Presented as a ‘formal metacomic’ (Cook RT, 2017, Metacomics. In Bramlett F, Cook RT and Meskin A (eds), The Routledge Companion to Comics. New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 257–266. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315851334-32) and understood through Gillian Whitlock’s ‘autographic’ (Whitlock G, 2006, Autographics: The seeing “i” of the comics. Modern Fiction Studies 52(4), 966. https://doi.org/10.1353/mfs.2007.0013), this article explores techniques such as abstraction and multiple narrative threads in autobiographical comics, highlighting their storytelling potential from a neurodivergent, ADHD perspective. It aims to advance comic creation as a research and sharing tool for diverse experiences, viewing autographics as a form of critical literacy through which art and activism intersect. The work emphasizes neurodivergent activism through the metaphor of abstraction, which both resists and invites narrative through sequencing. This aligns with the work of J Baetens (2011, Abstraction in comics. SubStance 40(1), 94–113. https://doi.org/10.1353/sub.2011.0004), who describes abstraction as anti-narrative. In this concept, a tension exists, since sequencing superimposes narrative onto abstract images, revealing multiple truths. This aligns with neurodivergent experiences, where various ways of perceiving co-exist. The work positions comics as a form of academic resistance and autoethnographic activism.

Autism is marked by substantial heterogeneity in cognitive, affective, behavioral, and neural profiles. This heterogeneity among diagnosed individuals is also reflected in the broad spread of autistic traits in the general population. Moving beyond a narrow focus on social-communication and/or repetitive-behavior differences, contemporary accounts increasingly emphasize multidimensional and transdiagnostic processes and the need to integrate evidence across levels of analysis, from self-report and cognitive measures to neuroimaging and computational models. The contributions in this Special Issue collectively advance this agenda by providing insights into individual differences in autistic traits and autism-relevant phenotypes, clarifying their measurement and stability, and proposing mechanistic frameworks that can help explain why diverse profiles emerge. In this conclusion piece, we summarize the manuscripts included in the special issue, highlight shared themes and discuss remaining issues and future directions, particularly related to naturalistic, interactive neuroscience. Ultimately, we hope this work will contribute to the development of more precise and inclusive models of autism.

CBT training programmes increasingly emphasise widening participation and workforce sustainability; however, limited research has explored how neurodivergent trainees and practitioners experience the academic and pedagogical structures through which CBT competence is developed and assessed. This study examined how neurodivergence, specifically the author’s dyslexia and dyspraxia, shaped engagement with CBT training, academic assessment, and pedagogical leadership, and considered implications for inclusive and authentic competence development. A critical autoethnographic approach was employed, drawing on reflective narratives situated within neurodiversity theory, experiential learning models, and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) frameworks. Four interconnected themes emerged: (1) academic norms functioning as structural barriers to competence demonstration; (2) the hidden emotional and cognitive labour of navigating academic systems; (3) neurodivergent strengths within experiential learning and clinical formulation; and (4) transformation of lived experience into inclusive pedagogical redesign within CBT training programmes. The barriers described here reflect systemic misalignment between traditional academic structures and experiential competence development rather than individual deficit; while grounded in dyslexic and dyspraxic experience, they may resonate across neurodivergence. UDL-informed curriculum design and diversified assessment approaches may enhance accessibility, authenticity of competence evaluation, and workforce sustainability within CBT education.

Key learning aims

1. (1) To understand how neurodivergent identity shapes experiences of CBT training and academic engagement.

2. (2) To recognise systemic academic barriers affecting neurodivergent CBT trainees and practitioners.

3. (3) To explore the role of experiential learning and inclusive pedagogy in supporting diverse learners.

4. (4) To identify implications for assessment design and curriculum development within CBT training programmes.

This paper argues for three main claims: (i) belonging can play an important role for epistemic self-trust; (ii) epistemic self-trust can be construed plurally so as to include not only its intellectual or propositional dimensions but also its experiential (practical, tacit, embodied, and affective) dimensions; and (iii) self-trust, plurally construed, can serve as a mechanism of epistemic repair to counteract various forms of epistemic injustice that undermine epistemic agency along these propositional and experiential dimensions. To make this threefold argument, I turn to the context of neurodiversity and neuronormativity, which helpfully illustrates the plural dimensions of epistemic agency, epistemic self-trust, and epistemic repair.

Divergent and convergent thinking are critical processes in design, ensuring that solutions are plentiful, widely applicable, original and useful. Prior research has examined the cognitive underpinnings of these types of thinking, including the relationship between cognitive load and task performance. Additionally, prior research has highlighted the impact of ADHD on divergent and convergent thinking performance and the impact of ADHD on eye-tracking metrics. However, limited research has studied the impact of ADHD on eye-tracking metrics during convergent and divergent thinking tasks, particularly in a design context. In this exploratory study with undergraduate engineering students, we aim to compare saccades, fixations and pupil diameter – proxies for cognitive load – between participants with and without ADHD performing convergent and divergent thinking design tasks. We find no significant differences between individuals with and without ADHD; however, participants, irrespective of ADHD diagnosis, exhibited more frequent saccades, shorter fixations, smaller ranges in pupil diameter and larger standard deviations in pupil diameter during the convergent thinking task. We discuss the possible implications of these differences on our understanding of creativity using eye-tracking metrics.

