Redefining Peer Support
Traditional peer-support models often position some students as helpers and others as recipients. NIPE introduces a framework where neurotypical and neurodiverse adolescents learn from one another through reciprocal role-sharing, collaborative problem-solving and emotional first-aid training.
The four ideas behind NIPE
Double Empathy Problem
Empathy gaps are mutual — both sides need scaffolding, not one.
Reciprocal Roles
Every student is both learner and supporter — roles rotate.
Distributed Expertise
Lived experience is treated as a teaching asset.
Emotional First Aid
A universal life skill — as fundamental as physical first aid.
Our story
From a research insight to a school-based framework — the four chapters so far.
- 1
Listen
Conversations with adolescents and educators about what peer support actually looks like today.
- 2
Co-design
Modules built with neurodiverse students to ensure reciprocity, not hierarchy.
- 3
Test
Currently being tested with students; school pilots are being planned, not yet completed.
- 4
Grow
Planned: a measurable, school-based framework that more schools can adopt.
The mind behind NIPE
Prarthana is a 17-year-old pursuing psychology, and the founder of NIPE. Growing up around classmates who were quietly struggling — and neurodiverse peers whose needs were routinely misread — she began asking a simple question: why do we teach physical first aid but not emotional first aid? NIPE is her answer: an evidence-informed, gamified platform that treats every adolescent as both a supporter and someone worth being supported.
Email Prarthana"Emotional first aid should be as fundamental as physical first aid. We are building a generation equipped to understand, support and learn from one another."
What we stand for
Reciprocity
Support is a two-way bridge — never one-way.
Inclusion-first
Designed with neurodiverse students from day one.
Evidence-informed
Modules are built on published, publicly available frameworks — not on claims we can't back.