More SEN, better diagnosis, lack of funding or a combination?

I don’t think this is fair. I think SEN is now so widespread it’s become something of a societal issue. Particularly when it has a knock on effect in the classroom for everyone’s children (and that’s not me blaming disabled children or their families, that’s me blaming the lack of provision). If there had been such a sharp uptick in, for example, asthma would it be unacceptable for people to query why?

I think parents of none SEN kids are noticing them more as they have more in their child's school, who aren't getting the support/placement they need.
This is due to the long waiting list for diagnosis, getting an EHCP in place is much harder and also special school places are much harder to come by now. So whilst the numbers may have increased, its compounded by the worsening resources in place for SEN.

My in query about your theory is that so many of the children’s needs are complex/significant enough that they would never have ‘flown under the radar’ 30 years ago. So I don’t think that accounts for all of it.

This is interesting and confirms my (armchair) suspicions. Life is so full on now, our brains are literally bombarded with high excitement stimulus since the day we are born, there is so little downtime or mindful activities. Just take a walk - in the 90s, you just walked somewhere. Now people have podcasts/music on, they’re scrolling, on the phone. It’s like the brain never rests or has a chance to just take in its surroundings.

Baby sensory type things are similar. I see so many newborns lying beneath big shiny light up toys, or lying in ball pits surrounded by lava lamps. It must be quite stressful for them, their tiny brains incapable of processing all of these bizarre effects.

Even televisions are enormous and now capable of producing 24/7 content tailored to whatever excitement loop our brain is in, far from the 2 hours of CBBC we used to get.

I don't believe it's any higher, I think we're just much better at recognising difficulties now. You only need to look at the number of adults getting a diagnosis. You don't suddenly develop SEN. I'm pretty sure most of us can think of the kids who were 'different/ odd/ unusual' at school. They were the ones who were probably bullied by students and teachers, because they 'didn't fit'.
I think there are still a lot of children who miss out on a diagnosis because they aren't 'bad enough'.

This.

I was at school in the 1980s and our school had a very busy remedial department. There were probably over 100 kids in there, and it was a separate section of the school but we all still did PE/Art/HE/woodwork/assemblies together. One of my friends thrived with the support after getting none at primary school, and it seemed that they did things at a gentler pace while still learning - they came out with exam qualifications, just less of them.

Nowadays, children are pushed into mainstream and no one benefits.

And sadly, I do think that parenting skills plays a role too. Gentle parenting wasn't a thing 30 years ago. And benefits very few children, imo.

Many have more than one child with SEND, which does make one ponder whether genetics is a strong factor. One of our (very autistic) teachers has read reams of stuff about this and came out with some stats once

I thought the majority was genetic

It is a proven fact that the chances of autism increase with maternal and paternal age at conception. People are having children later in life now.

Tablewaterandbrie

I absolutely agree

There are about a million similar threads about this on MN every week. I'm beginning to wonder that some people are must trolling with these questions TBH.

What do you honestly want people to say OP? Oh my kid doesn't really have ASD and I'm just making it up as an excuse to blame my own poor parenting and claim a load of benefits?

yes, the risk at full term is about 1:100, not zero, and increases with genetic factors

Autism is genetic. A huge percentage of my family have it in both sides- all born full term.

I wouldn’t go by “ a talk”

I saw a talk that said the chances of SEN and autism in a child born at 24 weeks was basically 100%, and the chances declined with each week before birth. So the improvements in survival of pre term babies will be contributing to the numbers with SEN

Figures have risen due to earlier recognition and also the age includes those up to 25 now. The terminology has also changed. We had dull and slow children previously and may not have heard the term SEND used so broadly. The parameters have also changed to include many gifted children who may previously have struggled in one area but been ignored as they managed so well elsewhere.

I work in a special school and anecdotally, and completely without judgement, I have noticed a few things about a large proportion of the parents:

1. The vast majority of the mothers of the children almost definitely had the child as they were approaching, and probably quite a bit after, their 40th birthdays. No, we don't always know the exact age of parents, but we often find out by things in their email address like 1977 (which I acknowledge isn't necessarily the year of their birth) and things like "we went to a restaurant for mums 50th!" etc. One even joked that her "eggs were fried when we had him"

1. Some of them are graduates of the same special school, and one really sweet couple both graduated from Year 11 just 10 years ago (definitely our youngest parents!)

