If you’re trying to make sense of EHCP headlines, rising applications and proposed SEND reform in England, this conversation cuts through the noise. Steph explains what is changing, what is not, why families are understandably anxious, and why the real issue is not simply paperwork but trust and capacity across the system. Parents, teachers and SENDCOs will come away clearer on the current EHCP position, the pressures behind reform, and the practical questions families can ask schools now rather than waiting for a plan, assessment or policy change.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:

• Why the current EHCP system and existing legal rights still remain in place.

• What rising EHCP numbers and missed statutory timescales reveal about pressure in the system.

• Why earlier mainstream support will depend on real workforce and specialist capacity.

• What to ask schools about support, progress, home impact and next steps.

• How simple records and meeting follow-ups can reduce confusion and strengthen accountability.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

School Meetings Made Clear — Key Stage 2 version

https://inclusiveteacherco.com/school-meetings-ks2-ebook

School Meetings Made Clear — Key Stage 3 version, also suitable for parents navigating Key Stage 4

https://inclusiveteacherco.com/school-meetings-ks3-ebook

Inclusive Club

https://inclusiveteacherco.com/inclusive-club

Inclusive Teacher Co social media - @InclusiveTeacherCo

KEYWORDS:

EHCP reform England, SEND support, Education Health and Care Plan, EHCP applications, SEND parents, SEN support in schools, EHCP assessment, mainstream SEND provision, school meetings SEND, SENDCO support, inclusive education, neurodiversity in schools

LIKE THIS EPISODE?

Leave a comment and don’t forget to subscribe.

If your neurodivergent child struggles with school mornings, forgotten homework, missing PE kits, being late, starting tasks or remembering what comes next, habit stacking could make everyday routines much easier.

In this episode I explain how habit stacking can support executive functions in children with ADHD, autism and other neurodivergent profiles and why the same strategy can be incredibly useful for neurodivergent parents too.

Habit stacking is the simple idea of linking a new action to something that already happens:

When X happens → I do Y.

For example:

🎒 When my shoes go on → I pick up my school bag.
🏫 When my school bag goes by the door → my PE kit goes beside it.
☕ When I make my morning drink → I check today's calendar.

This can reduce how much information has to be held in working memory and can support areas such as task initiation, prospective memory, sequencing, organisation and transitions.

In this video we cover:

🧠 What habit stacking actually is
🧠 The link between habit stacking and executive function
🧠 Why “get ready for school” is NOT one simple task
🧠 How ADHD and autism can affect working memory, organisation and task initiation
🧠 How to create an executive-function-friendly habit stack
🧠 Why you should start with ONE tiny action
🧠 How to build a routine without creating another overwhelming checklist
🧠 Habit stacking for school mornings, homework and remembering equipment
🧠 How routines can help with some of the difficulties behind forgotten homework, missing PE kit and lateness
🧠 Why regulation needs to be considered in after-school routines
🧠 How neurodivergent parents can use habit stacking for their own ADHD or executive function challenges
🧠 What to do when the habit stack doesn't go to plan

The approach is also grounded in research around implementation intentions, often described as “if-then” planning. Research suggests that creating a specific cue for an intended action can support goal-directed behaviour and prospective memory. I explain what that means in normal language and, more importantly, what you can actually do with it at home.

🎒 FREE Back to School Habit Stacker

🧠 FREE Executive Function eGuide for Parents

📱 For more free ADHD, autism, executive function and SEND support, follow Inclusive Teacher Co.

If you like the “tell me why it's happening, then tell me what I can actually DO” approach, that's exactly what we're building inside Inclusive Club.

Inclusive Club gives parents of neurodivergent children access to:

💻 Monthly live webinars
🧠 ADHD Made Clear
📚 ADHD Reading at Home
📝 Practical downloads, scripts and strategies
🎤 Expert guest sessions
▶️ Webinar recordings
💬 A supportive parent community
❤️ Ongoing support around ADHD, autism, executive function, emotional regulation, literacy, school and family life

Founding Membership is currently £17 to enrol then £20 per month from 28th September, with that monthly founding rate locked in while you remain a member.

👉 Join Inclusive Club

Another strategy will not fix what adults have misread.