School refusal among neurodivergent students underscores systemic failures in traditional educational systems. This qualitative study, informed by the neurodiversity paradigm, examines how Flexible Learning Options (FLOs) in South Australia address drivers of disengagement, such as sensory overload, punitive discipline, and identity erasure, while fostering reengagement through autonomy, relational safety, and identity empowerment. Drawing on interviews conducted with a subsample of 18 students aged 13–19, reflexive thematic analysis resulted in the development of three themes: (1) autonomy and its limits, (2) relational safety as harm reduction, and (3) identity empowerment through neuroaffirmation. The findings reported in this paper advocate for educational models that transform flexibility from a temporary solution into a blueprint for equity, ensuring schools become spaces of support rather than harm for neurodivergent learners.

In his target article, ‘Autism, constructionism, and nativism’, Kissine (2021) argues that data from autism should be taken into consideration in the debate about L1 acquisition. This paper responds to Kissine's piece by pointing out several of its underlying assumptions and suggesting directions for future research on the topic. Traditional framings of autism as a deficit have recently been challenged in favor of an identity-based approach, the neurodiversity paradigm, which suggests that autistic speech should not be measured in terms of its resemblance to nonautistic speech and that literature on intercultural miscommunication may offer insights into autistic communication. There are some indications that distinct autistic discourse practices may be identifiable in communities of practice, and studies on autistic literacy could benefit from considering the theoretical perspectives found in literature on multimodality and translanguaging. Finally, research on language acquisition might be strengthened by the incorporation of holistic neurocognitive theories about autistic minds.

Autistic adolescents are at higher risk of self-harm, suicidal behaviours, and emotion dysregulation compared with their non-autistic peers. Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based treatment for self-harm and suicidal behaviour with emerging literature of the application of DBT for autistic populations. Despite this, no qualitative research has investigated the experiences of autistic adolescents of standard DBT. Therefore, this study aimed to explore autistic adolescents’ experiences of non-adapted DBT. Ten adolescents who had or were seeking an autism diagnosis, and were in a DBT programme, completed semi-structured interviews. Qualitative data from the interviews were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Themes were generated for each objective. Objective 1 included themes about the lived experience of autistic adolescents accessing DBT, including: ‘The impact of invalidation’, ‘Fostering acceptance and understanding’, ‘What does autism mean to me?’, and ‘Autism and mental health difficulties’. The themes regarding Objective 2 were about the experiences of the various modes of DBT and were organised by each client-facing mode. Objective 3 included themes highlighting the experience of utilising DBT skills in daily life, which included: ‘Barriers to skills use’, ‘Supporting skills use’, and ‘Skills practice or masking?’. Finally, Objective 4 included themes regarding the recommendations participants had for optimising DBT for autistic people: ‘Improving written materials’ and ‘General accessibility advice’. These findings suggest for DBT therapists to embody cultural humility, curiosity, validation, and flexibility when building neuro-affirmative competencies for supporting autistic individuals. Results are discussed in relation to the application and acceptability of DBT for this group.

Key learning aims

1. (1) Recent publications (e.g. Keenan et al., 2023) have explored the experience of autistic adults accessing DBT and highlighted the need for clinicians to work collaboratively with clients and make reasonable adjustments to improve autistic adults’ understanding and adherence to DBT.

2. (2) To date, no qualitative studies have explored the experience of autistic adolescents accessing the Rathus and Miller (2015) Adolescent DBT model. The current study explores the views of autistic adolescents on how autism is discussed and considered by clinicians when supporting them to access different components of DBT when describing the strengths and barriers they experience.

3. (3) Adopting a bottom-up approach, we identify key themes from adolescents’ perspectives on how to support them to access and engage with different DBT components, ranging from making environmental adaptations to meet individual sensory needs to improve accessibility, to providing more opportunities for personalised learning using neuro-affirmative examples that can improve generalisability of skills in everyday life. We provide recommendations for clinicians to consider on ways of adapting the process and content of DBT to increase accessibility and engagement for autistic adolescents in treatment.

Mirroring the general population, the number of medical students, doctors and, indeed, psychiatrists disclosing being neurodivergent is rising. These individuals commonly have a variety of strengths that can enhance their work, but these strengths may go unrecognised. All too often such individuals have been labelled ‘doctors in difficulty’. We begin this article with a review of contemporary thinking regarding neurodiversity, before considering specific issues facing neurodivergent doctors, specifically psychiatrists. We explore neurodivergent strengths and the evidence regarding career outcomes and mental health. We discuss the stigma that many neurodivergent psychiatrists face in the medical sphere and how difficulties may be reframed as unmet needs. We highlight initiatives that aim to change workplace culture, before discussing the concept of reasonable adjustments, alongside a wide range of practical suggestions of adjustments to consider, using the Autistic SPACE framework and the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ reasonable adjustments guidance. Finally, we consider how those in senior leadership roles can contribute to this field and provide role modelling and signposting to further information and support for neurodivergent doctors and their supervisors and line managers.