Statements Of Special Educational Needs Research Articles

AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDERS AND ASIAN CHILDREN

ABSTRACT: This paper compares the incidence of the diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) among White and Asian children with reference to data obtained from thirteen local education authorities (LEAs) in England. It begins by outlining some of the theoretical debates associated with the definition, diagnosis and prevalence of ASD. The empirical component underpinning this work uses logistic modelling to ascertain whether the proportion of children with a statement of special educational need (SEN) for ASD is different for Asian and for White children and whether the proportion of children with a statement of SEN for ASD varies between LEAs. The discussion speculates as to possible reasons for the differences found and identifies areas for further research.

Points from the SENCo-Forum: Statements of Special Educational Needs: equity and entitlement

Points from the SENCo-Forum: Statements of Special Educational Needs: equity and entitlement

Health of children looked after by the local authorities

Objectives. To assess the healthcare needs of looked-after children in East Surrey. Methods. Epidemiological, comparative and corporate approaches were used to study the healthcare needs of looked-after children. Information was obtained from published and unpublished sources, case note review, cross-referencing with records from specialist services, and interviews with stakeholders. Results. Of the 136 children whose case notes were reviewed, only 64% had undergone statutory medical examinations. Several physical health problems were identified, emotional and behavioural problems were present in 34% of children, 25% of school-aged children had a statement of special educational need, and 36% had ever used child and adolescent mental health services. Immunization coverage was lower than that of children who were not in care. Several unmet needs and gaps in service provision were identified. Conclusions. Children in care have a higher degree of physical and mental health needs than their not-in-care counterparts. The local service for children in care needs to be improved to meet these health needs and lead to better health and health-related outcomes for the children.

Allocation of support levels to hearing-impaired children – moving away from using audiometric descriptors

In today's climate, Education Authorities must be able to justify the level and type of support provided to individual hearing-impaired children. With increasing financial pressures, it is more important to identify resources early and efficiently. It is also necessary to justify unambiguously why any one child meets the criteria for referral for a Statement of Special Educational Needs and why another should be placed on an earlier stage of the Code of Practice. Further, the decision-making criteria must be sufficiently rigorous to withstand appeals procedures. The audiometric descriptors normal, mild, moderate, severe and profound (BATOD Magazine, 2001) currently used in the UK provide a broad indication of degree of hearing loss. This paper argues that these descriptors are not sufficiently sensitive predictors of aural/oral functioning and therefore cannot give useful guidance on levels of educational support. An alternative method for describing hearing loss is presented. This model (the Articulation Index, Pavlovic, 1991) is based upon the child's percentage access to speech sounds (with hearing aids if they have them) and is used to place the child into one of four bands of provision for educational support. This model has been used effectively in a Local Education Authority (LEA) in England. A correlation between predictions by this model and Teacher of the Deaf (ToD) professional opinion of the level of support required by the child, remained extremely high over a three-year period. The annual Statementing Review process has not shown any modification to this model to be necessary and it can be concluded that the model accurately predicts the level and type of support needed. Copyright © 2003 Whurr Publishers, Ltd.

Allocation of support levels to hearing-impaired children — moving away from using audiometric descriptors

In today's climate, Education Authorities must be able to justify the level and type of support provided to individual hearing-impaired children. With increasing financial pressures, it is more important to identify resources early and efficiently. It is also necessary to justify unambiguously why any one child meets the criteria for referral for a Statement of Special Educational Needs and why another should be placed on an earlier stage of the Code of Practice. Further, the decision-making criteria must be sufficiently rigorous to withstand appeals procedures.The audiometric descriptors normal, mild, moderate, severe and profound (BATOD Magazine, 2001) currently used in the UK provide a broad indication of degree of hearing loss. This paper argues that these descriptors are not sufficiently sensitive predictors of aural/oral functioning and therefore cannot give useful guidance on levels of educational support. An alternative method for describing hearing loss is presented. This model (the Articulation Index, Pavlovic, 1991) is based upon the child's percentage access to speech sounds (with hearing aids if they have them) and is used to place the child into one of four bands of provision for educational support.This model has been used effectively in a Local Education Authority (LEA) in England. A correlation between predictions by this model and Teacher of the Deaf (ToD) professional opinion of the level of support required by the child, remained extremely high over a three-year period. The annual Statementing Review process has not shown any modification to this model to be necessary and it can be concluded that the model accurately predicts the level and type of support needed.

Transition planning: how well does it work for young people with learning disabilities and their families?