ADHD is still too easily reduced to fidgeting, distraction or bad behaviour, while the real daily strain sits in regulation, executive function, emotion, motivation, memory and the gap between knowing and doing.

This episode gets underneath the advice parents hear all the time. I talk about why an ADHD child may focus for hours on Minecraft but appear personally offended by socks, why simple tasks are not simple, and why a child can know the rule yet still struggle to access it when rushed, overloaded or emotionally flooded. I also connect this to home support: fewer verbal instructions, visible time, help with starting, calmer transitions and boundaries that do not collapse into shame.

For parents, teachers, SENCOs and school leaders, the urgent bit is this: ADHD support has to move beyond try harder, listen better and be more consistent. High support and high belief belong in the same room.

Join 4,000 parents getting a helpful newsletter every other week - practical support, no overwhelm and one clear thing to do next.Subscribe here: https://linktr.ee/InclusiveTeacherCo

Children with ADHD are still being described as nightmares. Women seeking answers are still dismissed as deluded. Parents, usually mums, are still blamed for struggles they have spent years trying to understand.

I recorded this episode after my post about ADHD stigma reached more than 45,000 people. It travelled because families, teachers and neurodivergent adults recognised the damage caused when medical authority reinforces lazy stereotypes.

I challenge the idea that increased ADHD diagnosis automatically means overdiagnosis, explore why ADHD in women and girls has been missed for decades, and draw a clear line between lifestyle support and lifestyle blame. Food, sleep, movement and routines can help, but they do not erase a neurodevelopmental condition.

This conversation matters in homes, classrooms and school meetings. Language shapes whether a child feels supported or defective, whether a parent asks for help or stays silent, and whether an adult finally seeks an assessment after years of self-blame.

I am not arguing for careless assessment. I am arguing for evidence, nuance and basic human decency.

Visit Inclusive Teacher Co for resources, training, webinars and support:
https://inclusiveteacherco.com/

Read the LinkedIn post referenced in this episode:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stephbateyneurodiversity_when-a-doctor-calls-a-child-with-adhd-a-share-7481074112451358720-uVaN/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAADEhd04BYyQpxd9t74fzpQklSbyn8iIoSvQ

Join 4,000 parents getting a helpful newsletter every other week - practical support, no overwhelm and one clear thing to do next.
Subscribe here: https://linktr.ee/InclusiveTeacherCo

Parents are often told to wait for the report, wait for school, wait for the right words. Meanwhile, children are already building their own explanation for why mornings feel impossible, why reading feels slower, why noise hurts, why big feelings arrive before their thinking brain has caught up.

This episode is about how to explain ADHD, dyslexia or autism to your child without making them feel broken. I talk about why diagnostic language can feel frightening for parents, why children usually need language earlier than adults think, and how to start with their lived experience rather than the assessment paperwork. I share calm, age-aware scripts for ADHD, dyslexia and autism, including how to explain support without turning a diagnosis into an excuse or a doom briefing.

The risk of saying nothing is not neutral. Children are meaning-makers, and without accurate language, they may decide they are lazy, naughty, stupid, too much or the problem.

Join 4,000 parents getting a helpful newsletter every other week - practical support, no overwhelm and one clear thing to do next.Subscribe here: https://linktr.ee/InclusiveTeacherCo

She looks fine at school, then crumbles at home - and everyone keeps acting like that means the problem is home. It does not.

This episode tackles ADHD girls and reading through the lens of masking, literacy access and the quiet collapse that happens when children work twice as hard to appear okay. I talk about the UK picture, including the diagnosis gap between boys and girls, and why girls can be missed when adults still picture ADHD as the boy who cannot sit still.

I also dig into the literacy cliff-edge: the point where school support drops away, texts get denser, instructions get longer and the child who has been copying, pleasing and overpreparing suddenly cannot keep the performance going.

Parents, teachers, SENCOs and school leaders need to stop using quiet compliance as proof of understanding. I share what masking can look like, why reading access checks matter more than behaviour monitoring, and the exact language families can use with school.

