives can provide another valuable source of evidence because they capture how a pupil functions across different settings and over time.

It highlights patterns that may indicate masking, such as a child appearing to cope in one context but struggling in another, needing significant support to maintain apparently successful participation, or experiencing exhaustion and emotional distress despite appearing outwardly capable.

The article proposes that these professional records should be viewed not simply as documentation, but as valuable real-world qualitative evidence. Used carefully, they can help researchers and practitioners recognise needs that may otherwise remain hidden when too much emphasis is placed on observable behaviour or test scores alone.

This study explores how emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA) can develop over time in autistic pupils.

Drawing on specialist educational consultation records relating to 30 autistic pupils aged 10–14, the study identifies a common pattern in which children initially continue attending school while masking significant distress. Over time, pressures such as sensory overload, social difficulties and anxiety can build until maintaining attendance becomes increasingly difficult.

The findings also show that early signs of distress may sometimes be misunderstood as behavioural or attendance problems, which can delay the support pupils need.

The study highlights the importance of recognising hidden distress early and addressing the environmental pressures contributing to it, rather than waiting until school attendance has significantly broken down.