1. Many have more than one child with SEND, which does make one ponder whether genetics is a strong factor. One of our (very autistic) teachers has read reams of stuff about this and came out with some stats once.

Same here, but I do remember things being much easier when I was at primary and secondary school. Far less pressure even at GCSE and A level stage than some schools put on primary school children nowadays.

This is also a factor. Children are surviving now when 20+ years ago they may not have made it.

Dsis was in a form of 46 at primary, and I can name at least 8 straight off who nowadays would be given some sort of diagnosis without question. I'm sure there would have been more but that's memory from a younger sister who didn't have much to do with that form.
Our form I think there would have been a couple (out of 30) but the year below had, I think 12/30 who had some variation of "behavioural needs" as I think they put it.

I think there's a mixture of:
Fewer SEN schools (the two from dsis' form who did get a diagnosis were immediately removed and sent to "special schools". That goes with the lack of funding
More knowledge from parents (so parents coming forward)
Better diagnosis
And also some of the stigma attached to having SEN has been removed, so parents happier to look for a diagnosis.

But they were reduced previously. I taught in the 90s when special schools were starting to get closed and kids moved into mainstream.

Many wouldn’t have been diagnosed with autism , I wasn’t and my dd wasn’t in 2007 onwards. She was diagnosed in 2022. She now has the EHCP she should have had years before.

Its not just better to diagnosis though as i said all four special schools in my LEA ave doubled in capacity over the pat five years
One of the primary and secondary schools cater for children with autism and or moderate to severe learning disabilities and the other primary and secondary school cater ,s for children with autism and or severe to profound learning disabilities these children will have always have been diagnosed with complex disabilities even before we had better diagnostics tools so something is causing the increase .

I think there may be an environmental cause for some. We are busier than ever. Kids are now taken to school for breakfast club, stay for afterschool club and then taken home sometimes by a nanny or grandparent. My kids spend two hours in their house in total per day in the week. It's just so many transitions and stimulations. When I was at school, the majority of kids were picked up by a parent and taken home. Weekends were more about chilling at home and seeing family. My kids live in a constant state of trying to fit in activities, clubs, play dates, socialising, experiences. She is on the waiting list for assessment but I'm sure that a lot of her behaviours wouldn't have seemed so prominent if she had more down time and less asked of her. But we live in a capitalist system. I have to go out. Her brother wants to go to birthday party's. It's just how things are.

Presumption of mainstream for almost all has seen pupils coming to school in nappies, non verbal, not able to self regulate. Specialist resources have been slashed and local authorities insisting on mainstreaming all but not providing the support staff or facilities to cope. In SEN schools previous thought of as catering to moderate needs it is more severe and complex needs arriving. The teachers are not being invested in so nobody wants to do it because there is no extra money to account for the specialist training and skills undertaken. These schools can't get staff because of the violence problem. It can seem unimaginable to parents but when there are 12 SEN 7 year olds there is a high level of intervention to avoid violent outbursts. They can find it very hard to negotiate and to take any direction, this means it takes a high level of skill and understanding to manage it all so the pupils thrive and are happy. Education needs to change, stereotypical NT set ups work for hardly anybody as there is hardly any room for creativity or independent critical thinking. Our creative and critical thinkers tend to be somewhat ND and need a high level of freedom in their settings to thrive. Being instructed doesn't work.

More diagnosis
More children surviving early birth
Lower funding for schools
Fewer special school places
More academic curriculum
Focus on every child making academic progress

It’s better diagnosis. I have been diagnosed in my 50s with ADHD and ASC. My children have been diagnosed in their late teens( still too late). 1 has an EHCP, all have awareness and that will ensure that what happened to me doesn’t happen to them. Children going through primary now will face an even better awareness of diagnosis than my dc so hopefully they won’t have to go through the awful undiagnosed seriously struggling teen stage my children have had.

Why is this continuously questioned on MN?