Holding the Line: Strengthening How Social Stencil Facilitators Train and Deliver
Social Stencil is grounded in research, lived experience, and co-design. That's not marketing language, it's a description of how the program was built, and what’s important to me as its author.
It exists because neurodivergent children and young people have spent decades in classrooms, clinics, and community spaces shaped by approaches that weren't designed with them in mind. I know this not just as a practitioner, but as a researcher. I wrote an entire PhD thesis using the very frameworks we now understand to be limited, frameworks that positioned neurotypical social skills as the benchmark, and positioned neurodivergent children as the ones who needed to change. That work felt unremarkable at the time. That's exactly the point.
Social Stencil grew out of a desire to do better. To offer something grounded in a different set of assumptions. That difference is natural, that belonging doesn't require conformity, and that the adults in the room carry the responsibility for creating safe, affirming environments for the children within them.
The responsibility that comes with that
When a program is built on those values and is continually seeking to understand its effectiveness through research, fidelity matters. This is an ethical commitment and reflects not only how Social Stencil has been built, but how it will be sustained. Fidelity is the degree to which Social Stencil is delivered as it was designed, researched, and intended, and that directly affects whether it's safe and meaningful for the children who experience it.
I've been sitting with this for a while. Social Stencil has grown. More facilitators, more schools, more clinics, more communities. It’s awesome to see this happening now, and I’m genuinely grateful. This program would not exist without the practitioners who have taken it into their rooms and delivered it with care.
But growth without structure creates risk. And the risk I was most concerned about wasn't bad intent, it’s depth and time for reflective practice. Facilitators accessing resources without having the space or time to explore their own assumptions. For a neuroaffirming program, that's not a small thing. It's the difference between support that genuinely helps and support that unintentionally repeats old patterns in new clothing.
What's changing, and why
I’ve made a number of changes to how facilitators access and deliver Social Stencil.
Anonymous, immediate purchase of the Social Stencil portal via credit card, with direct access to resources without reflective training touch-points, is no longer available.
Training pathways have been strengthened, with foundational learning in the neurodiversity-affirming movement and its principles now built into all pathways, followed by individual support designed to create space for reflective practice.
The Social Stencil facilitator directory has also been temporarily removed while processes are being refined.
These aren’t hurdles. They’re care structures for the children the program serves, and for the facilitators delivering it.
What I want facilitators to know
Neuroaffirming practice is a lens we can only develop through intentional effort and ongoing reflective practice. It asks you to sit with discomfort, to examine what you've been taught, what you've assumed, and what you might have inadvertently carried into your work. That's not a criticism. It's an invitation.
I suspect many of us in this space are in a somewhat uncomfortable position right now, as the field catches up with what lived experience advocates are sharing and asking of us. The best we can do is continue to listen, continue to learn, and build practices where we remain open and reflective as a core engine driving us forward. In fact I would argue, when you become reflective and disarmed, you feel less afraid of misstepping and more comfortable in this evolving space.
Social Stencil facilitators are doing exactly that. The changes I’m making might feel overwhelming or uncomfortable, but I’m hopeful they will bring collective strength to the work we continue to share with our community. Change is happening. Change is good.
