SEND reform 2026: the blind spot around aphantasia, anendophasia and SDAM
Mar 27, 2026
On 23 February 2026, the UK Government published its white paper Every Child Achieving and Thriving alongside the SEND consultation Putting Children and Young People First. The reforms set out major proposed changes to the schools and SEND system in England, with a focus on earlier support, stronger inclusion, mainstream provision, clearer accountability, and better joined-up systems. The consultation is open until 18 May 2026.
This matters for all children with SEND, but it matters especially for children whose barriers are easy to miss.
In this blog, I want to talk about one of the biggest blind spots I see in the SEND reform conversation: invisible cognitive differences such as aphantasia, anendophasia, and severely deficient autobiographical memory (SDAM).
These differences can affect how children learn, reflect, regulate, participate, and engage in school. Yet they are still largely absent from the national conversation about inclusion.
What the new SEND reforms say
There is much in the direction of travel that I welcome.
Any move towards earlier identification, stronger inclusion, better practical support, and a system that responds more quickly to children’s barriers is a step in the right direction. For too many families, support has depended on how hard they can fight, how visible a child’s difficulties are, or how neatly their needs fit into categories the system already understands.
The government’s proposals place a strong emphasis on identifying barriers earlier, strengthening inclusive mainstream practice, and improving the consistency of support through measures such as National Inclusion Standards and digital Individual Support Plans. Those reforms could create a better system for many children, but only if we are willing to widen our understanding of what a barrier actually looks like.
What is missing from the SEND reform conversation
Having read the policy carefully, I believe there is still a significant blind spot, and it is one I know well through my work at Aphantasia Academy.
There is a group of children and young people whose needs may still be missed, not because those needs are minor, but because they are largely invisible.
I am talking about children with aphantasia, anendophasia, and SDAM.
These are not the kinds of differences most schools are routinely trained to recognise. Yet they can have a very real impact on learning, emotional wellbeing, participation, self-reflection, and school engagement.
A child with aphantasia may not be able to form mental images when a teacher says, “Picture this in your mind.”
A child with anendophasia may not experience an inner verbal monologue in the way adults often assume when they talk about “saying it to yourself in your head”.
A child with severely deficient autobiographical memory may struggle to recall and reflect on personal past experiences in the way many educational, pastoral, and therapeutic approaches expect.
Because these differences are invisible, they are easy to misunderstand.
How invisible cognitive differences can affect children in school
Children with invisible cognitive differences may appear articulate, capable, and outwardly engaged. They may not obviously look like they need support. Yet they may still be struggling with tasks, interventions, and conversations that rely on inner processes they cannot access in the expected way.
That matters more than many people realise.
If education assumes that every child can picture it, replay it, self-talk through it, or draw on a vivid past memory, some children will be excluded by design even when the adults around them are well-meaning.
This can show up in all sorts of ways:
- difficulty with visualisation-based learning tasks
- difficulty accessing reflective or memory-based writing
- struggles with some emotional wellbeing exercises
- confusion during interventions that assume inner speech
- frustration when support keeps relying on methods that do not fit how their mind works
- disengagement that is mistaken for unwillingness.
Not every barrier is noisy. Not every barrier sits neatly under a familiar label and not every child who appears disengaged is unwilling.
Sometimes the real issue is that we are asking children to do things internally that they simply cannot do in the way we expect.
Why aphantasia, anendophasia and SDAM matter in education
This is why I believe the SEND consultation matters so much.
In my consultation submission, I argue that inclusion should not only be about what a child can do outwardly. It should also take account of what schools assume a child can do inwardly.
If a child cannot visualise, cannot access an inner voice in the expected way, or cannot retrieve autobiographical memories in the way many reflective approaches rely on, then teaching, support planning, emotional wellbeing work, and attendance responses may all need to be adapted accordingly.
Without that understanding, there is a real risk that some children will continue to be misunderstood as resistant, avoidant, disengaged, emotionally lacking in insight, or simply not trying hard enough.
That is a gap in inclusive practice, and if the education system is serious about helping every child achieve and thrive, that gap needs to be addressed.
Why I wrote to Bridget Phillipson
I have also written directly to the Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson, to highlight this issue.
I have already submitted my formal response to the consultation, but I felt it was important to write separately because this is not a small technical detail. It is a blind spot with real consequences for children and young people.
In my letter, I make the case that invisible cognitive differences deserve to be part of the national conversation around inclusion and SEND reform, and that there is an opportunity here to strengthen the reforms before this blind spot becomes embedded in the next version of the system.
You can read my letter to the Secretary of State below.
LETTER TO SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EDUCATION
Read my SEND consultation submission
If you would like to read my full consultation submission on SEND reform and invisible cognitive differences, you can do so here:
The consultation itself is available via the Department for Education and closes on 18 May 2026.
Why this matters now
My hope is not simply that aphantasia, anendophasia and SDAM are acknowledged.
My hope is that they are understood well enough to shape practice, because when children are repeatedly asked to access inner processes that are not available to them, the consequences can ripple far beyond the classroom. It can affect confidence, emotional wellbeing, belonging, participation, and a child’s sense of whether school is a place where they can succeed.
If this reform agenda is truly about helping every child achieve and thrive, then it must also include children whose inner experience falls outside the norm.
They deserve to be seen. They deserve support that fits and they deserve an education system that does not mistake invisibility for absence.
Final thoughts on SEND reform and invisible cognitive differences
This consultation is an important opportunity.
I hope the Department for Education will use it to listen not only to the needs it already knows how to name, but also to the ones that have remained hidden for far too long.
Some children may be struggling not because they are unwilling, but because we are still trying to fit them into educational moulds that do not fit their minds.
