COACHING NEURODIVERGENT ANGLERS

Delivery guidance for School Of Fish coaches, published because our standard is published. It covers autistic anglers and neurodivergence broadly: ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and learners who have disclosed nothing but fish better with the same care. You are not diagnosing anyone. You are coaching the angler in front of you, and the pre-session form tells you what helps. Read it before every session it exists for.

BEFORE THE SESSION

Set up before they arrive; walking up to a ready peg removes the most chaotic minutes of the day. Confirm the plan with the parent or carer at the start. Say what will happen in order, then keep the order. If the plan has to change, say so before it changes, not while it is changing.

COMMUNICATION

Literal language: say hold the rod still, not hang fire. One instruction at a time, and demonstrate rather than describe where you can. Give processing time: count five in your head before you repeat yourself, because repeating too fast restarts the clock. Ask once: do you want me to show you, or tell you? Where direct instructions spike resistance, offer choices instead: two ways to say the same thing, and the learner picks. Side by side at the water is easier than face to face, which is one of angling's quiet advantages. Eye contact is never required and never chased.

SENSORY, AND WHAT NEVER BENDS

Name the bank's sensory reality honestly: maggots wriggle, fish are wet and sudden, reels click, rain happens. Offer, never force. Stimming needs no comment and no management; it is regulation, not distraction. A learner who does not touch bait or fish can still have a full session; you bait and unhook for as long as it takes, and the stamps that need handling wait until the learner is ready. Adjustments change how and when, never what. The standard is the standard; a stamp waits rather than bends, and that protects every stamp we have ever issued.

STRUCTURE

Same coach and same peg for returning learners where you can manage it. Warn before transitions: two more casts, then we pack down. The session's own shape, set up, fish, pack down, is a timetable; use it. Ending on time matters more than ending on a fish.

OVERWHELM, MELTDOWN, SHUTDOWN

Meltdown and shutdown are communication, not misbehaviour. Drop demands, reduce input, give space, stop talking. The parent or carer leads if present. Your only intervention is water safety: place yourself between the angler and the water, calmly, and wait. Afterwards there is no post-mortem unless the learner starts one. Log what preceded it in your session note so the next session avoids the trigger rather than repeats it.

TOUCH

Physical prompting only with consent from the learner and, for under-eighteens, the parent, agreed before the session rather than negotiated mid-cast. Prefer hand-under-hand, your hand beneath theirs, so the learner stays on top and can pull away at any moment. No grabbing, ever, with one exception: immediate danger at the water's edge.

ASSESSMENT

Every stamp is signed to the same published standard. What flexes is the mode of evidence. Talk Me Through It requires an explanation someone else could follow; spoken, written, typed or shown step by step all qualify. Wherever the guide says in their own words, words include typed, written and AAC (augmentative and alternative communication). If you are unsure whether an adjustment crosses from mode into standard, ask the coach educator before signing, and flag it so the guide gets clearer.

THE RULES THAT DO NOT CHANGE

Ratios, never-alone, parental consent and every safeguarding rule apply exactly as written. Neurodivergence changes delivery. It never changes supervision.

TRAINING

Complete an autism-understanding module before coaching referred learners; the school will point you at one. Then treat this page as a floor, not a ceiling: the pre-session form and the parent on the bank know this learner better than any guidance can.