In her article on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Elizabeth Hartmann (2015) tells the story of Marcus, a teenager with a range of support needs whose mother is desperately trying to find a suitable school for him. The story takes place in the United States. A school for blind children is concerned about his cognitive disability. Another considers his physical disabilities too mild for him to benefit from its program. Others cannot imagine how Marcus could be included in their existing learning programs. Time and again, his mother, Hannah, encounters institutions that explain why her son does not fit. Eventually,…
Author: Stephanie Wössner
minnit’ has been part of my work for a long time. The platform has been operated by the Landesmedienzentrum Baden-Württemberg since 2019; from April 2021 through July 2026, I was responsible for its pedagogical, strategic, and functional development as Product Owner. minnit’ started out as a digital survey application. Surveys are still at its core, but through a DigitalPakt project, it has since developed into a much broader digital learning environment: with different question and participation formats, quizzes, interactive stories, planning and organization features, augmented reality, and a QR-card format called Hands Up!, which allows learners to participate without having…
In my first post on Universal Design for Learning, I focused on the fundamental perspective behind UDL: not attributing barriers too quickly to individuals, distinguishing between firm goals and flexible means, and not confusing Learner Agency with simply offering as many choices as possible. Katie Novak’s dinner party metaphor provided a useful entry point. But anyone who knows UDL only through its three familiar areas—Engagement, Representation, and Action & Expression—has seen only part of the picture. Beneath those three areas are nine Guidelines and a total of 36 considerations. This is where the full scope of UDL 3.0 becomes visible.…
Dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and dyspraxia, or Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD), affect different areas and are not diagnostically grouped into a single category. I still find it useful to consider them alongside one another because they make particularly visible how much cognitive and physical work can lie behind an observable result. Dyslexia primarily affects reading and the processing of linguistic or phonological information. Dysgraphia relates to writing, handwriting, and, in some cases, written expression. Dyscalculia affects the processing of mathematical and numerical information as well as the development of arithmetic facts and procedures. With dyspraxia, or the profile diagnostically referred to…
OCD, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, tic disorders, and Tourette syndrome are often discussed in the context of neurodiversity and overlap, even though they are distinct phenomena with different diagnostic classifications. Precisely because they can appear so close to one another, they make visible how little we can infer about an internal process from behavior alone. Repetition can take the form of a compulsion, a tic, a motor stereotypy, or a form of stimming. Some of these may look similar from the outside, while the experience behind them can be fundamentally different. The same is true of their function: What looks like…
Autism is generally described as a neurodevelopmental variation that can affect, among other things, perception and information processing, communication and social interaction, interests, and behavior. However, these characteristics vary considerably from person to person. This is precisely why the common idea of a linear scale is problematic. Autism cannot meaningfully be represented along a single axis from “mild” to “severe.” Different areas within a person’s profile can vary greatly, and support needs cannot be inferred from a single visible ability. One person may speak in highly nuanced ways while also needing substantial support with sensory processing, planning, or transitions. Another…
ADHD is still described linguistically in terms of an attention deficit and hyperactivity. This suggests that attention is fundamentally lacking and that we are dealing with a person who simply cannot sit still. The more I engage with the topic, the less convincing I find that idea. People who have been diagnosed with ADHD can concentrate very intensely, sometimes for extended periods of time. What is often more difficult is voluntary regulation: directing attention toward a particular task at a particular time, sustaining it there, disengaging from it again, or shifting it elsewhere. Deliberately controlled attention (directed attention) is consciously…
The term neurodiversity has become widespread, but it is used in surprisingly different ways. Sometimes it refers to people with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, or other neurological profiles; at other times, it is used almost interchangeably with neurodivergent. This is where an initial clarification of terms becomes useful. Neurodiversity refers to the natural variation in human brains and, with it, differences in how people perceive, process information, learn, communicate, direct attention, or regulate themselves. The term is associated with Australian sociologist Judy Singer, who coined it in the late 1990s. Neurodiversity therefore includes everyone. “Neurotypical” people are also part of neurological…
In one of my current courses on individual learning needs and neurodiversity, I am working with a collection of very different frameworks and resources. Some come from educational contexts, others from therapy, speech and communication support, or developmental practice. The assignment initially sounded fairly straightforward: Which approaches are new or less familiar to me? Which ones make immediate sense to me? Which might be helpful for learners? As I read, however, I quickly realized that another question interested me more than categorizing individual models. I began paying attention to where responsibility is located when communication, learning, regulation, or participation becomes…
There are texts and conversations after which you do not suddenly see everything differently, but something still shifts because they offer a new frame for convictions that were already there. That was my experience listening to the episode The Already Whole Child from That Early Childhood Nerd, in which Heather Bernt-Santy speaks with Em Clark about her article The Already-Whole Child: Reconceptualizing Care and Sanctuary through Childism. Much of what they discuss felt close to ideas that have shaped my own educational work for years: agency and co-agency, children’s rights and equity, learning as a relational process, playfulness, learning for…