To ask, if you’re a teacher

[Playingvideogames]

How many children in your class are diagnosed with autism or ADHD?

I often see the ‘1%’ quoted, but my anecdata is a lot higher than this.

This isn’t a value judgement thread btw, I’m truly just curious to see the responses and if they align with the ‘official’ statistic.

I’m in secondary so it depends on the year and set but on average about 1/5 of any given class will be on the SEN register (independent school).

Paediatric OT here. Id say about 90% of my caseload are neuro divergent in some way or other
I would expect at least one person class to have DCD.

The classes I visit often have multiple ND kids. I honestly don't know how teachers manage to effectively meet such divergent needs with so little support.

If a young person has one diagnosed ND condition they will often have another - they travel in packs, but if your brain is differently wired it is likely to impact on more than just social communication, executive function, motor planning etc.

2 form entry. Out of 60 Year 6 we have 4 EHCP (3 ASD, 1 Global delay) 3 more ASD, 5 more ADHD, so that's 20%.

Then in addition to those we have 4 dyslexic, 3 LAC and 1 with disregulated behaviour so bad that he may end up as our first permanent exclusion in recorded history.

Looking at what's on the way towards me in Year 5 and 4, it's not too different.

Currently 1 autism and adhd, 3 just autism, 2 just adhd and at least 3 others under investigation for one or the other. That's out of a class of 30.
In addition, I have a child with such poor behaviour they have been excluded multiple times, and 2 other children whose speech and language needs significantly impact their learning. How donwe meet their needs? We can't. We do what we can.

I’m a Secondary Science Teacher. We set for this subject. In my top set classes, I would say 1 or 2 students absolute max. Sometimes no students at all. In my lower set classes, I would say around 50-60% have an SEND tag (autism, ADHD or SEMH issues). In middle set classes, it can vary from anywhere between 20-30%. Our SEND intake for the secondary school I work at (standard secondary comprehensive) is a couple of percentage points above the national average as we have a good SEND department and SENCO but it’s not overly disproportionate.

Apologies for not being able to give you the figures for autism exactly but those estimates above from my observations are SEND in general (some which will be autism). Like you, I too also believe the real life figure is way higher than the quoted numbers.

We’ve got a year 3 class with 50% diagnosed and another 10% on the pathway.

I’m a secondary school SEN TA & one of my classes across subjects has 7 ASD diagnosis, 5 with an EHCP & 3 ADHD diagnosis without EHCP (one of which keeps me very busy). Then there are the kids awaiting assessments, anxiety, dyslexia, LAC, all wanting & needing support.
The school has a high amount of SEN & PP students. I’m on my own for most lessons as there’s not enough TA’s. I mostly work with bottom set or mixed sets in option subjects.

My child’s school is 25% SEN. The mainstream school my friend works at nearby is around 40%.

Op, I can’t remember which text book it was in, but in the US the stats are roughly 1 in 8 boys has ASD and 1 in 12 girls, this was just before the DSM-5 recategorised ASDs. Some states had slightly higher prevalence, some lower. Dyslexia it’s 1 in 5 with no significant difference between boys / girls. It’s actually likely to be much higher now the DSM-5 has widened its breadth of criteria, and it’s almost certain that as many girls as boys have ASDs. The kids who are ‘quietly’ autistic generally go unnoticed until they hit burn out often in their teen years. I’m really sorry I can’t remember the source of the stats, I was doing my masters at the time so lots of reading and researching, and it’s likely all out of date now, also UK tends to be much slower at recognising/ diagnosing ASDs compared to our cousins across the seas!

All of them (send teacher in special Ed school)

In previous school maybe a quarter of the classes (PRU) but normally with other diagnosis- adhd, special and language etc.

Y2 teacher-out of 30 3 are diagnosed ASD with EHCPs (2 are waiting for spaces in specialist settings). 2 more are in the process of a diagnosis currently and then at least 4 more who are showing all the signs for ASD or ADHD.
This is my lowest number in the 4 years I’ve been teaching. Last year it was nearer 50% with 6 EHCPs.

In the last 10 years or so, never less than 10% and generally more like 20%. Waiting lists are getting crazily out of hand though so I predict there will be fewer diagnoses at primary level - waiting until age 6 before you refer for ADHD then a four year waiting list will put the children practically into secondary before a diagnosis comes through. It's absolutely awful.

