Autistic Nesting For School Environments

How School Environments Can Be Reshaped For Neurodivergent Learners

In the chaos of mainstream educational environments, Autistic students are often expected to navigate sensory bombardment, fragmented attention, and abrupt transitions that disregard the fundamental ways their minds work. For those of us with monotropic minds, this isn't just inconvenient; it’s a systemic form of trauma.

But what if we flipped the paradigm?

What if schools could become nesting spaces. Not just places of containment or instruction, but spaces of safety, focus, and Autistic thriving?

Understanding Autistic Nesting

I’ve written previously about Autistic nesting as an intentional curation of space to support monotropic flow; the deeply focused, immersive attention style that characterises many Autistic people.

Nesting is about building environmental familiarity, sensory predictability, and associative continuity. It’s about creating surroundings that don't jar us out of focus, but instead hold and honour that focus.

In our homes, this might look like a carefully arranged bedroom, particular lighting, a ritualised tea setup, or objects that link us emotionally and cognitively to a sense of comfort and control. These items and practices form a "nest"; a base of operations from which we explore the world and to which we return to re-centre ourselves.

In schools, however, this concept is almost entirely absent.