Understanding and supporting the 'Triple A' challenges in school
Published on 25 August 2022
Author: Dr Mary Hanley, Professor Deborah Riby
Dr Mary Hanley and Professor Deborah Riby are both Co-Directors of the Centre for Neurodiversity and Development at Durham University. Here they describe a tool that aims to support autistic pupils who experience attention and sensory differences, as well as anxiety.
The school classroom is the environment where we expect children and young people to engage in some of their most important formal learning. The classroom is typically a busy, complex, multisensory environment, including:
- sights – for example busy colourful displays, artificial lighting
- sounds – such as noise from other pupils.
- smells – for example from the canteen.
To focus and learn, pupils must filter out a lot of irrelevant information and sensory input in order to concentrate on schoolwork. Our research has found that some learners find this much more difficult than others, especially learners with attention differences, sensory arousal differences or heightened anxiety.
- Attention differences means it can be very difficult to stay focused on a lesson, especially when there are other things to capture attention (Hanley et al., 2017; McDougal et al., 2020a).
- Sensory arousal differences mean that everyday sensory inputs can cause hyper-arousal, a very distressing experience. It can also cause hypo-arousal, a failure to notice/engage (Jones et al., 2020; McDougal et al., 2020b).
- Anxiety often means the world feels like a very unpredictable place, which is very distressing and makes it difficult to focus on anything other than the source of the anxiety (Jones et al., 2020; McDougal et al., 2020b).
Autistic learners tend to experience all three of these (Jones et al., 2020; McDougal et al., 2020b), which affects their ability to engage and learn.
Importantly, our research highlights how these issues should not be considered in isolation (McDougal et al., 2020b). To be able to help learners engage in the classroom, we must understand the ‘whole child’ and see how these key aspects of everyday functioning interact with each other. This is why we refer to these related issues for learning – attention differences, sensory arousal differences and anxiety - as ‘Triple-A’, to emphasise their interaction and connectedness.
We need to think about the classroom environment itself. A major principle that underlies the Triple-A work is the social model of disability – that it is a mismatch between the environment and a person’s skill set that creates disability (Tøssebro, 2004). Much focus in supporting neurodivergent learners at school has been given to factors specific to individual pupils (for example cognitive ability, reading ability et cetera), but we really need to do more to think about the role of the classroom environment, ensuring it supports learning, not detracting from it (Hanley et al., 2017; Jones et al., in preparation).
Triple-A online training tool
Using examples from our research we have developed the ‘Triple-A’ training tool. This is an online training tool aimed at educators but freely accessible to anyone who wishes to use it. It aims to use research evidence to show why Triple-A issues can have such an impact on autistic and neurodivergent learners at school.
The training tool explores the nature of attention, sensory arousal and anxiety. It uses three examples of studies from our work that exemplify Triple-A issues at school.
- The first example focuses on an eye-tracking study that shows how classroom displays can act as a distraction, especially for autistic learners (Hanley et al., 2017).
- The second focuses on how sensory arousal differences affect autistic pupils – mostly through negative auditory experiences such as classroom noise from other pupils, unexpected noises like fire alarms and hand dryers. There can also be visual factors such as classroom displays, fluorescent lighting, as well as tactile experiences including unexpected touch from others in group work, assemblies and on corridors (Jones et al., 2020).
- The final study we focus on is a teacher interview study about barriers and facilitators to learning for autistic pupils, where anxiety emerges as one of the clearest barriers (McDougal et al., 2020).
The training provides a downloadable ‘Triple-A Toolbox’ of 35 practical strategies that educators can use to support learners with attention, arousal and anxiety. The toolbox was developed in collaboration with the Communication and Interaction Team at Durham County Council.
We launched the Triple-A training tool in March 2022, and since then we have had over 1000 people register to complete it. The feedback we have received so far has been extremely positive.
- 99% said the training was useful.
- 97% said it provided them with new information.
- 99% said it will help them support young people.
- 98% said they would recommend it to others.
Even more encouraging though, is that our data shows that after completing the online training tool:
- 60% of respondents reported a positive change in their knowledge.
- 56% reported a positive change in their confidence in supporting Triple-A needs.
- 90% said that following this training they would change what they do in support of young people with Triple-A challenges.
This is hugely positive, as it suggests that this training will lead to changes in how young people who experience Triple-A challenges are supported.
Future steps
Launching the Triple-A online training tool has been the first step in a programme of work on understanding and supporting autistic and neurodivergent pupil’s learning and engagement at school.
We are currently working on developing a training programme based on the Triple-A tool that can be delivered by special educational needs coordinators (SENCo) or additional support for learning assistants (ASLs), to all staff within schools. This will hopefully achieve consistent knowledge and practice throughout the whole school. In addition, we aim to add a module to our Triple-A training that focuses on issues specific to physical education (PE).
Further information
Centre for Neurodiversity and Development