As a teacher to be surprised at how many in my class have SEN?

[Floatingcactus]

I teach a reception class of 26. 4 of them have an EHCP plan, 6 are waiting assessment and at least another 4 are showing possible signs of SEN including speech delay.

I’ve been teaching for 10 years and I personally believe there is an increase.
I don’t know if lockdown plays a part or whether it’s down to other factors.

Or the state - I imagine that’s on the higher end of normal for any school, but even so it really isn’t surprising they can’t keep up with the resources needed.

@Willyoujustbequiet of course I’m not talking about life long conditions such as ASD, I’m talking about children who have Sen due to neglect and trauma. Very separate issues.

I just can't accept some of the reasoning here. Yes intervention stops some of these kids being picked up earlier. Yes, but that's not the point. 24 out of 30. That's 80%. How can it be more than 3/4 of a class?

It's clear from some of the comments on this thread that there is some very big misconceptions about what SEN actually is.

The assumption seems to be that it automatically means something like autism or ADHD that comes with a "diagnoses" but that's not the case at all.

A child can require additional learning support for reasons of nature OR nurture.

There is much more awareness these days of the nature factors (such as autism) than there was many years ago. So yes, more children DO have a diagnoses these days but that doesn't = more children have autism/ADHD etc. It just means that historically there were children with these conditions who were undiagnosed and therefore didn't receive the right support.

In some cases, there are nurture factors. As a few posters have said, due to lockdowns there are children who did not receive early interventions and are now "behind" in terms of their development, meaning they need additional support.

But I also don't think that as a society we've truly gotten a full grasp and understanding of all of the nurture factors that can lead to a child having SEN. Or maybe we do understand some of these factors but we just don't know how or don't have the resources to address it.

Disabled children aren't a burden. They're just as entitled to an education as your children. If the schools can't cope, the government should do what they're supposed to do and fund schools properly.

Finally! Surely this has to be somewhere in the mix

@Phineyj couldn’t agree more re school starting age! I strongly believe much could be achieved if we raised that to 7 and had kindergartens before that as they do on the continent.

I work in a preschool and I think last year's children who left had much more SEN then this year's. Perhaps it was effect of Covid years. The children we have at the moment don't seem to have the same issues. It's a small research group of 40 or so, I know, but the contrast is striking. Last year was very difficult.

Its down to a combination.

Far greater awareness and acceptance. Less stigma means that more people seek help.

But also a reduction of services and early intervention will result in many kids who could previously get by no longer being able to and having to seek diagnosis in order to access support.

@Fancysauce i don’t think @Moonicorn used the word burden did she?

I don't know if you can separate SEN and SEMH so easily. For one thing, parenting a SEN child is very stressful, and then there's trying to get them a suitable education in the teeth of local authorities who frequently flout the law. I'm on a Facebook group for parents of DC with my daughter's condition. So many of them are struggling single mums. Poverty makes everything worse!

Our reception cohort this year have a huge amount of need, particularly speech and language. My year 3 class has 9 SEN children out of 26. It's tough going with so many individual needs.

Confused as to what it's got to do with you how many children need adjustments in this way. If pupil A needs the toilet urgently because of Crohn's, it doesn't also mean pupil b doesn't also need a toilet pass because they're autistic and can't go to the toilet when it's busy, or pupil C doesn't need one because they have cystic fibrosis and need to ensure they keep their bowel moving.

It's really and truly, none of your business and it doesn't mean any of those children are just making it up to get out of class, which to be honest, is what you are really getting at here. Which is disablist. Hope you're not responsible for any disabled children.

Is it really odd, or perhaps you just do you not know very much about disability? Lots of people don't. But your school should be training you as it will be jointly liable if you discriminate and it hasn't. Particularly as it is a public sector body and has additional equality duties.

Disability discrimination includes treating disabled people or people with long term health conditions as in some way 'odd', suspicious or not genuine.

Just have a think a coeliac disease, crohns disease, autism and interoception, overactive bladder problems, to name just a very few...

Haven’t RTFT but I think lockdown definitely had a part in speech delay.

I wasn't surprised at the numbers of children with sen but I was surprised at the high numbers of children with an ehcp considering how difficult it is to get one. Until I thought that actually it's not the number of children with an ehcp that is increasing but the number of children with an ehcp in mainstream school. When my teens were in primary school an ehcp was something you had to get before moving them to special needs school. Now lots of children are being awarded an ehcp and staying in mainstream.

Also there are many reasons why SEN seems to be increasing. But when I think about my 5 dc, all with SEN, and imagine how they would have been treated in the 1980's/90's when I was at school. 1 of mine would have been considered to be a bit weird, one would have been labelled as naughty, one would have been in special needs school (and probably hidden away) and 2 would have died.