Join 4,000 parents getting a helpful newsletter every other week - practical support, no overwhelm and one clear thing to do next.Subscribe here: https://linktr.ee/InclusiveTeacherCo

Reading at home should not feel like a nightly emotional ambush.

But for some ADHD children, one correction, one question or one tiny prompt can tip the whole thing into tears, anger, silliness, shutdown or storming out.

This conversation is about ADHD, reading and rejection sensitive support at home.

I look at why reading can feel so exposing for a child who is already sensitive to criticism, failure or comparison, and why a child who can read the words may still struggle with comprehension, inference, vocabulary and holding meaning in mind.

The risk is not just one bad reading session. It is the slow build-up of shame.

Once reading starts to feel unsafe, avoidance can look like laziness, defiance or not caring.

And that misunderstanding can leave parents pushing harder, backing away completely, or blaming themselves.

I share practical ways to make reading feel safer: reduce live correction, share the load, use choice, regulate before you teach, and stop turning every session into a test.

Join 4,000 parents getting a helpful newsletter every other week - practical support, no overwhelm and one clear thing to do next.

Subscribe here: https://go.foundationscrm.ai/widget/form/fxR6KY8oPVJ8K9d63OYP

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@InclusiveTeacherCo?sub_confirmation=1

Subscribe to the podcast: https://linktr.ee/InclusiveTeacherCoListen when reading at home has started to feel bigger than books.

I looked fine on paper, so nobody looked closer.

That is the tension running through this episode - how ADHD can hide in plain sight when a girl is bright, articulate, high-achieving and broadly compliant.

I talk about being diagnosed at 37 after years of being seen as clever, academic and capable, while parts of school still felt bizarrely hard.

Not because I could not do the work, but because interest, relevance, pressure and memory were doing far more heavy lifting than anyone realised.

This episode challenges one of the laziest ideas still hanging around schools: that good grades cancel out the possibility of ADHD. They do not. A girl can be top set, hand in strong work and still be masking, overloaded and quietly struggling.

I also dig into why girls are still missed, why achievement can delay the right questions, and why we need to stop asking whether a child is achieving and start asking how she is managing to do it.

Join 4,000 parents getting a helpful newsletter every other week - practical support, no overwhelm and one clear thing to do next.
Subscribe here: https://go.foundationscrm.ai/widget/form/fxR6KY8oPVJ8K9d63OYP
Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@InclusiveTeacherCo?sub_confirmation=1
Subscribe to the podcast: https://linktr.ee/InclusiveTeacherCo

Have a listen if you have ever mistaken achievement for ease.

Children don't always hate reading, they just hate what reading feels like...

Constant nervous system shaking and the need to protect themselves from shame and embarrassment.

And it's no wonder, because they're always corrected more than their peers!

In this episode, I’m sharing my tonight-ready plan: no surprise performance, make it smaller, protect flow, and use one sentence that calms the whole moment.

If you are a parent, teacher, SENCO or school leader trying to understand ADHD and reading struggles more clearly, this episode will land.

Join 4,000 parents getting a helpful newsletter every other week - practical support, no overwhelm and one clear thing to do next.

Subscribe to the newsletter HERE

Or subscribe to my podcast

If it resonates, subscribe and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

Some children are not refusing to learn.

They are hitting a wall before the task has even properly started.

In this episode, I talk about ADHD, reading difficulty and the children we’ve been getting wrong in school.

I explain why I call reading the passport skill and why weak, slow or effortful reading can quietly block access to everything - not just English, but maths word problems, science questions, revision, homework and exams too.

I reflect on what I got wrong earlier in my career, including the children I read as lazy, avoidant or not trying hard enough, when the real issue was reading access, cognitive overload and hidden literacy difficulty. I also talk about ADHD and dyslexia overlap, masking, reading comprehension, working memory and why some very bright children can look like they are underperforming when they are actually spending huge amounts of energy just trying to get through the text.

If you are a parent, teacher, SENCO or school leader trying to understand ADHD and reading struggles more clearly, this episode will land.

Join 4,000 parents getting a helpful newsletter every other week - practical support, no overwhelm and one clear thing to do next.

Subscribe here: NEWSLETTER

Or subscribe to my podcast HERE

If it resonates, subscribe and share it with someone who needs to hear it.