Have you noticed many schools are trying to assign labels to pupils who may not necessarily need them - why is there a huge increase in SEN statements and the sheer number of pupils being diagnosed ?

[yummymu]

how does it benefit the school to pigeon hole and label children so avidly and relentlessly ? Are they being funded ? What is their motivation for doing so ? Is it in the best interests of pupils ? What about pupils who have a quirk about them ? Do they qualify ? How do we quantify an autism assessment ? Is this just complete nonsense and all children are different ?

lol at the thought that schools might be overly diagnosing, and especially at the thought they will get extra funding as a result. I’m guessing you’re at best on the fringes of this issue rather than having direct experience?

Is there? Evidence?

There are a lot of questions in your post and I am not sure which one you want answered.

Statements of SEN are no longer used so there has not been a huge increase.

I am not sure what you mean by “pupils with a quirk about them”, but I do think that if a child has ASC then it is helpful for them to have a dx; there may not be any concrete support available as a result but at least there will be a clearer understanding, which must always help.

You don’t label a child.

a child with SEND may get a diagnosis.

Pupils who are quirky as seen as quirky.

Arty kids are seen as creative.

Some pupils will excel at math and others at English.

Schools will support pupils who are struggling but that’s for a pupils benefit - not necessarily the schools.

what’s your specific concern?

Pahahahahahaha. I've taken it you've never had to go through the trials of trying to get an assessment let alone a diagnosis for your child 🙄

Why do you think it is the schools that are doing it?

My daughter has severe dyslexia and is ADHD.

The dyslexia was diagnosed when she was 7.5 years old - and was incredibly obvious given she was unable to read, or spell but was very advanced verbally with wide vocabulary and obviously clever. The discrepancy was huge and Primary paid for all the assessments and Ed Psych reports.

Why is she dyslexic? It's very heritable. DH is mildly dyslexic, one of his brothers is severely dyslexic, my brother and mother were mildly dyslexic.

ADHD is highly heritable - around 80% genetic. Two out of 4 siblings with it, and 5/8 cousins. I knew DD was ADHD since she was about 5, but didn't get her diagnosed until Y9 for various reasons. Medication has been life-changing for her.

In terms of benefits - it helps her understand why some things are a major struggle. She has access arrangements for exams, lots of tech to help, and medication to help manage the ADHD.

It's not simple to tick the boxes, and giving your child stimulants every day is absolutely not something you would ever want to do without very good reason and having tried everything else.

Oh and there is no money involved unless you count the vast amounts that I've ended up spending on tutors, tech, whacky pens and overlays and helping my child excel at the specific area where she happens to be unusually gifted.

lol! Schools don’t diagnose. If a sen is sort for so that that child can get the support they need - an echo- it takes FOREVER and is never a battle entered into lightly.ot also has to involve the parents.
children who have diagnosis- say for autism and adhd don’t automatically qualify for support anyway.
There is a child in my school who finally secured her place in our unit- she is year 4- we had been trying since she was in year 1.

Well said.
I couldn't have put it better.
Labels indeed.
Should all Mental health conditions be labeled.

It is bloody hard work to get an assessment. It's not easy. Your looking at a 2 year + wait on the NHS to even see anyone. Getting the support needed is a real upward battle. It's really not an easy process. Everything is difficult. Even with a diagnosis then you need to find an appropriate provision.

No one is doing this shit for fun. People want their kids to get the support they need.

They will do it because they need more support with these children’s behaviours than they currently have. Maybe they do sometimes believe that the child’s problems would be solved by better parenting whether or not there is a diagnosable condition, but they have less control over that than they do SEN referrals.

Do you live in Opposite World 🤔😂
As the parent of a child with SEN my experience with schools is the complete opposite.
Children who ACTUALLY do need a diagnosis/help/support have to fight to get it.

Honestly OP, I'd drop it. You're just embarrassing yourself with your nonsense.

DS's ASD wasn't picked up till just before secondary school age, and then only because his teacher went on a course and then had a suspicion. It became far, far more obvious at secondary school as the emotional maturity and social skills gap widened hugely. ND conditions run through my mum's side of the family.

Naughty is a label OP. ASD is a diagnosis.

You are posting in secondary education.

my experience from talking to parents and also having an autistic child is that many children effectively mask at primary level. At secondary level with more demands they begin to flounder and struggle.

In reality they’ve always had issues but have been able to cope in smaller better supported environments.

Was recommended to have 2 of my kids assessed for various issues. The EP said they both had processing issues and needed extra time in exams. A friend (who is an EP) knew this EP and said that they always overdiagnose. In this case, we decided to see how they progressed and leave the report. One of the schools then recommended another report and the (different) EP said the child had no issues at all. Another friend had an assessment by an EP for her child and the EP asked what they wanted her to write in her report. I think this whole area is open to a huge amount of abuse. I was completely shocked.

Oh, the 'it's a label, you don't need a label' argument. Otherwise known as the 'be desperately unhappy because your needs are unidentified, but at least we don't have the imaginary social stigma of a child with a disability or learning difficulty'/'if it's not diagnosed we won't have to fund it' position.

It's protection. It's acknowledgement.

Teacher here. Yes., you are right . It's all I do all day. Stand around in the corridor with a roll of sticky labels whacking them on any and every passing kid. It really makes my job so very much easier...

1-1 SEN TA here in a primary setting. I can tell you you’re talking absolute nonsense. No, I haven’t noticed, at all. Also, schools do not diagnose. Where on Earth you’ve got your information from?

And then we spend the rest of our time like Scrooge McDuck, diving into the pool of money of funding that all these labels bring.

No. If anything the schools try to hold back on diagnosis because it costs them money.

Is this some kind of journalistic/clickbaity fishing exercise? OP clearly hasn’t got a clue!

Tell me you have absolutely no clue about SEN in schools without telling me you have no bleeding clue 🤦🏻

@yummymu schools don't do this.
If there is over-diagnosis it is driven by parents, fuelled by information they read online, which has snowballed from the US diagnosis industry. It plays on their fears.

I don't think it's schools driving it, more that parents are more aware and fighting for what DC need.

I do wonder however, at what point we have to start saying the needs aren't "special", but simply human differences. What proportion of children need to have a condition before it's ordinary?

DS1 has had an EHCP since before he started school. In spite of this, the first school he attended went out of their way to claim that he didn’t have any challenges at all and that I was paranoid and a liar. His ASD diagnosis got delayed by years because every time we gave them an assessment questionnaire to fill in, they either ‘lost it’, claimed I hadn’t given it to them in the first place, or - eventually - filled it in to state no ‘quirks’ at all in any category. Our experience is extreme and - I hope - very very unusual. If he’d been ‘labelled’ at that school, though, the label would probably have said “please move along, nothing to see here!”. It certainly wouldn’t have said “autism plus multiple complex disabilities”.