Coding that works for neurodivergent children
Autistic, ADHD, anxious, PDA, selectively mute, or waiting on an assessment and not sure yet. Around a third of the families who get in touch are asking whether their child will cope somewhere new. This is the honest answer.
Ages 6 to 16 · Scratch through to Python · €30 a month · free account, no card needed
“He’s autistic. Do you actually deal with that?”
Yes, and not as a special case. A large share of our members are neurodivergent, and plenty more have anxiety, physical disabilities or a diagnosis still being worked through. Every mentor is trained in supporting neurodivergent children, so it is ordinary here rather than something your child has to be brave about.
We hold the National Autistic Society’s Autism Inclusion Award. What that actually involved is set out further down, because it is evidence rather than a badge.
not just a logoFind the bit you are actually worried about
The specific answers rather than the reassuring ones. If yours is not here, there is a free-text box when you register, and that is the best place to put it.
- “He won’t speak to people he doesn’t know.”
- He does not have to. Children take part by typing in the chat, or by drawing, for as long as that is what works. Nobody asks him to speak up, and no mentor waits on an answer before moving on.
- “She won’t put the camera on.”
- Camera off is fine. Every week, not just while she settles in, and it is not something we revisit or gently encourage her out of later.
- “He has a PDA profile.”
- Joining in is an invitation. Ideas get offered, and he is welcome to pick one up, leave it, or take his project somewhere else entirely. Nothing is required on cue, and nothing is made of it when he opts out. It helps if you tell us how demand avoidance tends to show up for him, so we can match him with a mentor who already works this way.
- “We are still waiting on an assessment.”
- No diagnosis is needed and we do not ask for one. Tell us what helps and what does not, and that is what we work from. Plenty of the children here have profiles with no label yet.
- “She has been asked to leave clubs before.”
- That comes up often, and it is usually about size and pace rather than about the child. There is no group here to hold her own in and no session to walk into, so the thing that went wrong last time is not part of this. We would much rather hear what went wrong last time than work it out ourselves.
- “Loud rooms and crowds are the problem.”
- Sessions happen at home. The lighting, the noise and the seat are hers, and can change halfway through without anyone minding or anyone noticing.
- “Some days he just cannot.”
- Then he does not, and nothing is made of it. There is no session to miss and nothing waiting: he picks up exactly where he left off, whenever that is.
- “She hates being the new one.”
- There is no group and no session to walk into, so there is nothing to be dropped into cold.
nothing here has to be earned first
What is actually different
Not the values. The practical things that decide whether a child stays.
No group to walk into
There is no session at a fixed hour and no room full of other children, which for a lot of the children here is the whole point.
- The same mentor throughout, who already knows how your child likes to work
- Everything happens by text and video message, so nothing has to be said out loud
- Nobody is waiting on your child to reply, and nothing expires
Mentors who wait
STEM-certified and background-checked, and trained to give a child the time they need rather than to fill the silence.
- Processing time, without being hurried on to the next thing
- Plain, consistent instructions, the same words for the same things
- Breaks when they are needed, with nothing to make up afterwards
Nothing is forced
Your child sets the pace of their own involvement, including how much of it involves other people.
- They can listen and build without speaking at all
- Nobody is expected to mask, or to perform being fine when they are not
- There is no group to join and no session to walk into, so there is nothing to be dropped into cold
How it works
It starts in Scratch and works through to Python. There is no fixed hour in the week, which for a lot of the children here is the whole point.
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Why this particular thing tends to suit
We are not going to tell you your child is a natural coder because of how they are wired. What we can say is what the activity is actually like, and why it lands for a lot of the children who come to us.
It never changes its mind
Code does the same thing every time. Nothing is implied, there is no tone to read, and nobody is being polite about what they actually meant. For a child who spends all day decoding people, that is a rest.
Getting it wrong is private
The thing breaks, you fix it, nobody saw. No hands up and no being wrong in front of the class, which for an anxious child is often the entire barrier.
Going deep is the point
Spending six weeks on one game is not a problem to be managed here. It is how the good stuff gets made, and it is usually those children who go furthest.
You can see it working
The game runs or it does not. Progress shows up on the screen rather than in a report, which matters when praise is hard to believe.
What the Autism Inclusion Award actually involved
The National Autistic Society is the UK’s leading autism charity, and its Autism Inclusion Award is an internationally recognised standard built on the Autism Education Trust’s frameworks. Organisations are assessed against set criteria and measured on outcomes for autistic children rather than on intentions, and holding it commits us to being reassessed.
In practice it is why every mentor has the training, and why everything above is how we run rather than what we offer on request.
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Parents of neurodivergent children, in their own words
Each one links back to the original review on Reviews.io.
Our members rate us 'Excellent'!
Before you book
Two things worth knowing, and one thing we would like from you.
Tell us what helps
We have children with ADHD, autism, anxiety, dyslexia, dyspraxia and profiles that have no label yet. Mentors adapt to the child in front of them rather than to a category.
There is a box at registration for exactly this. Whatever you put there decides which mentor and which starting point we put your child in. It is the most useful thing you can give us.
Being at home does a lot of the work
- They are already somewhere they feel safe, so nothing has to be survived to get to the coding
- The lighting, the noise and the seat are theirs, and can change mid-session without anyone minding
- Stepping away for a minute costs nothing and interrupts nobody
- They are with other children without a corridor, a cloakroom or a playground attached
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If any of this sounds familiar
These are the things parents say to us most often when they first get in touch. Each one is written for that conversation rather than for the club.
- “Other clubs haven't worked for my neurodivergent child” – what tends to go wrong, and what we do differently
- “They just need somewhere they fit in” – on finding a group where a child is not the odd one out
- “They're always gaming anyway” – turning the hours already going in to games into making them
- “I want them to learn coding, but I haven't a clue where to start” – for parents who cannot code themselves
- “Will they be okay in a world this fast?” – what is actually worth learning now