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Reaching All Learners

Craig Smith

The Universal Sandpit
Craig in a tiger mask holding a tablet in a garden, gesturing toward a chicken coop
Craig kneeling beside a child wearing a large Frosties tiger mascot head in a playground Two people wearing cardboard Minecraft heads in the bush, one pointing at a tablet A green Lego wall spelling 'LEGO GREEN WALL' with minifigures and wellbeing prompts
// Today · PRESENTATION
  • 01 Inclusive DesignsUDL, AI, and where they meet
  • 02 Planning with AISix tools and prompts for inclusive lesson planning
  • 03 Supporting studentsThree tools for social and emotional supports
  • 04 Student ToolsFive tools students can use themselves
  • 05 Your Plus OneOne thing you'll take back into your classroom

Three principles of UDL

// The What

Representation

How we represent content.

// The How

Action & Expression

How learners show what they know.

Designing for Human Variability

Inclusion is how we design for human variability.

We might think of inclusive learning design as emerging from the interaction of three forms of awareness:

  • understanding the learner
  • designing the learning environment
  • examining our own assumptions as educators
A late-1990s desktop computer: CRT monitor, beige tower, keyboard and mouse
A printed paper grocery checklist with photos of items and how-many columns
A smartphone app showing a step-by-step grocery shopping routine with photos

Each new technology,
another step for inclusion

As technology has evolved, what it allows us to do to provide access and personalisation of learning has evolved with it.

Printed visuals Digital timetables
Overhead projector slides Videos on interactive whiteboards
NowAI Another step in what technology can do to support inclusion for all learners
Three-panel cartoon: a boy climbs a wooden ladder happily, then struggles partway up, then a robot arrives and the ladder rungs light up.

What autistic students said about school

In the Australian Autism Educational Needs Analysis, autistic students described the difficulties they faced at school:

  • planning for assignments
  • working as part of a group
  • handwriting, in particular being neat
  • coping with change, e.g. changes in teachers or the timetable
  • coping with bullying or teasing
  • handwriting, in particular being quick enough to keep up
  • copying information from the board
  • doing homework
  • staying calm when other kids annoy me or when the classroom is very noisy
  • talking in front of the class and starting tasks

AI can readily support many of these.

Saggers, B., Klug, D., Harper-Hill, K., Ashburner, J., Costley, D., Clark, T., Bruck, S., Trembath, D., Webster, A. A., & Carrington, S. (2018). Australian autism educational needs analysis — What are the needs of schools, parents and students on the autism spectrum? Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism, Brisbane.

UDL is how we'll approach AI today

// UDL — Multiple means of
Engagement Representation Action & Expression

how we engage and motivate learners  ·  how we represent content  ·  how learners show what they know

In this session, three ways of using AI — all part of the same inclusive design process.

// 01

AI for planning & delivering content

Teacher-facing. Sometimes before the lesson, sometimes during — sometimes the same thing.

// 02

AI for understanding our students — and our own assumptions

Communication, sensory, executive function. Surfacing our cognitive biases. Thinking in neurodiversity-affirming ways.

// 03

AI for students themselves

Chunking learning, supporting task initiation, helping with self-regulation.

theuniversalsandpit.org
Illustration of a hiker stepping across mountain peaks, reaching back to help a child climb up

Planning

Lego scene of a teacher planning on a laptop at a desk, with a Today's Plan whiteboard and books on classroom management, differentiation and engagement
// Part 02 — Planning
  • 01 Task AnalyserBreak a task down by executive function demands
  • 02 Assignment FormatterAssignments students can follow on their own
  • 03 Step CardsVisual sequence scaffolds for tasks and lessons
  • 04 UDL ToolsPlan, think, and check your work through a UDL lens
  • 05 Lesson CompanionA whole-lesson Inclusion Guide
Task Analyser Assignment Formatter Step Cards UDL Tools Lesson Companion

Breaking down a task

// Demo — The Universal Sandpit

Task Analyser

  • Describe or upload a task
  • Set the student's age
  • Get practical scaffolds for the executive function demands
Open tool
// Or, paste into any AI

“Break this task down for a [age]-year-old.”

Then ask what executive functions it really needs — and how to scaffold each.

Task Analyser Assignment Formatter Step Cards UDL Tools Lesson Companion

Assignments students can follow

// Demo — The Universal Sandpit

Assignment Formatter

  • Paste an assignment
  • Get clear steps with time estimates
  • Hand it to students as a plan they can follow
Open tool
// Or, paste into any AI

“Turn this assignment into steps with time estimates.”

Plain language students can follow on their own.

Task Analyser Assignment Formatter Step Cards UDL Tools Lesson Companion

Visual step cards

// Demo — The Universal Sandpit

Step Cards

  • Paste or upload a lesson
  • Get a printable visual sequence
  • Laminate, tick off, hand to a student
Open tool
// Or, paste into any AI

“Break this lesson into a visual sequence.”

Each card: a short label, a one-line description, and an icon idea.

Task Analyser Assignment Formatter Step Cards UDL Tools Lesson Companion

Universal Design for Learning

Three tools on The Universal Sandpit to plan, think, and check your work through a UDL lens.

