Resources:
Examples from a collection of articles written as a practical toolkit of strategies and interventions which may be used as an informative guide to neuro-inclusive and neuro-affirming teaching and learning practices.
Also known as “camouflaging”, masking may be a person's active choice to try to keep themselves safe. However, masking may be exhausting and lead to sensory overload and/or various behaviours as the person’s ability to cope diminishes.
A perception that the world may be less accepting of difference may lead to fear of being labelled, rejected, isolated, or bullied, possibly increasing the desire to “fit in” at all costs rather than be seen as different.
A person may try to mimic or copy people around them to blend in, almost as an ongoing “performance”, which may be exhausting and lead to difficulties in showing their true self.
Masking may change as the individual learns more about themselves and how to cope with their environment. Trying to support a person to accept themselves for who they are may make a positive difference in helping an individual understand their worth and know their true self has value.
Masking at School versus Masking at Home:
A parent or carer may see their child at home displaying challenging behaviour yet hear from teachers that their child has no problems in school. This may be because the child is so adept at masking that the only place the child feels safe enough to be themselves is at home. Masking may make it difficult for the school to identify whether the child needs support or which strategies and interventions to implement, and it may be frustrating for parents and/or carers who may be trying to obtain the right support for their child.
Masking:
Ladder Scores:
To promote dialogue and increase communication, it may help to give a visual rather than verbal context to the conversation. Ladder Scores are a versatile, simple communication strategy that may be used in any situation to facilitate articulating feelings using a scoring system between numbers one and ten.
How the numbers are used may be interchangeable, with number one as the worst and ten as the best, or vice versa. For example, 'How are you feeling today?' may be rephrased as 'With number 1 being the worst day ever and number 10 being the best, what score would you give your day today?
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