2023 In Review

Achievements in 2023

After successfully releasing the LEANS resource pack and launching our website in June 2022, we continued to build on that work in 2023 and extend it in new directions. It’s been a busy year!

Our whole team is extremely pleased and proud that there continues to be so much interest in LEANS, and that people are still downloading the resource, attending talks and viewing recordings, and reading our new publications (see following section).

• We passed 6400 LEANS resource downloads in our first 18 months (June 2022-Dec 2023), from users around the world! Views of our resource launch webinar have also continued over time, with 950+ views. It’s still the most comprehensive overview of the resources, for anyone looking for a LEANS talk!
• The LEANS Champions programme launched early in 2023, and has had a very successful year with our Champions running local info sessions and workshops, supporting colleagues, and so much more. Find out about our Champion educator-experts, and how they might be able to help you.
• In May, we launched translation and licensing opportunities for the LEANS resources, with support from Edinburgh Innovations. The first translation is already in progress, with more on the way! Our detailed translation info website explains the process, and has copies of all relevant paperwork around translation proposals and licensing agreements.
• The LEANS project was shortlisted in the Inclusive Education category of the 2023 Celebrating Neurodiversity Awards. Read our news item about this nomination.
• Policy engagement: We wrapped up the year with a very successful talk as part of the Scottish Government’s Education Research Seminar Series, and a short policy briefing, now available for download.
• LEANS prominently featured at conferences this year, including the It Takes All Kinds of Minds neurodiversity conference in Edinburgh, International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) in Stockholm, European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) Glasgow, and British Educational Research Association (BERA) in Birmingham. See more about our past conferences.
• We delivered talks and training to professionals through schools, local authorities, the NHS, and other organisations. Thank you for joining us, and your questions and engagement before, during, and after these events. It has been amazing to meet so many people interested in incorporating neurodiversity knowledge and research into their professional practice and their settings!

Finally, don’t forget—we also launched our LEANS community challenges in spring 2023! Can you share the resources with others, or set up/join a group connecting people interested in neurodiversity and education? Find out more here.

LEANS Publications

Academic publishing can take a long time, but we are pleased to announce that LEANS reporting is now starting to come out! Many thanks to all those who have already read and downloaded these items.

LEANS 2020 consultation study (part of developing the resource pack): now published! (free)

Zahir, R., Alcorn, A. M., McGeown, S., Mandy, W., Aitken, D., Murray, F., & Fletcher-Watson, S. (2023). Short report: Evaluation of wider community support for a neurodiversity teaching programme designed using participatory methods. Autism, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613231211046

LEANS 2021 small-scale school evaluation study: pre-print now available (free)

Alcorn, A. M., McGeown, S. P., Mandy, W., Aitken, D., & Fletcher-Watson, S. (2023, September 1). Learning About Neurodiversity at School  (LEANS): Evaluation of the LEANS resource pack in mainstream primary schools. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/fhc2k

Our LEANS news section says more about what pre-prints are, and how this is different than having a paper accepted for publication.

What's next for LEANS?

End of project funding

LEANS project funding and staffing ended in December 2023, meaning that there are changes in 2024 in how we respond to project enquiries, participate in events, and more.  Right now, we have not secured funding to develop new LEANS content or further evaluate the existing resource - but team members and other colleagues in neurodiversity research are still actively working on funding applications to pursue these goals!

The LEANS resource pack, parent-carer resources, and this website will remain online as usual throughout 2024 and beyond. No one will lose access, and all terms of use remain the same! If this access changes in the future, we will give as much notice as possible through the mailing list, website, and social media.

For more information on what the end of funding may mean for you, please see our dedicated end-of-funding information page.

LEANS in the Community

The fact that LEANS does not yet have funding for further staff time or new research makes community efforts even more important than they already were. Our project team has worked very hard to make LEANS widely available and to share the message of why neurodiversity knowledge is important in education - but using it is up you! Starting in late 2022, we began working on tools for the community to take the initiative and take LEANS forward, wherever they are. Educators, families, and professionals are the people who know their communities, and are in the best position to get neurodiversity issues on the radar, and into classrooms. Our A4 info sheet, recorded talks and media, and parent-carer resources are all useful tools to start those conversations, and our LEANS Champions can also help. Our LEANS Communities Padlet (online noticeboard) can help connect people and groups interested in neurodiversity-affirmative education.

Policymakers at local and national level also have important roles to play, incorporating neurodiversity into wider understandings and policies around inclusion, diversity, disability, and rights. Official recognition can be an extremely powerful tool to signal “neurodiversity and neurodivergence matter”.  See our 2023 policy brief for Scotland.

We would love to hear what you do with LEANS and with other neurodiversity education tools, wherever you are. Our replies may be slower, but our inbox is always open! Even as our former LEANS team members focus on other work for the time being, we remain committed and hopeful that better school experiences are possible for neurodivergent children, and that classrooms that expect and respect diversity are possible everywhere, and for all. Thank you for sharing this hope. Thank you for all you have done so far.