Human-Centred Approaches to AI: Supporting Neurodivergent Minds in the Classroom

Welcome to our Universal Sandpit ‘Prompts and Projects’ hub. By learning to craft thoughtful AI prompts, educators can engage with key principles of inclusivity, such as accessibility and personalised learning, to better meet students' diverse needs.

Explore our prompts and projects to help think through how to foster new insights into your inclusive education setting.

THREE PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Cognitive Scaffolding

AI can act as a dynamic scaffold for executive functioning - helping learners plan, organise, initiate, and manage their thinking processes so that cognitive energy is freed for creativity and meaning-making. The following are some examples.

  • Planning and organisation: A student asks AI to break down an assignment into smaller, sequenced tasks with deadlines and reminders, or to generate a checklist aligned with learning goals.

  • Reflection and metacognition: A student uploads their study notes and asks AI to summarise key points, highlight gaps in understanding, and suggest areas to revise, prompting active self-regulation.

Scenario

A student is given a creative school task:

“ Draw a picture of your favourite person.”

For a student who struggles with executive functioning, the instruction “favourite person” might feel overwhelming, emotionally loaded, or simply too abstract. Their mind goes blank, and they don’t know how to start.

Using AI, the teacher (or student) can scaffold this task through progressive prompting:

AI-Supported Scaffold (Step-by-Step):

  1. Prompt Generation – Memory Activation
    Student asks AI:“Can you help me think of some people I know who might be special to me or interesting to draw?”
    AI responds:“Sure! Here are some categories: family, friends, teachers, people from history, fictional characters, or people you admire. Would you like to start by naming someone from one of these groups?”

  2. Option Structuring – Decision Support
    Student then asks:“I have a few names now. How can I decide which one to choose?”
    AI responds:“Let’s compare them. Who do you feel comfortable drawing? Who has a distinctive feature you could show in your art? Who makes you feel happy when you think of them?”

  3. Planning – Task Sequencing
    Once a choice is made, the student can ask AI: “Can you help me plan how to start my drawing?”
    AI breaks down the task:“Step 1: Sketch the outline. Step 2: Choose one main colour theme. Step 3: Add a background that tells us something about the person. Step 4: Write a short caption.”

Environmental Interlocutor

AI can serve as an interactive mediator between learners and their environment - interpreting, questioning, and contextualising the world around them through multimodal dialogue (text, image, sound, space).

  • Contextual inquiry: A student photographs a passage from a book, a diagram, or a historical site and asks AI to explain or contextualise it.

  • Everyday problem solving: A student points their device at a cluttered workspace or science experiment and asks AI to suggest ways to organise, categorise, or interpret what they see.

Scenario

A student is working on a geography or environmental studies task:

“ Investigate the sustainability of your local area.”

For many learners, this might feel too broad or abstract. They might not know where to start or what ‘sustainability’ might look like in practice.

Using AI’s multimodal capabilities, the teacher invites students to use their environment as data - to ‘speak’ with the world through AI.

AI-Supported Scaffold (Step-by-Step):

  1. Context Observation - Seeing Through AI
    Student takes a photo of the school playground or street outside and asks:
    “Can you describe what you notice in this picture that relates to sustainability?”
    AI responds:
    “I can see rubbish bins, garden beds, a carpark, and a patch of grass. These could relate to waste management, green space, and transport choices. Would you like to focus on one area?”

  2. Environmental Dialogue - Generating Inquiry
    Student follows up:
    “Let’s look at the garden beds - what questions could I ask about them?”
    AI responds:
    “You might ask: What plants are growing there? Are they native species? How are they watered? Could compost be added? Would shade or more biodiversity improve the space?”

  3. Action Translation - From Observation to Plan
    Student then asks:
    “Can you help me plan a small action to improve sustainability in this area?”
    AI responds:
    “Sure - you could design a small sign to educate others about native plants, start a composting system, or survey students about how they use the space. Which feels achievable to you?”

Imagination Pathway

AI can act as a conduit for creative expression - translating fledgling ideas into visible, audible, or narrative form, allowing learners to explore what an idea might become in the world.

  • Creative prototyping: A student describes a story idea or game concept, and AI generates an initial storyboard or app mockup to demonstrate what the idea could become.

  • Cross-modal experimentation: Learners transform written work into AI-generated images or short films, exploring how meaning changes across mediums and discovering new trajectories for their creativity.

Scenario

A student has written a short story in English about a child who discovers a hidden city beneath their school. As part of extending the project, the student chooses to design a simple video game app based on the story as a way to inhabit the world they’ve imagined.

AI-Supported Scaffold (Step-by-Step):

  1. Exploratory Visualisation - Mapping the Storyworld
    Student asks AI:
    “Can you help me map out what the underground city might look like, based on my story?”
    AI responds:
    “Sure - let’s identify key locations from your text: the library tunnel, the glowing roots, the hidden classroom. I can sketch a simple layout or generate concept art for each space.”

  2. Character Interpretation - Understanding Motivation Through Play
    Student follows up:
    “I’d like to show how my main character feels as they explore. Can you help me design small interactions or challenges that represent their emotions?”
    AI responds:
    “When the character feels anxious, maybe the screen darkens or slows. When they’re curious, new pathways light up. These mechanics can express inner experience through gameplay.”

  3. Iterative Creation - Reflection Through Making
    As the student prototypes in a tool like GDevelop or Scratch, they continue to dialogue with AI — asking for help with level structure, dialogue tone, or sound design - using creative production as a way to reflect on narrative meaning.