Attendance and Neurodivergent Students: Tips for an Inclusive School Culture

In this talk which will include numerous practical suggestions, Abby will discuss common neurodivergent traits and why it can be a challenge for neurodivergent students to attend and engage with school. She will share ideas from her research, which focusses on ADHD in primary school, as well as discussing how to address school attendance problems in neurodivergent young people.

Abby is a Senior Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Mental Health based within the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Research Collaboration (ChYMe), that sits within the Department of Public Health and Sports Sciences, in the Medical School at the University of Exeter, UK.

Abby’s research focuses on the causes and consequences of child and adolescent mental health difficulties, and the role that schools play in preventing, identifying and managing mental health difficulties.

Abby is currently conducting a programme of research that aims to explore and ameliorate the impact of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in schools. She is carrying out a 5 year NIHR Advanced Fellowship, developing and conducting initial evaluation of a school-based intervention for young people with impairing traits related to ADHD. Abby is working with children, parents and schools to co-design a toolkit of evidence-based behavioural strategies with extensive patient and public involvement. She plans to extend this approach to developing evidence-based public health interventions to other mental health problems, such as strategies to help school staff manage young people who self-harm.

Abby is also author of of ‘Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Attendance at School’, a chapter within ‘Mental Health and Attendance at School’ by Finning et al.

Find out more about Abby here.

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