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 think this is a really good post and I understand & agree with it completely.

I think this is a really good post and I understand & agree with it completely.

Doesn’t a diagnosis give more financial benefit support?

Totally agree.

The idea 50% of the population will eventually have a diagnosis of ADHD/autism relies on the assumption that the increase in diagnoses will continue exponentially.

This isn’t what most experts think; the general consensus is that both ND have been under diagnosed for a long time and increased awareness means they’re now being better identified. This could be especially true in school settings when teachers are now trained on ND and there’s clear (if very long) pathways to diagnosis.

If theyre right, you’d expect the % diagnosed to plateau eventually and become more consistent. That % of children would have always been there too, just without their ND being identified. I have ADHD and that aligns with my own experience - I was at school in the 90s and my school reports clearly evidence ADHD traits. These were viewed as character failings (no self-control, disruptive, etc) so I learnt to mask them as best I could to try and stay out of trouble.

I think it will plateau, but not any time soon - the waiting lists are still very long and lots of children yet to go through the process as mentioned here. I think if we have about a 20% diagnosis rate, it’s not inconceivable it could end up at something like 40-50% eventually (I mean in 10 years or so).

I just wonder about the implications of the public being diagnosed with something in numbers that we have never seen for anything before.

An average of about 20%. When I started teaching 13 years ago, 0-2%.

I disagree.

I agree that socioeconomic deprivation is more likely to result in children with SEN - it’s just logical that less resources, a lower quality of life is more likely to result in children with a lower standard of development. But I don’t see how this can result in autism which is predominantly genetic and, we are told, inherent from birth. I also guess most of the posters here with diagnosed children aren’t in poverty - this tends to be a very middle class website yet the diagnosis rate is very high. The responses here have been fairly uniform, not patchy according to background.

If the percentage is about 1:5 or 1:4 in each class then we need to teach neurodiversity as normal. I went to a deprived area state school in the 80’s and probably wasn’t any different then.

I teach secondary, so I talk about a variety classes (I usually have 10+ classes per year). The SEN needs are not spread evenly across the classes, there will be more SEN in some than in others.
I absolutely will stand by the fact that there are not more kids with needs than 15 years ago. The cuts made it that there are fewer SEN places, people are more aware to ask for SEN school places than push their kids into mainstream. but this also means there are fewer SEN places, and more SEN kids who dont belong in mainstream are pushed into the system, but those kids always existed. In the past they just dropped off the map and out of education altogether and no one kept track of the numbers, while now we do.
There was a ignorant post a few days ago about the number of school refusers from someone who thinks it's a currentl only issue, when school refusers existed, but no one was reporting on the numbers. Kinda like, never seen Peru, so surely the country does not exist.

Because the advantages of middle class life help to alleviate some of the barriers. More routine, more resources etc.

Children in deprived areas have higher incidence of chaotic home lives, fewer resources (no quiet spaces at home). No ability to invest in special interests. Ability to channel sense of justice or impulsive behaviour into more acceptable hobbies/interets.

Schools used to have more funding and therefore smaller class sizes, more TAs (used to be a time when all primary classes had at least one).

Schools in more deprived areas have lost more in funding cuts due the funding formulas. So pupils in less deprived areas may still have educational settings that allow them to manage.

Girls tend to be diagnosed in secondary school or beyond, as they are often able to mask/manage in primary. Diagnosis is hard fought for and so often only happens at crisis point.

You mention MN is middle class, but middle class teachers teach in deprived areas? You were ask g for the experiences of teachers.

So you agree broadly speaking that 20-40% (going by this thread) of people should be diagnosed as ND?

I appreciate this is your view and experience but I'm just saying it's not mine. I absolutely believe there were many undiagnosed children but my experience is the level of need now is more widespread. I'm not saying that is anything to do with overdiagnosis or any sort of a problem and believe we need to do all we can to make schools as inclusive as we can.

I think (& with personal experience) masking is ‘easier’ with support - both financial and attention. Autism is a wide spectrum as we all know. I have a ‘on paper’ bright child who has never formally been diagnosed and although school was a challenge, I would say they are doing ok in life with our support, but in their mid 20’s has struggled to gain financial independence from us because they literally cannot cope with a permanent full time job. They work but need regular time out to literally recharge their batteries. Had we as parents not had the resources to support as we have for the past 20 years, they would not be where they are today.

The causation could go both ways. Differences like autism and ADHD can make you poor (it can in some cases go entirely the other way if a special interest is lucrative and the opportunities are there of course).

However, it wouldn't take much scrutiny of e.g. NAS research to discover difficulties getting jobs, difficulties keeping jobs, lacking qualifications due to difficulties with school, prejudice, and from the parental point of view, difficulties keeping a job when kids have SEN, and this last one is anecdotal only but where there are kids with SEN and things are difficult, the dad often buggers off and single parent families are on average poorer too.

And the actual expense of course of paying for all the stuff that otherwise takes years of waiting lists. I reckon we'd spent 5 or 6 grand when I did the first SENDIST tribunal. I included an itemised list. I didn't include my loss of earnings while doing the paperwork. I was able to work more once it was finally done.

No, I think everyone who is ND should be diagnosed. I don’t like anecdata so wouldn’t agree that this thread shows what is actually going on in our society.

I think it has been massively under diagnosed in the past, and so it feels like it is more diagnosed.

20% of pupils with ALL SEND is the current statistic. Based on actual data from DfE. Current adhd diagnosis rates are about 1%. Again that is actual data from NHS/diagnosis providers. That means some classes with have 5%, some 0, some 20 and that data is still correct.

I think we know more about it and especially signing girls, so we seek diagnosis tha might not have happened. The current estimate (based on full population data) is that about 5% of the population is ND (that includes dyslexia, dyspraxia, Tourette’s and others).

I'd say about 20% at least. I have some classes where 50% are in the SEND register for all different reasons.
Then you have the teacher... me... with adhd. 😄 🤣 do I count and up the percentage? Only diagnosed last year via the NHS.
But also my diagnosis was very quick 9 weeks in total. My friend lives in a different county, has had part one but waiting for the 2nd part a year later... however the process was entirely different. The kid's waiting list for CAMHs is at least a year, so actually when I say my percentages in a secondary school, it is higher as a lot are waiting for assessment. So it's sad really because earlier assessment would help those kids immensely!

That's interesting and they're lucky to have you!

I met DH (not diagnosed but very similar to our AuDHD child) in his early 30s and looking back, he was really struggling with the people aspects of work. Fortunately us getting together set him on a different career path and he found something better for him eventually.

I do all our admin though. His house was a right rats nest when I moved in.

I can definitely think of children that would’ve been diagnosed when I was at school. I wouldn’t have said nearly half though, probably more like 10% or a 15% at a push. 40% and some of the numbers quoted here are very very high and far beyond what I suspected. I don’t see why some posters are taking offence at what is an objective question. Of course it begs the question as to how much value can be attached to a diagnosis that a third of the population have (in terms of accommodations, extra support etc).

But none of the responses have 0% in some classes, or even 5%. They’re all uniformly higher. I don’t know why you’re seeing this as some kind of offensive statement and value judgement, it isn’t. There are SENCOs here saying the same thing.

Threads like this obviously attract people with an interest, and SEN tolerant schools (not just those paying lip service) have much higher SEN.

The grammar schools near me have single digit EHCP and ditto pupil premium!

I mean if I worked in one of those grammars I wouldn't be posting on here about this. It'd be like another planet. There are autistic kids at those schools of course, but ones who could get top scores in 11+ at 10.

I didn’t include SEN in my title for that very reason.

Someone from a grammar has posted.