Louise Holt, Sophie Bowlby and Jennifer Lea look at how to improve the social inclusion of children with SEN
This article summarises the findings of a project about the social experiences, friendships and social capital of young people with and without SEN and how these interconnect with formal aspects of schooling and broader patters of socio-economic inequality. We explored the experiences of young people with and without SEN via in-depth research with adults and young people, observation in schools and analysis of the school census.
We found that young people with SEN are more isolated and bullied than peers without these diagnoses (see also Sellgren, 2014; Chatzitheochar, 2014). Young people with problematic social relationships had relatively negative attitudes towards, and participation in, school, in addition to well-known emotional and social consequences. The young people who were most socially isolated came from SEN groups in which those eligible for free school meals are over-represented. Further, those who were both diagnosed with SEN and from poor or socially excluded backgrounds were the most socially isolated.
Importantly, we also found that many young people with SEN are included and have good friends, and experiences varied in different contexts. Exploring what helps young people with SEN have friends and good social relationships gives insight into good practice to inform schools and local authorities (LAs).
In total, 104 young people (aged seven to 16 years) participated in the research, 53 per cent of whom were diagnosed with SEN, mainly with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties (BESD), autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) or moderate learning difficulties (MLD). We also included young people without diagnosed SEN to compare their experiences. Research included participatory activities (such as photography and drawing), focus groups and semi-structured interviews, usually conducted in pairs. It focused on nine schools across three LAs – one segregated special school, one primary and one secondary school in each LA. In-depth observation occurred in each school and 60 key figures in schools, LAs and nationally were interviewed, as were 14 parents.
Who is excluded?
Most young people have some friends, although many young people also experience some bullying and isolation. We found that young people with BESD, and to a lesser extent those with ASD or MLDs, were more excluded, isolated and bullied than peers without diagnoses of SEN. We also found that young people with these SEN from socially excluded backgrounds often were extremely isolated and bullied. Gender was also a factor, since girls with BESD, and to a lesser extent those with ASD, were often regarded relatively negatively by teachers and were more isolated and excluded, partly because more boys are diagnosed with these conditions. It is important for young people to have friends for their social and emotional wellbeing. Moreover, we found, overall, that most young people who had some good social relationships had positive attitudes to, and participated in, formal aspects of schooling. Those who were socially isolated had more negative views of school.
Many young people with SEN were socially included, and young people’s experiences differed according to their location. Some of the main factors that could make a difference are discussed below.
Making friends
It seemed to help if young people made friends in leisure spaces, such as clubs and activities or just hanging out or at home. Cyber-spaces were also important, mostly (although not only) to connect with friends made in other leisure arenas. These children had more friends in school (sometimes friends made from these activities, but sometimes other peers). However, young people’s access to out of school activities or socialisation was limited by:
- availability
- cost (in some families even relatively small costs were prohibitive)
- parents’ ability to drive or pay for transport
- parents’ perceptions of the importance of leisure activities
- general transport provision and cost
- flexibility of transport to and from school.
In some LA areas, taxis and minibuses would pick up young people from places other than school at times other than the end of the school day; in other LAs this was viewed as impossible.
Families matter
Families could also make a big difference. Even families who had some problems were important to young people, providing love and support, often embodied as confidence. Families also provided sources of informal education, sometimes teaching children useful skills not learned at school. Pets were also often seen as “friends”.
An inclusive place
The location of a school, and the practices and policies of schools, LAs and individual teachers, could be important to how inclusive the school was. Young people in special units or schools had more friends and were less excluded than those who were in mainstream school spaces. However, being in a unit or special school affected who young people’s friends were and could limit their access to qualifications or a meaningful alternative curriculum. Being in a special unit or special school can emphasise young people’s difference. However, difference is not always negative, and units within mainstream schools can help educate peers and adults that some young people are different because they have particular SEN, but that they also have valuable contributions to make. The best special units or schools were open and connected to other places in the school or other schools, allowing young people to access good courses and to meet peers without the same SEN as them.
In many special units and schools, much time was spent on therapies or personal and social education attempting to address children’s perceived deficiencies. Although these can be helpful, they are not always carefully designed and always have a cost to the young person in terms of time they could be spending on learning other things.
Some young people were isolated or bullied in special units and schools; these were often those with the most severe SEN and those from poor backgrounds. Special units in mainstream schools are sometimes a place to send young people seen as troublesome, meaning that teachers in mainstream classes did not always have to challenge their own practices and be more inclusive.
