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Different Minds
  • Published: 3 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529972405
  • Imprint: Ebury Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 272
Categories:

Different Minds

How We Can Help Our Autistic School Children Thrive

Formats & editions
EBook
3 Sept 2026
Tr. Paperback
3 Oct 2026
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An empathetic guide to why school isn't working for autistic children and what parents, carers and teachers can do to support neurodivergent and SEN kids - from former teacher and leading neurodivergence campaigner, Pete Wharmby.

'This is the book I'll be recommending to every parent who tells me their child is struggling' – Anna Mathur, psychotherapist and bestselling author

'A book I wish I had years ago. Every parent and teacher needs to read this' – Lisa Lloyd, Sunday Times bestselling author and SEN parent

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If you have an autistic child in school, you may be painfully aware that mainstream education wasn’t built with them in mind.

In Different Minds, former teacher and neurodivergence campaigner Pete Wharmby reveals what it’s really like to be autistic in school today, why so many children are misunderstood, and how we can help them.

Through a blend of impassioned storytelling and empathetic advice, Wharmby:

  • Exposes the inadequacies of the current system.
  • Reveals how neurodivergent differences are often mislabelled ‘challenging behaviour’.
  • Explains how to bridge the gap between the autistic and non-autistic worlds.

Galvanising, validating and compassionate, Different Minds empowers parents, teachers and carers to take a stand for our children and create the conditions they need to truly thrive.

Praise for Different Minds:

'A bible for parents of school-aged autistic children' - Annie Ridout, author, journalist, poet

'One of the most important voices on autism and education today' – Jessie Hewitson, SEND agony aunt, The Times and the Sunday Times, and author of Autism: How to Raise a Happy Autistic Child

'Compassionate, urgent and deeply validating' – Leanne Maskell, author of AuDHD and ADHD an A–Z

‘Tender, furious, deeply clarifying and exactly the kind of book that can shift a conversation’ – Dr Emma Offord, Clinical Psychologist and founder of Divergent Life
  • Published: 3 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781529972405
  • Imprint: Ebury Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 272
Categories:

About the author

Pete Wharmby

Pete Wharmby was diagnosed as autistic at the age of 34. Shocked by the statistics around depression, anxiety and life expectancy for autistic people, Pete has immersed himself in working to improve neurodiversity awareness, acceptance and making the world a more suitable place for the neurodivergent community to live in. Pete was diagnosed as ADHD in April 2024. He has written two books on autistic experience: Untypical and What I Want to Talk About: How Autistic Special Interests Shape a Life.
PW

Praise for Different Minds

Different Minds asks the forgotten question at the heart of modern education: are the kids alright? Compassionate, urgent and deeply validating.

Leanne Maskell, coach and author of AuDHD and ADHD an A–Z

One of the most important voices on autism and education today.

Jessie Hewitson, SEND agony aunt, The Times and the Sunday Times

I truly wish this book had been around when my child started to struggle in school. Back then, I knew nothing about autism, and how being autistic can make school unbearable if the child isn’t being supported in the ways they need. This book covers everything that I spent five years researching, at home, alone. And more. It is a bible for parents of school-aged autistic children.

Annie Ridout, author, journalist, poet

Different Minds is a book I wish I had years ago when my autistic child first started school and it's a book I wish my parents had to help them to understand my anxiety around school. Not only does it help parents feel less alone when navigating the school system with a child with SEND, but it also helps you to step into your child’s shoes and see the world through their eyes. This is a book that every parent and teacher needs to read and a book that will help so many to understand why children are not coping at school.

Lisa Lloyd, Sunday Times bestselling author and SEN parent

Pete Wharmby has written the book many families will recognise in their bodies before they recognise it on the page. Different Minds refuses to mistake autistic distress for disobedience, or parental advocacy for overreaction. It is tender, furious, deeply clarifying and exactly the kind of book that can shift a conversation.

Dr Emma Offord, Clinical Psychologist and founder of Divergent Life

Beautifully written and deeply human, Pete reframes the behaviour that exhausts and worries parents as information rather than failure. He gives families something far more useful and needed than just strategies, he gives them compassion and understanding. It’s warm, wise and long overdue. This is the book I'll be recommending to every parent who tells me their child is struggling.

Anna Mathur, psychotherapist, author and speaker