As a supply teacher I see a lot of classes from leafy suburban schools to inner city schools on 'sink' estates.

I would say most classes regardless of demographic have approximately 1/4 of children with Autism/ADHD/both of are on the pathway for a diagnosis of one or the other. It's so far from 1% in my experience.

Some form of ASD, ADHD diagnosis is placed on 4-5 out of 30 children in the classes I now have.

I teach a core subject at a large mainstream secondary school. My subject is taught in mixed ability classes and I teach a mix of standard classes and ‘supported’ classes (higher need with 1-2 TAs).

In a standard class of 25-28 pupils I usually have 2-3 pupils with additional needs - usually ADHD. In a supported class it’s more like 15-20 pupils with a mix of ADHD, ASD, processing issues, anxiety.

A lot of teachers saying they have high levels of ND in deprived areas, does anyone have a hypothesis for the connection there?

I have two diagnosed, three under assessment. Class of 25.

4 out of 16 in my class with ASD diagnosis, not convinced that’s the correct diagnosis for 3 of the 4 of those though …. I’m in a mainstream school with two special classes but we have an unusually high proportion of special needs children enrolled, we are classified as disadvantaged. I think there is a lot of over-diagnosing going on and I’m not sure who’s benefitting as we cater to the needs the children present regardless of what a piece of paper says

Could possibly be because of the highly heritable nature of such conditions. Many affected children will have parents who also have the condition and also themselves may have had lives with struggles due to their condition such as no or low-income employment, addictions, relationship breakdowns, stress, financial problems, mental health issues, low levels of literacy and education, greater difficulties doing the standard things that lead to increased social mobility etc. Furthermore, assortative mating by people in these demographics will only compound the frequency of these conditions more.

Also, poverty and deprivation can greatly exacerbate existing biological conditions. Lack of a warm home, not having things like present and engaged parents, stability, routine, nutritious diet, clean clothes or no physical health problems or no substance abuse etc. can lead to both mental health and other disabilities worsening.

Y2 TA, so most kids haven't hit the magic age of 7 needed for an ADHD diagnosis.
1 diagnosed
4 on the pathway for assessment
Multiple other diagnoses, and several children have experienced or continue to experience trauma.
So much support needed for so many of the kids in my class to feel safe and regulated enough to even begin to engage with learning.

Varies class by class and I’m having to include adhd and autism, but I have a year 8 class that has 2/28, a y9 class that has 10/25, and a y10 class with 9/31.

In the Y6 class I taught today, there was one child with an autism and ADhD diagnosis. I suspect there is at least one other child with autism in that class, another with selective mutism, who is also dyslexic and possibly autistic, and 7 or 8 more who have undiagnosed ADHD, to the extent that their learning is affected ( as is that of the children around them). That is not unusual, IME.
Most teaching and staff can spot these and do their best to be inclusive and have all children reach their learning potential. However, whilst in my school we do follow best practice and quality teaching, none of us can meet the complex and varied needs of the children alone. It is a constant balancing act, dealing with emotional and mental health needs of all the students whilst delivering a full curriculum that challenges all children, and also dealing with the usual minor scrapes after outside play and health issues ( no school nurse to administer plasters/inhalers) and the more serious issues such as bullying and following that up and documenting it. I can't speak to a child discreetly about what happened at playtime and ascertaining whether it is serious or not, whilst actually teaching a lesson. We need to have more support staff, and I suspect every single state school would say the same. We can't do more without funding. Some of my colleagues have spent every single lunchtime this week dealing with issues between students, as well as missing all their PPA. They might receive more SEN training but when can they put it into place? There is a limit to how much one teacher in a class of 30 children can do.

For me it varies by class - top sets I tend to have maybe 2/30 with asd max, but often lots of semh and anxiety needs, not much adhd. Lower sets tend to be much more send heavy, particularly adhd. I have a year 20 class of 16 pupils and all but 3 have adhd. Obviously a generalisation based off my own experience.

Where did you get 1% from? ADHD is thought to be about 5% (some say up to 8% but I am dubious about this) and Autism is meant to be closer to 3% now. So you'd be looking at 1 autistic child and 1-2 ADHD children in an average classroom although it's also possible to have both.

Varies each year. This year my 26% of my class have been diagnosed with ASD or ADHD. 46% of my class are on the SEN register.