By Dilyana Teneva
Inclusive education requires teachers to consider not only what pupils learn, but also how they access activities, communicate their understanding, and participate in classroom life. For pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), participation may require different forms of support, additional processing time, or alternatives to conventional spoken and written responses.
One possible starting point for exploring these questions is an open-ended visual activity using ambiguous drawings. A single arrangement of lines can suggest different familiar objects to different viewers. Participants can observe the image, describe what they recognise, and notice whether their interpretations change as they continue looking.
Through The Familiar, an independent exploratory project, I have been developing guided visual practices based on this process. These activities raise questions about visual recognition, communication, and opportunities for participation. They do not yet establish that ambiguous drawing activities improve learning outcomes or provide specific benefits for pupils with SEND. Their potential educational value needs to be considered alongside existing research, statutory guidance, and appropriate evaluation.
Research on metacognition and self-regulated learning provides one relevant starting point. Metacognition involves thinking about and reflecting on one’s own learning, while self-regulation includes planning, monitoring, and evaluating one’s approach to a task.
The Education Endowment Foundation’s Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning guidance report identifies substantial evidence supporting the explicit teaching of these strategies. It recommends that teachers model their thinking, provide structured opportunities for reflection, and gradually support pupils to apply strategies more independently. The report also emphasises that these approaches are most effective when integrated into subject teaching rather than treated as isolated, generic thinking exercises (EEF, 2025).
An ambiguous drawing activity has some features that could provide a context for reflection. A pupil might identify a shape, look again, notice another possibility, and explain what prompted the change. Questions such as “What did you notice first?”, “What made you think of that?” and “Did you notice anything else?” can make the process of observation more explicit.
However, an important distinction must be maintained. The research evidence supporting metacognitive teaching does not demonstrate that this particular activity develops metacognition or improves attainment. That would require direct evaluation. The connection is a reason to investigate the activity, not evidence that its effectiveness has already been established.
Research on ambiguous visual perception provides a second relevant perspective. Kornmeier and Bach (2012) review how perception can change even when the visual stimulus remains unchanged. This helps explain why ambiguous images can provide an interesting context for studying recognition and interpretation. Nevertheless, findings about visual perception do not automatically establish educational benefits, nor do they show that a child’s interpretation reveals a particular learning need or psychological characteristic.
In England, the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years identifies participation, the involvement of children and young people in decisions affecting them, and the removal of barriers to learning as important principles of SEND provision (Department for Education and Department of Health, 2015; updated guidance information, 2024).
The Equality Act 2010 also establishes duties concerning disability discrimination and reasonable adjustments in schools. These may include adjustments to how pupils access learning and demonstrate their understanding (Equality Act 2010; GOV.UK, n.d.).
These frameworks provide a relevant policy context for considering classroom activities. They do not prescribe ambiguous drawings or endorse any particular creative method. Instead, they highlight questions that educators should ask about the accessibility and design of learning opportunities.
For example, if an activity requires every pupil to produce a drawing, respond quickly, and explain an interpretation verbally, some pupils may encounter unnecessary barriers. A more flexible design could allow pupils to work with a prepared image, point to a shape, select from visual options, use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), dictate a response, or observe without being required to share.
Such adaptations should be based on individual needs and preferences, rather than assumptions about a diagnosis. The aim is not to make every pupil participate in exactly the same way, but to provide meaningful opportunities to engage.
Practice 01 is a guided visual activity developed within The Familiar. Participants create a spontaneous scribble, pause, observe the resulting lines, identify familiar forms, record their observations, and reflect on the experience.
The activity can be adapted for classroom use in several ways:
The teacher might use the activity during a visual arts or language lesson, for example, to encourage descriptive vocabulary or develop a short story from an observed shape. The same image can also provide a starting point for discussing how people may interpret identical visual information differently.
These are proposed uses rather than established outcomes. An activity that is engaging for one pupil may be confusing, uninteresting, or uncomfortable for another. The teacher should adapt or discontinue it where appropriate.
If schools or practitioners choose to explore this activity, evaluation should focus on observable participation and the pupil’s experience rather than on interpreting the content of their drawings.
Useful questions might include:
Observations should be descriptive and contextual. For example, “The pupil pointed to two shapes and selected a picture to explain the second interpretation” is more useful than concluding that the pupil is inherently more or less creative.
A drawing should not be used to diagnose a condition, infer a pupil’s emotional state, or determine their cognitive abilities. Nor should the number of recognised images be treated as a measure of creativity or learning. Such conclusions would require evidence that this activity does not currently provide.
Any more formal evaluation would need a clearly defined research question, appropriate methods, suitable consent and safeguarding procedures, and careful consideration of the perspectives of participating children and their families.
The potential relevance of ambiguous drawing activities to SEND lies less in the image itself than in how the activity is designed, facilitated, and evaluated.
For educators, it may offer a flexible context in which to explore observation, description, interpretation, and reflection. For researchers, it raises questions about how pupils approach open-ended visual tasks, which adaptations support participation, and how different response methods affect the observations that teachers can make.
For SEND policy and practice, the central consideration is accessibility. A creative activity should not become an additional barrier because it assumes a particular drawing ability, processing speed, communication style, or willingness to speak in front of others.
Future evaluation could examine how pupils with different support needs experience the activity, which adaptations they find useful, and whether teachers consider it practical within existing lessons. Such work should include pupil perspectives and avoid treating SEND as a uniform category.
The Familiar is an ongoing independent project, and its methodology continues to develop through practice and observation. The activities are exploratory educational resources, not validated assessments or evidence-based therapeutic interventions. Their contribution should therefore be judged through careful use and further investigation, rather than assumed in advance.
Inclusive education involves creating opportunities for pupils to participate in ways that take account of their individual needs. Research on metacognition offers a reason to investigate activities that invite learners to observe, explain, and reflect, while SEND guidance and equality legislation highlight the importance of removing barriers and making appropriate adjustments.
Ambiguous drawing activities may provide one practical context in which to explore these principles. Whether they lead to meaningful educational benefits for pupils with SEND remains an open question.
The next step is not to claim that such activities work, but to examine how they are experienced, what adaptations are needed, and what evidence would justify their wider use.
Department for Education and Department of Health (2015). Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years. London: Department for Education. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25
Education Endowment Foundation (2025). Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning: Guidance Report. London: Education Endowment Foundation. Available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/metacognition
Equality Act 2010, c. 15. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15
GOV.UK (n.d.). Help if you have a disabled child: Education. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/help-for-disabled-child/education
Kornmeier, J. and Bach, M. (2012). Ambiguous figures—what happens in the brain when perception changes but not the stimulus. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, Article 51. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00051
Dilyana Teneva is an independent creator and the founder of The Familiar, an exploratory project investigating visual perception, recognition, and interpretation through ambiguous drawings and guided visual practices. Her work brings together visual creativity, observation, and reflective learning, with a focus on developing accessible activities for children, educators, and professionals.
Website: https://poznatoto.online/