Nope. You clearly haven’t worked in a school. Or if you have, you’re still young. I did a GCSE in childcare and development at school in the 1980s. It was when Rainman had just come out and really made people aware of autism etc and being more accepting of people with those and other difficulties. It was 35 years ago, though, so not exactly recent.

that was also around the time that inclusivity became a thing and special schools started to be closed left, right and centre. My cousin was born around that time and had severe autism and parents were fed the lie that he could manage in mainstream. When they realised that he (and the teachers) weren’t coping, they had to fight tooth and nail to get him into a specialist school. And the fight has been getting harder and harder for parents of such kids ever since. As others have mentioned, it is now extremely difficult to get an EHCP, and even if they do they might not necessarily say that a specialist school is essential.

this is why we have non verbal Reception children with severe learning difficulties at my school who barely interact with the rest of the class because they are spending all their time either running up and down the corridors or screaming, just looking bewildered. The 1 to 1s are patient and amazing and are exhausted at the end of the day, but it is appalling that we do this to those children in the name of inclusion, when what it really is is lack of funding. It is also not fair on the other children whose learning is disrupted. Some of those children have milder learning difficulties too and get distressed by the noise and disruption caused by the children with more severe needs. Those with milder difficulties absolutely SHOULD be in mainstream with support, but their situation is made worse by having children with extreme difficulties with them who should be in a specialist setting.

and then we should look at the teaching staff who are having to deal with all that AND have more and more piled on them every year by the DfE and Ofsted. Ofsted inspectors should be coming into school, witnessing all that, congratulating the teachers on just getting through the day, and then going back to their office and write their report to the GOVERNMENT, calling for much higher levels of funding, and the creation of more specialist schools, to help those poor children.

Agreed, and secondary too. One lead of a specialist unit I spoke to said we could do with one of these at every secondary school. I think she was spot on. They aren't THAT expensive in the grand scheme of things and they bring benefit way beyond the specific students in them.

It's not possible to cause autism by letting your kid watch tv.

Although it might be the case that children with a neurodivergent visiting are more stimulated by bright colours.

I definitely think modern parenting and screens have played into all of this, particularly with ADHD. Everywhere I go - supermarket, cafes, shops - 1-3 year olds, or even older, sat in buggies gawping at a tablet. Kids are also hugely overtimetabled now with nursery (my DD goes 5 days a week before anyone starts), clubs, days out, we always have to be ‘doing’ something fun and exciting with them.

If the brain is in an endless state of hyperactivity, stimulation and excitement it really is no surprise the child will hugely struggle with concentration, being calm and low stimulation activities.

But it creates a parenting cycle whereby then the child is so hyperactive and hard to parent that they get put on screens more and more to ‘give the parent a break’ from their ‘high needs’ child.

I’m a big fan of children being bored, doing low stimulation activities like jigsaws and reading, and frankly not seeing screens as the answer to a moment’s boredom. I don’t plan much for our weekends due to DD being in nursery full time, we just do puzzles, play with toys, I’ll sit and have a coffee or chat on the phone while she makes up some game with her teddies. We go for walks with our dog and she ‘helps’ with household tasks.

But so many parents I know would say that’s ‘boring’ and that I’m ‘not doing enough with her’.

I was a child of the 1980s.
I spent my days in infant school not speaking. Couldn't make eye contact. Couldn't form friendships. Rocked back and forth with my hands on my ears as I was so distressed by the noise.
I was just told to stop being such a baby.
If it had been today I would have had my diagnosis straight away.

I haven't seen any stats lately but as far as I'm aware levels of ASD/DLD etc.. are all increasing. This is greater awareness not poor parenting.

This is definitely part of it the reason, and is a good thing. However, it is only part of the story.
I have 4 children in my Y6 class with EHCPs, and another 5 with additional needs that do not require an EHCP.
3 of those children would never have been in a mainstream primary 10 years ago.
I'm trying not to be too outing, but one is unable to access even a Y1 curriculum, one has PDA (amongst other diagnosis) and engages in approx 10% of learning, another has very unpredictable and volatile outbursts.

All of these parents have pushed for their children to stay in mainstream. It's actually quite heartbreaking as a teacher. I care about each of these children but as a teacher of 30 children I do not have the expertise or time to meet their needs at the level they deserve. There classmates are very kind and tolerant of them, but their needs mean they do not have friendships.
Our busy classroom and playground are often overwhelming for them and act as a trigger.
They also take up a vast amount of adult support - often more than is covered by their EHCP - it is support that they need and should be given, but the knock on effect is it means the school has to remove support from elsewhere. This is not the fault of these children, but it does happen and means other targeted support to children with lower level needs is not able to happen.

Everyone is losing out because of it, school staff - who are over-stretched, the other children, but most importantly- the children with high needs.
The system is not working and funding is at the heart of it.

I think it’s possible to cause ADHD this way. It’s been proven via study that screen time increases hyperactive behaviour. If you have a child who is naturally quite hyper, lots of screen time and high excitement activities could tip them past the threshold needed for diagnosis.