Dr. Lynne Binnie

Head of Education (Inclusion). The City of Edinburgh Council. Educational Psychologist. All views my own.

[Jane Arthur @Jane_Arthur_]

1 week to go until #antibullyingweek2026 #beunique Get ready-visit @_respectme_ website for resources, new 2026 animation, assembly materials, live (Prim) & recorded (Sec) lessons👍🏼 Glasgow schools, don’t forget to enter our citywide #ABW26 poster competition⬇️Good luck to all!

[John Walker, Sounds-Write @SWLiteracy]

📚 Good news for phonics in Northern Ireland!

New Department of Education guidance focuses on systematic phonics teaching, consistency and teacher knowledge. All of which are central to Sounds-Write!

Read the guidance: https://t.co/L4FQdJmE6w

[Education Scotland @EducationScot]

Education Scotland has today shared the first drafts of the full technical frameworks for Scotland’s evolved #curriculum. This marks a major milestone in the ongoing Curriculum Improvement Cycle.

👉https://t.co/la1huVV1tr A thread 🧵(1/5)

[Mel Ainscow @MelAinscow]

A big day: @ChrisChapmanGla and I have just submitted to @RoutledgeEd the text of our new book 'Every Learner Matters: 'The development of equitable education systems'. @HargreavesBC describes is as the 'definitive book on systemic change for equity and inclusion'.

[Jane Arthur @Jane_Arthur_]

Huge thanks to all HTs, DHTs & PTs who joined the launch of Glasgow’s updated Anti-Bullying Policy this week. Excellent turnout & enthusiasm for this years #ABW2026 #BeUnique Bullying is wrong. Let’s get along. #partnership @_respectme_ @psybasedata Citywide Poster Competition!

[Mel Ainscow @MelAinscow]

Another splendid meeting of the Every Dundee Learner Matters Strategy Group. Into the sixth year, the strategy continues to grow. It shows that, through collective effort, progress can be made in promoting inclusion and equity. @EducationScot @ChrisChapmanGla @TesScotland

[Naomi Fisher @naomicfisher]

Neurodivergence literally means whatever anyone defines it as.

Some say it’s autism and ADHD (and some add dyslexia and other specific learning disabilities).

Some says it’s a difference not a disorder and shouldn’t be pathologised.

Some say it’s any deviation from a neuro-normative standard required by society.

Some say it’s about differently wired brains.

Some says it’s about navigating a world that wasn’t designed for you.

Some say that it’s autism, ADHD, PTSD, OCD, BPD, GAD, NPD, MDD, PMDD and pretty well every other psychiatric label going - but also isn’t pathologising.

So when someone writes a book for ‘neurodivergent women’, who do they mean?

[Naomi Fisher @naomicfisher]

When we introduced the marketplace into neurodevelopmental assessments, something fundamental shifted.
When there is a profit to be made from convincing people they might be autistic or have ADHD, then we are all at risk of overmedicalisation. It is in the interest of private providers to expand their audience.
Once the demand is there, the incentives are to carry out assessments as cheaply as possible. And that can mean poor quality assessments leading to life long diagnoses.

https://t.co/yVvEX1rUEu

[Education Scotland @EducationScot]

📢 Join us for this session designed to help practitioners build their understanding, recognise early signs of prejudice-based behaviour & explore effective approaches to prevention, intervention & support.

👉 https://t.co/HvOJbGKY4T

[Education Scotland @EducationScot]

This National Hate Crime Awareness Week, explore our resource that supports educators to prevent, identify and respond to harmful behaviours, helping to create more inclusive, safe and equitable learning environments.

👉 https://t.co/fBidOwsbGG

[Naomi Fisher @naomicfisher]

When I was an undergraduate, I learnt about autism in a course on child development. I was fascinated. I did my undergraduate research project in special schools, asking autistic children questions about other people’s intentions. I loved it. So much so that I dropped out of my course in medicine, and went off to do a PhD in autism instead. I never did become a medical doctor, but I’ve been interested in autism ever since.

So I’ve had a front line seat on how autism has changed over the last thirty years. I’ve seen it change from a rare neurodevelopmental disorder to a cultural phenomenon, with regular articles in the press about celebrities who credit their diagnosis with changing their life. An autism diagnosis, it seems, makes sense of so much to so many.
That’s a powerful feeling, the sense of resolution, of things slotting in to place. This, people say, explains everything.

But, as a clinician, there’s something slightly odd about this. Because this diagnosis - autism- isn’t an explanatory diagnosis. It doesn’t identify why something is happening. It just describes.

That’s different to a diagnosis of (for example) COVID-19. That means that you have the virus which causes the disease. A diagnosis of autism? That just means that you have a cluster of behaviours or traits to which we have given the name autism. Nothing more or less.

So we have this diagnosis which is not an explanation, but which so many people understand to be an explanation, and we have demand for it expanding rapidly. So rapidly that some parts of the NHS have just imposed a minimum two years wait. Hundreds of thousands of people are on the lists.

How did we get here - and what does it mean for everyone? I thought this question was so important that I wrote a whole book about. It’s coming out next Feb, and it’s called This Explains Everything: How Autism Expanded and Why That Matters to Everyone. It tells the story of how autism has changed from a rare neurodevelopmental disorder to a social phenomenon - and asks what this means for all of us. It’s the inside story of how things have changed, from the early days of Kanner and Asperger to the social media influencers of 2026.

[Association for Child & Adolescent Mental Health @acamh]

In this talk, Prof. Michael Kaess and @dennisougrin discuss evidence-based approaches to intervention for self-harm & consider preventative approaches, including school-based interventions, which may reduce self-harm in young people.

