[noddy]

hi sheffielders,do any parents out their feel let down by the lack of help towards children with special needs in schools

[Jess]

What do you want? By that I mean, do you want more special schools, more classroom support in mainstream schools or something else?

[alchresearch]

I work in the Special Needs field and I am disappointed that there are grants available to students in Higher Education, but virtually no help at primary and secondary level

[emmawood2001]

Hi,
My name is Emma Wood and I am currently a 3 year student at the University of East London. I am currently undertaking my disseration on the 'experiences of children with SEN and disabilities, and their parents in two mainstream inclusive schools' and I was wondering if parents would be willing to answer some questions for me so that I can then formulate them into my questionnaire results? So far my questionnaire format is a bit rusty because my lecturer has been off sick so I have been unable to run it past her! However, any help would be greatly interested because I can then analyse my results.
if u would like to email you my comments then my email is emmawood2001@hotmail.com


1. Please tell me about your child. How old are they? Are they male or female?



2.If there is any other information about them which you think others should know, for example if they have a disability or a SEN, you might wish to explain about this.



3. Are you happy with your child's current school and how much choice do you feel you had in its selection? Y/ N - Why?

4. Have you always wanted your child to be included in a mainstream school? Or was there a turning point in your views on this? Why do you believe it is better for him / her to be educated in an inclusive setting?

5. Have you encountered opposition or lack of understanding in your wish for your child to be included? If so, can you tell me about these experiences and how they made you feel?

6. What type and level of support have you/your child received to enable your child to access mainstream school?

7. What is the outcome / current position of your struggle for inclusion?

8. What is your child's current educational status?
They currently attend a special needs school
They currently attend a mainstream school
They are starting a mainstream school shortly
They do not currently attend school because the LEA is refusing to allow them to attend a mainstream school
Other
Please highlight in red and bold


9. Can you list the kind of difficulties experienced by you as parent of a child with SEN/disabilities?
(Can you number them for example 1= very challenging, 4 is least challenging)


10. List the supports that are available to you as a parent?
(Number them in order of most successful, least successful)


11. What strategies have you as a parent used to help you, your family and your child (with SEN/disabilities).
eg support services/help lines? determination/dedication

12. Is there a message you would like to give to other parents who are struggling to have their child included?

13. Do you have any advice to offer teachers (or other professionals) about how to make inclusion work?

Thank you very much for your valuable time.

[cgksheff]

As you are unable to verify any responses recieved via the internet (they could come from anyone, with or without SEN children, from any country), what value do you think such responses will have?

They are likely to make any conclusions, that you may draw, meaningless.

Does that matter?

Is the process more important than the results?

[emmawood2001]

Hi,
I wasnt sure if that message was for me? My dissertation is specifically focused on parents with SEN children's experiences of inclusion.

I would like as many completed questionnaires as possible because I will then be able to formulate the results into graphs etc.

Emma

[wendygs]

And what about the appalling lack of resources or facilities for these kids when they leave the educational system and are then faced with the world of work but are then able to get any funding as is the case with one kid I know who falls within the top 1% of chronic dyslexics in the UK.

[go4it]

I have found that SEN is something that is sometimes used as an excuse for a pupil's poor performance/ behaviour at school. The fact is there are many people who doubt whether there is a condition such as dyslexia, and whether ADHD actually exists.

[rocketpig]

Originally Posted by go4it

I have found that SEN is something that is sometimes used as an excuse for a pupil's poor performance/ behaviour at school. The fact is there are many people who doubt whether there is a condition such as dyslexia, and whether ADHD actually exists.

well you've clearly had no experience with kids with special needs ever have you? as if you had you'd no that people who think this are full of crap.

I teach a young boy, very bright in my Y7 top set, easily keeps up, great verbal communication, takes onboard concepts very well and can use his own ideas to investigate problems. however, if i were to ask him to copy some notes from the board he'd get himself in a right mess and right down a load of garbage. Clearly a very bright lad but simply can't comprahend text....thats dyslexia and nothing annoys me more than when people, without any experience whatsoever say it doesn't exists. discusting

i can go on with ADHD if you would like

[Ann*]

Originally Posted by emmawood2001

Hi,
I wasnt sure if that message was for me? My dissertation is specifically focused on parents with SEN children's experiences of inclusion.

