AUTISM
Low profiling
SPRINGWATCH
presenter Chris Packham knows only too well the loneliness and distress caused by being singled out as a “weirdo” teenager because of his idiosyncratic autistic traits.
He had hoped the stigmatisation and bullying of neurodiverse children in the UK was a thing of the past. But, he tells the Eye, he is now involved in a war of words with Ofsted, which seems determined to reinforce outdated classroom stereotypes.
Packham and other outraged campaigners are calling on the education regulator to withdraw “dangerous” training materials that link autism to radicalisation. The document instructs inspectors to ensure teachers are aware of their safeguarding duties to report concerns to the government’s antiterrorism programme, Prevent. It says: “Children and young people with autism are at increased risk of being susceptible to extremism… because they are more likely to develop special interests.”