The legislation and guidance require that transition planning takes place for all children with a Statement of Special Educational Needs. The research reported here was undertaken by Linda Ward, Professor of Disability and Social Policy at the University of Bristol, where she is director of the Norah Fry Research Centre; Robina Mallett, Carer Support Officer at the Home Farm Trust; Pauline Heslop, Research Fellow at the Norah Fry Research Centre; and Ken Simons, Senior Research Fellow at the Norah Fry Research Centre until his untimely death in January 2003, to find out how well this legislation and guidance works in practice from the perspective of young people with learning disabilities and their families. Based on information from questionnaires completed by parents and separate in‐depth interviews with youngsters with learning disabilities and their parents, this article reveals that many young people in the study left school without any transition planning, as far as their parents were aware. Where transition planning had occurred, there was a stark mismatch between the topics families wanted to cover and those addressed by the professionals involved. Many of the youngsters who did receive transition planning had little if any involvement in the process; parental involvement was also significantly less than it should have been. In drawing conclusions from their research, the authors review the most positive aspects of the process from the perspective of the young people and their parents; parents' ideas for improving transition planning; and messages from the research for professionals, including those working in education.

The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same? A Response to the Audit Commission’s Report on Statutory Assessment and Statements of SEN

This article provides a response to some of the issues raised by Anne Pinney’s summary, published in the September issue of BJSE, of the Audit Commission’s report on statutory assessment and Statements of Special Educational Needs. In developing her critique, Lani Florian, lecturer in special and inclusive education at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education and Editor of the Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, asks a series of important and challenging questions. Can the broad notion of ‘special educational needs’ complement ideas about ‘areas of need’ or ‘categories of handicap’ and enable young people with severe, complex or long–term disabilities to have their needs met? Is SEN funding fairly distributed, among pupils with special educational needs in particular and across the education system in general? Should the relationship between the processes of formative and statutory assessment and Statements of Special Educational Needs be reconceptualised? Can the protection offered by the Statement be maintained in association with the development of good inclusive practices? And if there is to be a move away from provision designed to address children’s individual difficulties, what forms of thinking, procedure and practice will enable staff to develop new ways of meeting the needs of all learners? I hope that the questions raised by this article will stimulate other commentators to contribute to the debate about our responses to special educational needs in the pages of BJSE

In Need of Review? The Audit Commission’s Report on Statutory Assessment and Statements of Special Educational Needs

Since spring 2001, the Audit Commission has been carrying out research into provision for children with special educational needs. In this article, Anne Pinney, Project Manager with the Public Services Research section at the Audit Commission, summarises the findings presented in an interim report published in June 2002. She reveals widespread dissatisfaction with current approaches to assessment; the process of developing a Statement; the allocation of resources to support children with special educational needs; and the procedures used by schools and LEAs to ensure that SEN provision is effective. Anne Pinney goes on to set out the recommendations made by the Audit Commission in its interim report. These include a collaborative approach to review involving schools and LEAs; increased delegation of resources to schools; and the development of more effective inter–agency approaches to assessment and intervention. This article concludes with a call for a high level independent review of SEN policy and practice focused on resolving the tensions in the current system. Anne Pinney also looks forward to a number of other outcomes from the Audit Commission’s work in relation to children with special educational needs. BJSE will be bringing you news of these developments in future issues.

'After the Statement': Reading progress made by secondary students with specific literacy difficulty provision

Students identified as experiencing a specific literacy difficulty or dyslexia may receive considerable additional support through a Statement of Special Educational Needs, but little is known about the reading outcome for the students receiving this support. This study investigated the reading decoding progress of 67 students who had been given a Statement of Special Educational Needs for specific literacy difficulties (SpLD). Also, the relationship between the rate of reading progress and intellectual ability (IQ) was investigated. The results showed that students receiving additional support made just over 6 months of reading progress per year of support. Approximately 13% of students made progress towards 'catching up' to their peers. No significant difference was found between three ability groups in terms of reading decoding progress, and the correlation between IQ and rate of reading decoding progress was near zero. The implications for special education programming were discussed.

A Code-A-Text analysis of educational psychologists’ reports submitted to statutory assessments procedures

There is a wealth of discussion (e.g. Gilham, 1978; Frederickson, Webster & Wright, 1991; Lokke, Gersch, M’gadzah & Frederickson, 1997) on the nature of psychological assessments within the educational psychology profession. However, little attention has been directed on how these are actually used for the allocation of special needs provision. Such research could inform the development of assessment methods by investigating which information or data is most helpful in decision-making. This study complements earlier research by the author, which has investigated the effect of standardised test scores on decision-making and the constructs of the decision-makers themselves (Buck, 1998, 1999; Buck & Youngman, 1996).This study investigates the relationship between the text content within educational psychologists’ (EPs) reports and the actual provision specified on the Statements of Special Educational Needs (SENs) issued by local education authorities (LEAs) during statutory assessment procedures in the UK. The EP reports were analysed using the text analysis software ‘Code-A-Text’.The results show how certain assessment information within the reports associates more closely with some categorisations of SEN than others. Doubts are raised over the consistency of evidence used in order to classify a large group of children as presenting ‘moderate learning difficulties’ and hence the validity of this category.It is hoped this research will contribute to the long debate on the nature of educational psychologists’ assessments and their report writing by investigating their practical effects on decision-making. The companion article in this volume reports a similar investigation of the other reports submitted in statutory assessment procedures.

