MARC WHEELER, ST CHRISTOPHER’S MULTI-ACADEMY TRUST, UK; WHEELER EDUCATION, UK
Introduction
Inclusive education is often judged through what can be readily observed. Students who attend regularly and engage calmly are often viewed as coping successfully. Research on autistic masking or camouflaging challenges the assumption that outward participation reflects genuine accessibility or wellbeing. Masking refers to the conscious or unconscious suppression of difficulty in order to meet social expectations (Hull et al., 2020). While this may enable participation within structured classrooms, it can rely on sustained cognitive and emotional effort, especially where sensory, social and organisational demands are complex (Ashburner et al., 2010). Distress may emerge once compensatory effort can no longer be maintained (Livingston and Happe, 2019). For teachers and SENDCos (special educational needs and disabilities coordinators), this creates tension. School experience may suggest that a student is managing well, while families describe anxiety, fatigue or emotional dysregulation beyond the school day. Rather than conflicting accounts, such differences may reveal the cost of participation. For example, a student may complete lessons and follow routines, yet require prolonged recovery at home because apparent success depended on sustained compensation. Attending carefully to classroom–home discrepancies may therefore support preventative adjustment before coping strategies begin to fail.
This article aims to explore how recognising masking behaviours can inform more sustainable inclusive classroom practice. It presents a classroom-based case study of one autistic student in a mainstream primary school. Consistent with practitioner case study approaches, evidence was gathered through repeated observation by teaching and SEND staff, ongoing dialogue with parents and structured professional reflection. Observations focused on initiation, transitions, social participation, regulation and uncertainty. Family insight was gathered through regular conversations about Jonah’s presentation before and after school. Consent was obtained from the family, identifying details were changed and ethical attention was given to anonymity, respectful representation and practical purpose, in line with BERA guidelines (2024). The case concerns one student, but the participation demands explored are relevant to many autistic learners whose masking can obscure need.
Jonah’s experience
Jonah (pseudonym), a Key Stage 2 student in a mainstream primary school, was regarded as quiet, polite and cooperative. He followed routines carefully, completed expected tasks and rarely attracted behavioural concern. In many respects, he embodied the settled and compliant learner that teachers hope to see, and there seemed little reason to question participation itself.
Ongoing conversations with Jonah’s parents, however, revealed a markedly different reality. They described a child returning home emotionally depleted, overwhelmed and increasingly unable to sustain regulation beyond the school day. Anxiety accumulated across the week, often culminating in exhaustion affecting the wider family. Mornings were characterised by tension and emotional fragility, as though Jonah had already reached his limit before learning began. His parents described living with ‘two different children’: the contained student observed in school and the distressed child emerging once the effort of control could no longer be sustained.
Initially, this contrast was difficult. Comparable behaviours were rarely observed in lessons, and Jonah’s calm classroom presentation appeared inconsistent with the difficulties described at home. Over time, though, teachers noticed subtler signs. Jonah hesitated when tasks lacked clear structure, struggled to initiate learning independently and withdrew during collaborative activities. Situations involving attention or evaluation caused visible discomfort. Difficulty appeared not through disruption or refusal, but through quiet disengagement and diminishing spontaneity.
Staff began to reconsider not whether Jonah completed tasks but the effort required. This shift was prompted by the mismatch between observed compliance and parental accounts of exhaustion, and reflected literature suggesting that compensation can hide difficulty while increasing emotional cost (Livingston and Happe, 2019; Mandy, 2019). Jonah’s calm presentation came to be understood not as comfort but as continuous self-monitoring. Participation was sustained through effort rather than ease, with emotional consequences delayed until he reached the psychological safety of home.
Building understanding
To better understand these patterns, teachers brought together classroom observations, existing school knowledge and insights shared through ongoing dialogue with Jonah’s parents. Rather than focusing on isolated behaviours, staff considered how learning, sensory, emotional and social demands interacted across the day. This ecological view was important because masking emerges through the interaction between individual regulation, social expectation and environmental demand (Hull et al., 2020).
Information was organised using the Neurodevelopmental Profile (Wheeler, 2022), a practitioner framework used within the school to support structured reflection on participation. Staff mapped observations across learning, regulation, social interaction and sensory experience, identifying where classroom demands increased effort. Strengths, successful conditions and adjustments were recorded alongside difficulties, helping staff to move from describing behaviour to understanding engagement.
A clearer pattern emerged. Jonah functioned most successfully when routines were predictable and expectations explicit. In contrast, tasks requiring independent initiation, decision-making or sustained collaboration placed disproportionate demand upon him. Busy or unpredictable environments further reduced his capacity for regulation and learning.
Translating understanding into classroom practice
This developing understanding prompted a shift in classroom practice. Rather than attempting to increase Jonah’s tolerance of demand, staff focused on reducing unnecessary participation load within everyday teaching. This aligned with evidence that sensory, organisational and social demands can affect autistic pupils’ capacity to regulate and participate (Ashburner et al., 2010). Adjustments aimed to increase predictability, lower cumulative load and support sustainable engagement.
Predictability became central to routines, with brief previews of learning and advance notice of change reducing uncertainty. Task introductions provided clearer starting points, manageable steps and fewer initiation barriers. This revealed engagement that had previously been obscured rather than absent.
Collaborative learning was also reconsidered, recognising group work as both academic and social demand. Structured roles enabled meaningful participation without sustained performance pressure. Regulation was planned proactively, while consistent lunchtime arrangements reduced stress and supported transitions back into learning. Individually modest, these adjustments collectively reduced the hidden effort required for participation.
Emerging change
Over time, meaningful change became evident. Jonah initiated tasks more readily, sustained engagement for longer and showed reduced withdrawal during previously challenging lessons. Attendance improved from 77 per cent to 98 per cent following these adjustments, and parents reported a marked reduction in evening meltdowns.
Parents also described calmer evenings and quicker recovery, with the home–school contrast diminishing. Most significantly, aspects of Jonah’s personality previously seen mainly outside school began to emerge within lessons. Humour, creativity and spontaneity reflected engagement that was increasingly authentic and less effortful. Reflection extended beyond one student, prompting staff to reconsider how quiet compliance might conceal internal effort.
Implications for teachers and SENDCos
Jonah’s experience illustrates how inclusive classrooms may unintentionally depend upon students masking need in order to participate successfully. Calm engagement and compliance can conceal significant internal struggle, particularly for autistic learners working hard to meet classroom expectations. Parental insight is therefore essential evidence about the cost of coping.
In this case, inclusion emerged not through specialist intervention but through thoughtful adjustment to everyday teaching. Practical strategies for classrooms include:
- previewing learning and changes
- giving clear first steps
- reducing unnecessary choice at task entry
- structuring group roles
- planning regulation before crisis
- treating home–school discrepancies as meaningful assessment information.
These adjustments enabled participation without sustained compensation. Inclusive practice depends less on whether students appear to cope and more on understanding what participation requires of them.
Conclusion
Jonah appeared successful within his classroom, yet that success depended upon sustained effort that remained largely invisible during the school day. By bringing together classroom observation and family insight, staff were able to reinterpret participation and adapt practice accordingly. The case reinforces masking research by showing how camouflaged need can be recognised through discrepancy, and not only through visible behaviour. Small adjustments made learning more sustainable and emotionally accessible. Inclusion begins not when students appear to cope, but when schools recognise the effort required for participation.
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