Sometimes, teachers accidently marked out young people with SEN for special treatment, for instance by sitting them at the front or back of the class or right next to a classroom assistant. While this was not done to stigmatise the young person, it often had a profound negative effect on the young person, with some young people preferring to sit with a classroom assistant than their peers.
Professionals who worked specifically with young people with SEN were usually empathetic and understood the frustration felt by most young people who tried hard but struggled to behave appropriately or to learn specific things. However, mainstream teachers have many competing pressures and sometimes found it difficult to understand the behavioural or learning difficulties of young people. Some young people had experienced bullying by teachers and young people in previous schools, often leading to a change of school. More often, teachers watched more frequently and chastised more readily young people with SEN.
Interpreting diagnoses
A diagnosis of SEN does not guarantee that it will be perceived in a uniform manner; a diagnosis is couched within specific ideas of appropriate behaviour or learning ability which vary socially and spatially, even between classrooms, and between schools in the same and different LAs. The context of the school is often important to a diagnosis of SEN.
Consequently, resources attached to SEN are unequally distributed; some schools have large numbers of young people with some differences who are not diagnosed because these differences are seen as usual in that context. These schools generally have many students from poor and socially excluded backgrounds. Therefore, young people from poor or socially excluded backgrounds are disadvantaged by the variations in how the SEN system is employed.
Key recommendations
- A greater awareness is needed of the importance of young people’s friendships and social capital to their attitudes and participation in school, along with their social and emotional wellbeing. Promoting friendship should be a central element of all aspects of school.
- All education professionals need to be aware that students with SEN are more likely to be isolated, excluded and bullied, and to think about how their practices, such as seating arrangements, could help or hinder these young people socially, as well as educationally.
- Policy at all levels needs to address the intersecting exclusions of young people from poor backgrounds, who might have multiple issues of hardship in their homes and who are over-represented among those with BESD and MLD.
- Awareness is needed that SEN conditions are diagnosed within the context of particular expectations of learning and behaviour which tend to favour certain groups and vary between individual schools, classrooms and LAs. The context of the school is as important to the diagnosis of some young people as the context of the home.
- We suggest a change in terminology from “difficulties” to “differences” as this is less negative, but does still express that young people experience frustration at their difference, which cannot be ignored.
- Awareness is needed that in schools with a high number of students from poor or socially excluded backgrounds, some learning or behavioural differences are expected, and young people who might be diagnosed with SEN elsewhere are not subject to diagnosis in these contexts. This means that some schools in areas with high levels of poverty are not receiving as many resources for young people with similar differences as those in areas with fewer poor children.
- The key to socially including young people with SEN is to provide opportunities to socialise and to develop shared interests and activities with others. Well-meaning attempts to address bullying, such as buddy schemes, can sometimes cause more difficulties.
- Awareness is needed of the importance of access to leisure and extra curricula activities for young people with SEN. Where possible, clubs and extra curricula activities should be free.
- Transport to and from school should be flexible to enable young people with SEN to participate in extra curricula activities or informal leisure opportunities.
- Parents sometimes need more information and support to help their child with SEN participate in leisure and extra curricula activities.
- Special units or special schools can be important in allowing these children to access school, because schools and LAs are not fully inclusive, despite their best efforts. Special units or schools worked best when young people could also access mainstream schools or facilities to take up a meaningful curriculum.
- The decision about what courses young people should study should be based on the young person, not the category of SEN s/he has. If young people are seen as unable to take GCSEs or A levels, they need to have access to a good alternative curriculum.
- The time dedicated to therapies intended to assist young people in overcoming their difficulties needs to be carefully considered, and these interventions need to be of a high quality. Most effort should be placed on allowing young people to fulfil their talents and abilities.
- The implementation of the new SEN Code of Practice (2014) needs careful monitoring and consideration to avoid exacerbating issues of social and educational exclusion for young people with SEN.
Author: Louise Holt
Inclusion
Louise Holt
Dr Louise Holt, the lead investigator of the study discussed above, is Senior Lecturer in The Department of Geography at Loughborough University, where Professor Sophie Bowlby is Visiting Professor. Dr Jennifer Lea is Lecturer in the Department of Geography, University of Exeter. Details of the study can be found at:
http://socialcapital.lboro.ac.uk.webhost1.lboro.ac.uk