A Code-A-Text analysis of reports submitted to statutory assessments procedures

There has been much discussion within the educational profession on the nature of assessment. However, little study has been made of how this is used in the decision-making of statutory assessment procedures and the allocation of provision to children with special educational needs (SENs). This study complements earlier research by the author of a text analysis of educational psychologists’ reports, the effect of reported standardised test scores on decision-making and a study of the constructs of the decision-makers themselves.Using text-analysis software this study investigates the relationship between the text content within professional reports submitted for statutory assessment procedures in the UK and the actual provision specified on the Statements of Special Educational Needs issued by local education authorities (LEAs). The results show how certain assessment information within the reports associates more closely with some categorisations of SEN than others. A large group of children were identified as presenting ‘moderate learning difficulties’, but the content of the reports submitted does not associate as strongly with this category of SEN as others. The validity of this category is questioned and the implications for inclusion discussed. It is suggested that the research project provides a means to include both the authors and the consumers of professional reports in a critical overview of how children are selected for identification with SENs.

Transition from school to adult life for physically disabled young people

The transition process for young physically disabled people (n = 87) was studied in three districts to determine how it varied between schools, and how it was perceived by the...

The relationship between educational psychologists’ assessments and the allocation of provision to children with special educational needs

There is a wealth of discussion on the nature of psychological assessments within the educational psychology profession. However, little attention has been directed on how these are actually used by their consumers and how such research can inform the development of assessment methods. This study investigates the relationship between the psychometric and educational attainment assessments within educational psychologists’ reports and the actual provision specified on the Statements of Special Educational Needs issued by local education authorities during statutory assessment procedures. A discriminant function analysis was applied to data drawn from educational psychologists operating in both rural and urban areas. This indicated that decision-makers within the ‘Statementing’ procedures appear to attach more significance to cognitive ability and handwriting assessments in contrast to other educational attainments when evaluating the development of children with special educational needs. This has implications for the levels of provision allocated to meet such needs. The insignificance of the date these decisions were made were also findings of the study. It is hoped that this research will contribute to the long debate on the nature of educational psychologists’ assessments and their report writing by investigating their practical effects on decision-making.

An investigation of the relationship between reported results of educational psychologists’ assessments and levels of special needs provision determined by statutory assessment procedures

ABSTRACT This study attempts to investigate the relationship between the reported test results within educational psychologists’ (EP) assessments and the actual provision specified on the Statements of Special Educational Needs issued by a local educational authority within the UK under the terms of the 1993 Education Act. Data were drawn from the EPs operating in both rural and urban areas. A discriminant function analysis was applied to the data which indicated cognitive ability and writing speed assessments were correlated with the provision outcomes of the statementing procedures. The relative insignificance of educational attainments, especially reading scores, in affecting these decisions was an unexpected finding of the study. The results raise the significance of the discriminant function analyses’ ability to produce a probability score, given a particular case's test profile, of the most likely provision that will be allocated on the basis of how such profiles have been interpreted in the past. T...

Special Education in England

ABSTRACT Special education in England has developed over a large number of years, during which changes in philosophy and practice have been charted in Acts of Parliament. Current thinking was given focus by the recommendations of the 1978 Warnock Report, many of which have been implemented. The most recent legislation relates to the establishment of Statements of Special Educational Needs (SEN), the introduction of a Code of Practice, recognition of the role of parents and of the need for multi‐professional cooperation, the integration of children with SEN into mainstream classrooms and the right of access of all children to a broad and balanced curriculum, as articulated in the National Curriculum.