// UDL Tool

UDL Lesson Planner

Plan lessons with learner variability considered from the start.

Open tool
// UDL Tool

UDL Thinking Space

A flexible planning environment for developing UDL ideas.

Open tool
// UDL Tool

UDL Bias Scanner

Surface hidden assumptions in learning activities.

Open tool
Task Analyser Assignment Formatter Step Cards UDL Tools Lesson Companion

Inclusive Lesson Planning

// Demo — The Universal Sandpit

Lesson Companion

  • Upload a lesson
  • Choose your inclusive lenses
  • Get a one-page Inclusion Guide back
Open tool
// Or, paste into any AI

“Make this lesson more inclusive for my neurodivergent students.”

Then ask for ideas across engagement, representation, and action & expression.

Supporting Students

Lego scene of a teacher and student sharing a tablet at a classroom desk
// Part 03 — Supporting

Three tools for supporting students

  • 01 Reflective LensReflect on a tough moment through a neurodiversity-affirming lens
  • 02 New DayPlan a new approach to a repeat pattern — with a script you can share
  • 03 Social Script GeneratorWrite a social narrative to support a student through a situation
Reflective Lens New Day Social Script Generator

Reflecting on a tough moment

// Demo — The Universal Sandpit

Reflective Lens

  • Describe where you feel stuck
  • Get reflective questions back
  • Pick the ones that resonate — and sit with them
Open tool
// Or, paste into any AI

“Help me reflect on this through a neurodiversity-affirming lens.”

Ask me questions that surface my assumptions and other ways of seeing it.

Reflective Lens New Day Social Script Generator

Breaking a repeat pattern

// Demo — The Universal Sandpit

New Day

  • Describe the pattern that keeps repeating
  • Add what you've tried, and what the student loves
  • Get a staff plan and a warm script for the student
Open tool
// Or, paste into any AI

“Help me plan a new approach to this repeat pattern.”

Give me a staff plan and a warm script I can read with the student.

Reflective Lens New Day Social Script Generator

Social narratives

// Demo — The Universal Sandpit

Social Script Generator

  • Name the situation you want to support
  • Get a draft social narrative
  • Adapt it for the student you have in mind
Open tool
// Or, paste into any AI

“Write a social narrative about [situation].”

Plain, first-person language — warm, affirming, no moralising.

Student Tools

Lego scene of a student working on a tablet at a desk in a classroom
// Part 04 — Student Tools
  • 01 Floating ThoughtsBreak an assignment into chunks you can manage
  • 02 First StringsGentle prompts for when starting is hard
  • 03 Spoon Theory PlannerPlan the day around the energy you actually have
  • 04 PathwayFrom how you feel to how you'd like to feel
  • 05 AlongsideA calm body-doubling companion for focus
Floating Thoughts First Strings Spoon Theory Planner Pathway Alongside

Chunking the work yourself

// Demo — The Universal Sandpit

Floating Thoughts

  • Describe your assignment, or upload a rubric
  • Get chunks you can reorder and colour-code
  • Copy your plan and take it with you
Open tool
// Or, paste into any AI

“Break this assignment into chunks I can manage.”

Give me a list I can rearrange, not a plan I have to follow.

Floating Thoughts First Strings Spoon Theory Planner Pathway Alongside

Starting when starting is hard

// Demo — The Universal Sandpit

First Strings

  • Name what you can't start
  • Get gentle entry points — action, sensory, curiosity, structure
  • Build a starter sequence that fits you
Open tool
// Or, paste into any AI

“Help me start [task] when starting is hard.”

Suggest gentle ways in — sensory, emotional, structural.

Floating Thoughts First Strings Spoon Theory Planner Pathway Alongside

Planning around your energy

// Demo — The Universal Sandpit

Spoon Theory Planner

  • Start with the spoons you have today
  • Add tasks and self-care — each with a spoon cost
  • See what fits the day, and what to let go
Open tool
// Or, paste into any AI

“Help me plan today around the energy I actually have.”

Use spoon theory. I'll tell you my spoons and what I want to do.

Floating Thoughts First Strings Spoon Theory Planner Pathway Alongside

From how you feel to how you'd like to feel

// Demo — The Universal Sandpit

Pathway

  • Name how you feel now
  • Pick how you'd like to feel
  • Get a pathway between them
Open tool
// Or, paste into any AI

“Help me get from feeling [X] to feeling [Y].”

Suggest small steps I can try — gently.

Floating Thoughts First Strings Spoon Theory Planner Pathway Alongside

Someone to work alongside

Pixel-art animation of a person quietly working at a desk — a body-doubling focus companion
// Tool — The Universal Sandpit

Alongside

  • A quiet companion who works while you work
  • Body-doubling to help you start — and stay with — a task
  • Choose a scene, press play, and settle in
Open tool
+1

Your Plus One

What's one simple AI tool or prompt you'll add to your guidance and instruction this week?

A way to explore the executive function demands of a task
A way to approach behavioural patterns using new strategies
A way to allow students to break tasks into small chunks
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Reaching All Learners