Full interview ➡️ https://t.co/p1yrD5BdZW

[Dr. Lynne Binnie @BinnieL]

@Jamiebrodie7 @KThomsonAcademy Something needs to change. My experience of academy football has been less than impressive. Bullying and a lack of safeguarding as well as lack of proper development pathways and virtually no individualised/specific position coaching.

[Tom Bennett OBE @tombennett71]

My behaviour & leadership report for @educationgovuk https://t.co/NYwHDGOXnF With brilliant infographics by @olivercavigliol

[The CAMH journal @TheCAMH]

Consider the overlaps between #neurodivergence & #maltreatment, & similarities & differences in behaviours between #autism & #DisinhibitedSocialEngagementDisorder (#DSED), at our upcoming advanced webinar, led by Prof. Helen Minnis.

Book now: https://t.co/nsGhcC69RN

[The CAMH journal @TheCAMH]

Improve your understanding of the mechanisms linking early cognitive skills to long-term outcomes with this insightful podcast on how early childhood vocabulary links to later educational outcomes & how socioeconomic circumstances influence that trajectory https://t.co/Ol1E9r0Lhc

[Association for Child & Adolescent Mental Health @acamh]

Through eight clear, age appropriate tips, this @NipintheBudFilm short film explains how to talk honestly about death, make space for every emotion, create meaningful goodbyes, and keep memories alive in healthy, comforting ways.

An interesting watch for parents and carers. https://t.co/FF1wztUTYC

[Michael Blackley @Mike_Blackley]

A record high number of Scots pupils demanded special arrangements for exams because of additional support needs - and the biggest proportion of requests came from pupils in the least deprived areas.

[The CAMH journal @TheCAMH]

When a child stops going to school, the instinct is to act fast. But with #emotionallybasedschoolavoidance (#EBSA), slowing down can sometimes help more than rushing in.

Learn more with our ‘Reflections from the Room' blog on our EBSA in practice event. https://t.co/eehttCV0Ea

[Tom Bennett OBE @tombennett71]

Neurodiversity is a common term in education- and society. But it lacks precision both in definition and usage. And that really matters in the real world.

For a start 'neurodiverse' is not a clinically recognised or used term, eg in the DSM-5. It was coined by the sociologist Judy Singer in 1998, as an advocacy term for people with ASD and very closely related conditions.

'Neurodivergent' describes an individual whose brain functions differently from the majority. Clinically recognized examples include autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, Tourette syndrome, and others. These are formal neurodevelopmental diagnoses.

Crucially this means people who have been born with a life-long condition. It does *not* include people with anxiety disorders, or dementia, or PTSD, or depression etc. It doesn't mean 'everything'.

There is no diagnosis 'neurodiverse'. It is a purely vernacular term, with multiple meanings depending on who is using it and who you talk to. Clinicians diagnose specific conditions, like ASD.

And of course even clinically diagnosable conditions like ASD, ADHD are subject to intense debates about how the category is defined, is it too broad or narrow etc.

Diagnostic criteria can vary from country to country, LA to LA, school to school. And so can the response strategies. What a lot of people outside of either the education or clinical sectors don't realise is that this is an area that is crying out for high quality research, clarity, transparency, and honesty about what works, and when, and when it doesn't work. We are often talking about very different things when we use the same words carelessly.

The common use of 'neurodiverse' matters; it is often heard in advocacy discourse, the media, etc. but frequently misunderstood.

It doesn't mean 'a little bit different'. We are all different from one another. People who claim to be 'a little bit autistic' may very well simply misunderstand that some of the characteristics they identify in that category are also perfectly normal-spectrum qualities that many people have. Liking your house to be tidy doesn't mean that you are neurodivergent. Being a stickler for details doesn't mean you have OCD. If the term means 'everything' then it means 'nothing.'

It has become fashionable for people to self diagnose and self-refer as neurodivergent, even in the face of little evidence. Because it confers, for some, a sense of being special, different, or interesting. And of course in a sector where we rightly seek to support people/ students who need reasonable accommodations in order to promote inclusivity, the *incorrect* assignation of an unmet need leads to unfair advantages over those who do not receive those accommodations.

A small but growing group of activists now campaign on the platform that almost any mental health difference indicates neurodivergence, but this is a huge definitional drift, without any clinical basis. You see a lot of this activism in education, often perfectly well-meant. Singer herself would have disagreed strongly with this.

The reason this matters is that if we treat all mental health problems, all behavioural disorders, all learning problems, as having lifelong neurological foundations - which they absolutely do not- then we create a narrative that indicates all individuals face insurmountable obstacles in modifying the behaviours associated with the condition. Some children identified as dyslexic, for example, are simply deficient in high quality reading instruction.

But if you treat every child that behaves unsuccessfully in the classroom as being neurodivergent, then you create a circumstance where we treat them as the victims of irresistible compulsions, rather than human beings with the ability to learn to take responsibility, to grow, to change their habits and attitudes. It is also a substantial abandonment of our commitment to only use evidence info strategies with children- especially the most vulnerable.

In other words, not all forms of SEND are indications of neurodivergent conditions. And most certainly aren't.

Sadly, as in so many fields, many of the strategies recommended for children with any form of SEND, including forms of neurodivergence, lack substantial or credible evidence bases. There is a lot of well-meant money being spent on approaches that simply have no basis in research, impact or other outcomes.

This is an area that cries out for high quality evidence bases, and evidence informed approaches to support students with genuine need, not activism that leads to treating all children as incapable. But the energy of that activism, married to evidence, could produce something spectacular for those who need help the most, and I hope we see this happen in the future.