Developing an effective school‐based service for children attending mainstream schools

ABSTRACT In May 1993 a new school‐based speech and language therapy service for children with a Statement of Special Educational Needs was introduced to schools in Harrow. Input was provided according to each child's needs as indicated by their speech and language therapy assessment and was offered on alternate half‐terms due to limitations defined by funding from the local Purchasing Authority. The introduction and subsequent success of the new service depended not only on adequate speech and language therapy resources but also on collaborative working with both school staff and parents. As the service was in its infancy and developing rapidly, regular review was essential. During the year 1993–1994 the Speech and Language Therapy Department carried out audits of the service focusing on: (1) The frequency of input each child received; (2) The impact of the new service on schools' staff understanding of communication impairment and their ability to modify activities to meet the needs of individual children; (3) Parents' perceptions of the new service and its perceived impact on the communication skills of their children. The study involved a comparison of departmental records (for example, the number of contracts offered, with recommended frequency of input), a questionnaire and interviews with school staff, a questionnaire to parents. The service was found to be meeting the recommended levels of input. (This was within resource constraints, i.e. every other half‐term.) Both parents and teachers felt that the new service had improved their understanding of and ability to deal with the children's communication difficulties (school staff 70%; parents 84%). Seventy‐eight per cent of parents felt that their child's communication skills had improved. However, the results raised questions about other aspects of the service: 62% of parents were unhappy with the frequency of input, despite the recommended levels being met every other half‐term; increased liaison time was required; parents requested more ideas for home use; and schools staff stressed the need for further training on communication difficulties. As a result, several changes have been introduced by the Speech and Language Therapy Department: (1) Amendments to the format of written reports, leading to greater ease of access and application within educational review meetings; (2) Improved departmental standards concerning provision of written information to parents and schools; (3) The development of departmental standards relating to contact with parents; (4) Further development of training packages provided by the Speech and Language Therapy Department service. The results and implications of the audit have been discussed with the Local Education Authority (LEA), the Purchasing Authorities, and in‐borough parent support groups. Areas identified for further attention include: (1) Agreeing priority grouping for speech and language therapy intervention; (2) The implications of Harrow LEA's integration policy and the 1994 Code of Practice for speech and language therapy provision; (3) Training of schools staff and its effect on the provision of speech and language therapy. The Purchasers and the LEA have formed a working party in order to address these issues in consultation with the Speech and Language Therapy Department. The audit has proved invaluable in providing necessary information to those involved.

Addressing the problem of low self‐esteem in speech and language impaired adolescents

ABSTRACT A significant number of pupils at the authors' specialist school for severe specific speech and language impairment have references to low self‐esteem in their Statement of Special Educational Needs. It was decided to begin addressing this problem by running a social skills group for adolescent pupils with the objective of helping them to regard themselves more highly. A programme was devised which encouraged them to value their strengths and interact positively with each other. After the group had run for six months their class teachers were interviewed and they reported that, overall, the pupils' self‐esteem had improved. This perception was validated by the questionnaire responses of pupils in a social skills group for school leavers who all felt more confident than when they were first admitted to the school and some identified group work as a way in which they had been helped. A distinction is drawn between social skills intervention for pupils with low self‐esteem and those with low self‐awareness, i.e. with semantic and pragmatic difficulties.

An action research study on the provision of training for special needs support assistants by a speech and language therapy department*

ABSTRACT This study describes an investigation into the efficacy of a training strategy for education support assistants working with children who had Statements of Special Educational Needs. There is a lot of recent evidence that improving the quality of the language environment for children with learning and communication disabilities is an effective use of speech and language therapists' time. However, a pilot study had shown this form of therapeutic approach does not appear to meet the expectations of unqualified support assistants in schools. In the locality studied, the speech and language therapists work closely and frequently with support assistants and use them to deliver children's therapy programmes within the daily classroom environment. Training has become an increasing activity in the day‐to‐day duties of speech and language therapists. The author examined whether training courses are an effective and efficient use of clinical therapeutic time in this context. Nationally, there is very little evidence of any form of training available for education support assistants, either on the job, through in‐service training from therapists, or the employing Education Authorities. The project used the qualitative research technique of in‐depth tape‐recorded interviews to investigate the views, feelings and perceptions of participants in the study. It followed an action‐research methodology. The action‐research strategy followed a three‐stage cycle: (1) Identification of the support assistants' training needs from the Speech and Language Therapy Service by use of a questionnaire, interviews with Education Officers about the level of provision in the Education Authority training programme about language development, and an examination of available documentation; (2) The design, planning and delivery of a series of courses by the Speech and Language Therapy Service incorporated the information obtained, with the collated views about training provision for support assistants given local therapists presenting the courses; (3) An evaluation of whether the courses met the stated training needs of the support assistants and whether this form of training package is art effective means of raising the awareness of support staff that enhancing the language environment is a valuable approach for children with communication disabilities. This information was mainly obtained by interviews with groups of support assistants working in different educational settings. The information was triangulated with information from the interviews with speech and language therapists who presented the courses. It was also supplemented by observations and field notes over the term following the course presentations. The paper questions the effectiveness of the model of training used for this staff group. It also discuss the efficacy of the strategy and its value as part of the duties of a speech and language therapist.