I would like as many completed questionnaires as possible because I will then be able to formulate the results into graphs etc.

Emma

Hi Emma ~ welcome to the forum.

I think cgksheff is trying to point out to you that some of the responses you receive via e-mail could be false because you have no way of verifying that the respondents have, or are involved with, children with special needs.

If you receive false responses, will that not make your final conclusions meaningless?

Also, each area provides different services for children with special needs.

I live in the London Borough of Bexley, and the provision here, I would say, is second to none, in that there are special needs' schools, as well as provision in nearly every mainstream school in the borough. LB Bexley also use out-of-borough schools, e.g. Dorton House in Seal, Kent and Valence School in Westerham, Kent. Also, every disabled child is entitled to free transport to and from school (mainly by specially adapted mini-buses).

However, in another south-east London borough, there is very little provision.

[H.P]

My eldest is on the S.E.N's register at school.. Needless to say we have ended up tutoring him at home as the school just seems to be set on letting him slip further and further back... I know funding is not as good as it could be and resources are limited, but the schools just dont give him the one to one help he needs and deserves. And underneath all his sydromes and disabillitys hes a very bright and intelligent boy who would just slip through the system. Insted of letting this happen when he gets home he gets his head into the maths work we set him at home..

[Plain Talker]

Originally Posted by go4it

I have found that SEN is something that is sometimes used as an excuse for a pupil's poor performance/ behaviour at school. The fact is there are many people who doubt whether there is a condition such as dyslexia, and whether ADHD actually exists.

Trust me, ADHD exists.

God! does it ever exist! I had ADHD forty-odd years ago, before it even had a name.

I was so hyperactive that I could not sleep at night, and would sit up all night reading as a kid, because my mind would nos switch off, and let me rest.

In primary school, I was the "naughty" and "disruptive" child who was made to sit outside the classroom to do her work.

As a one-year-old, my parents had to get a sleeping draught for me, from the doctor, to "knock me out" just so they could get some rest.

It must have been a nightmare for them.

PT

[Moonbird]

Originally Posted by wendygs

And what about the appalling lack of resources or facilities for these kids when they leave the educational system and are then faced with the world of work but are then able to get any funding as is the case with one kid I know who falls within the top 1% of chronic dyslexics in the UK.

I know just what you mean, my son struggled with school from the start, no matter how much time i spent with him daily reading and writing he improved little...at 11 i knew there was no way he would be able to go to an ordinary secondry school, so he was sent for assesment and statemented as having mild-moderate learning difficulties (what the hell does this mean??) and sent off to do or should i say waste his time in a special school.
Now at 23 he has been diagnosed as severly dyslexic affecting reading, writing, and even his understanding of things and expression, he finds social interaction very hard...there is more to his problem than dyslexia but what that might be i have no way of knowing.
He has had one job for a year which resulted in him almost having a breakdown because of the bullying he recieved no one wants to be bothered with some who is "a bit slow" i doubt he will ever work again now, there just isnt the sort of support he needs, the support out there is for the realy handicapped people which he is not he is actualy very bright, he learns things easily when interested and knows a lot about a lot of subjects...much much more than me.
For his problems there is no help for him or me (his depression is terrible to live with) there is no diagnosis, there is no funding for him other than sick pay , he then has to suffer the usual ritual ridicule and humiliation at the hands of the ss who want him back in the work that does not exist for him.
The system just is not working for people like my son and countless others i am sure, i would be interested to hear how parents of children such as mine have coped.

