Case Study 05 · December 2023

Making Neurodivergent Masking Visible

LLL 505 · Inclusive Education

Context

Neurodivergent students may appear to be coping while expending significant effort to hide distress, suppress self-regulating behaviours, or meet social expectations. When that effort remains invisible, educators can miss both the student’s needs and the cost of apparent success.

The artifact

I created an Ignite-style presentation examining social, behavioural, compensatory, and emotional masking. The timed format required the topic to be communicated concisely while maintaining a strengths-based, humane focus on student experience.

The argument inside the presentation

What apparent coping
can conceal.

The presentation distinguishes different ways a learner may mask, then asks educators to consider both the cost and the conditions that make masking feel necessary.

Social masking

Rehearsing, imitating, or monitoring social behaviour in order to appear to fit expected norms.

Behavioural masking

Suppressing stimming, movement, communication differences, or other visible forms of self-regulation.

Compensatory masking

Developing effortful strategies that conceal difficulty without removing the underlying need.

Emotional masking

Hiding anxiety, sensory overload, confusion, or distress while appearing outwardly calm or compliant.

The hidden cost

A student who looks successful may be spending extraordinary energy to maintain that appearance. The presentation connects this hidden effort with exhaustion, stress, anxiety, reduced self-understanding, and threats to identity and mental health.

Classroom response

Build awareness of neurodiverse behaviours and thinking patterns.
Keep routines structured and predictable where possible.
Use visuals to support spoken instructions.
Prefer clear, literal language when ambiguity creates a barrier.
Give explicit warning before transitions and change.

Inside the work

What masking costs—and what classrooms can change

Masking can make a struggling student look successful. These slides move from the toll of sustained concealment—on identity, mental health, energy, and access to diagnosis—to practical changes educators can make through clearer language, visual supports, predictable routines, and advance notice of change.

Presentation slide outlining the detrimental effects of neurodivergent masking — 01The hidden cost · masking can affect identity, mental health, energy, access to diagnosis, and personal safety.

Presentation slide listing classroom responses to neurodivergent masking — 02From recognition to action · five concrete ways classroom design can reduce uncertainty and the pressure to mask.

Evidence from the artifact

The presentation defines different forms of masking, describes how they may appear in schools, and connects hidden effort with stress, anxiety, identity, and mental health. It invites educators to look beyond outward compliance and consider what a student may be managing internally.

Artifact reviewedNeurodivergent Masking · Ignite presentation and scriptOpen complete artifact ↗

What this demonstrates

01Advocacy for neurodivergent learners
02Recognition of needs that may be hidden by compliance
03Strengths-based and student-centred communication
04Synthesis of a complex topic within a constrained format
05Connection of behaviour, regulation, identity, and wellbeing
06Reflective attention to inclusive classroom conditions

Reflection

This work strengthened my conviction that behaviour cannot be interpreted accurately without curiosity about context, effort, sensory experience, and belonging.

I would continue refining the language in partnership with neurodivergent voices and current research. The professional responsibility remains clear: a student should not need to become less visibly themselves in order to be recognized as successful at school.