Have you ever noticed that some students seem to work better simply because someone is sitting nearby?
This strategy is known as body doubling.
Body doubling involves having another person present while a student completes a task. The other person doesn’t need to teach, supervise, or help with the work; they’re just there, working alongside the student.
Many neurodivergent individuals find body doubling helpful because it provides a model of productive behaviour, increases motivation, creates a sense of accountability, and supports emotional regulation when tasks begin to feel frustrating or overwhelming (Eagle et al., 2024).
As a trainer or student support, this might look like sitting beside a student while they complete an assessment, while you work on your own tasks such as marking or responding to emails. The goal isn’t to assist with the assessment, it’s to provide a calm, supportive presence.
Alternatively, you could encourage the student to work alongside a trusted classmate who is unlikely to distract them. Often, this provides the same benefits.
Sometimes, the most effective support isn’t about doing more; it’s simply about being present.
Eagle, T., Beltaxe-Admony, L. B., & Ringland, K. E. (2024). “It was something I naturally found worked and heard about later”: An investigation of body doubling with neurodivergent participants. ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing, 17(3), 1-30. https://doi.org/10.1145/3689648