[FairyNormal]

Hi

My son is almost 9 and has Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, OCD and is Autistic Spectrum/Aspergers. He also has associated learning difficulties. He attends mainstream school and I have to say we are very lucky in that his school are extremely supportive. They do the best they can with the limited rescources available to them. We are about to apply for statementing but I am not convinced we will get it because his behaviour is not terrible at school. This is a real shame becuase he still struggles and needs the extra support. For example: he is in the bottom sets for both maths and literacy but has worked hard and imporved no end (his reading age went from age 5 to 10 1/2 in a year) He really could do with moving up a set but can't as there is no classroom support in the next set up. He needs extra support as he has very bad short term memory and needs to be reminded what to do or he gets easily confused and frustrated. He can do the work but needs someone there with him so he can ask if he forgets or gets confused. If he doesn't get a statement, he won't get the extra support. The only way he will get the support he needs is to get a statement or to be kept in the lower classes. Not really fair is it?

It's a hard truth but most of the problems come down to funding or the lack of it. My son is 'muddling' on but I am sure he could do so much better with the right support. This is in no way a critisism of his school, more of the LEA and Government.

[go4it]

Originally Posted by rocketpig

well you've clearly had no experience with kids with special needs ever have you? as if you had you'd no that people who think this are full of crap.

I teach a young boy, very bright in my Y7 top set, easily keeps up, great verbal communication, takes onboard concepts very well and can use his own ideas to investigate problems. however, if i were to ask him to copy some notes from the board he'd get himself in a right mess and right down a load of garbage. Clearly a very bright lad but simply can't comprahend text....thats dyslexia and nothing annoys me more than when people, without any experience whatsoever say it doesn't exists. discusting

i can go on with ADHD if you would like

please go on. I'm not saying that dyslexia or ADHD don't exist, but if you keep up to date with relevant research you should know that there is a big debate whether they do exist. Please don't accuse me of not knowing anything about SEN because I do and your comments to me sum up the whole 'SEN debate', people leap into it thinking that their views are gospel.

[go4it]

Originally Posted by FairyNormal

Hi

My son is almost 9 and has Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, OCD and is Autistic Spectrum/Aspergers.

Your son has ALL those conditions?

[BrainThrust]

Originally Posted by go4it

Your son has ALL those conditions?

They're all linked and having one indicates a predisposition to having the others.

I think thats how it works anyway.

Wilf

[go4it]

Just found this. I'm not saying that it does or doesn't exist:

Gregory K. Fritz, MD, Bradley Hospital medical director and Hasbro Children’s Hospital child and family psychiatry director.

Myth: ADHD does not exist as a real psychiatric disorder; rather, it is an unfortunate labeling of normal childhood behavior promulgated by ineffectual parents, incompetent teachers and the pharmaceutical industry.

[BrainThrust]

Originally Posted by go4it

Just found this. I'm not saying that it does or doesn't exist:

Gregory K. Fritz, MD, Bradley Hospital medical director and Hasbro Children’s Hospital child and family psychiatry director.

Myth: ADHD does not exist as a real psychiatric disorder; rather, it is an unfortunate labeling of normal childhood behavior promulgated by ineffectual parents, incompetent teachers and the pharmaceutical industry.

I'd sorely disagree with that, I've seen the effects of ADHD first hand, there is NO way that could be down to ineffectual parenting and teachers alone.

Wilf

[go4it]

OK, now lets put a different perspective on it. A comment from a level headed teacher:

Does ADHD exist - Yes

Is it an excuse for poor behaviour - Never (there's no excuse for poor behaviour)

Do certain ADHD students take advantage of the situation - Definitely

Do schools make too many excuses for these students - Yes

Do schools ignore the rights of the majority of the good kids to give disruptive kids impunity to act disgracefully - You bet

Can ADHD students behave perfectly -Yes

When? - when they are teated exactly like everyone else, and expected to behave to the letter of the school rules (like everyone else) - if they don't punish them immediately.

What happens if you give students excuses for misbehaving - catastrophic effect on the education of the good kids, some bald teachers because they pulling their hair out because are given no authority to deal with them.

Is it inclusion of disruptive troublemakers at the expense of the exclusion of decent majority - Unfortunately, Always.

Why do they behave when they are in the presence of the headteacher, but not with certain class teachers - take a wild guess, abusing the system.

Am i including all ADHD students in the above criteria