Richard Curtis examines changing attitudes to children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties
Children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) have long proven a challenge for teachers across the country. Variously referred to over the years as maladjusted, subnormal or even plain naughty, children with SEBD are those who have persistent difficulties accessing and progressing in learning due to their challenging behaviour.
In 2010/11, there were 158,015 pupils registered as having SEBD at School Action Plus and with statements of SEN. In the same year, there were 258 injuries to teachers reported to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following assaults by pupils, there were 16,790 exclusion related to physical assaults against adults and 570 permanent exclusions relating to physical assaults against adults. This is a serious matter for teachers, with teaching unions giving advice for what to do following a physical assault.
Since the introduction of the Equality Act in 2010, the provision for children with SEBD has become a highly emotive subject within schools. Children, who would have been labelled as naughty in the past have gained a right to be treated as equal if the cause of their behaviour is considered to be a disability. Many of us have had to challenge our own thinking about SEBD as a result and there still remains a large number of adults in schools across the country who struggle with the inclusion of this group of children.
Disability law and education
It is against the law in the UK to treat a disabled student unfairly and schools have a duty to make reasonable adjustments to allow for the child’s disability. According to the United Nations definition of disability:
“Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.”
Children with SEBD have increasingly been classed as having a disability in recent years, particularly in light of the Equality Act. Things that historically were often considered to be reasonable and were common practice are now illegal. Examples of this might be:
- harassment – for example, where a teacher shouts at a student for not paying attention when the student’s disability or condition stops him/her from concentrating easily
- direct discrimination – for example, refusing admission to a student because of disability or SEN (www.gov.uk).
This then leads to the concept of reasonable adjustment – the requirement that all schools have to make allowances and alterations to their school to accommodate children with disabilities. For those with SEBD, whatever the cause, these allowances are likely to have a daily impact.
Fair is not equal
Many of us will have been brought up on the concept of fairness; indeed, we may seek to distil this concept into the children in our care. We feel a sense of injustice when someone cuts us up on the motorway or jumps a queue and is served before us. We may take pride in our sense of fairness and that we aren’t like those people who bend the rules or need extra support.
However, fair is not equal; life is not equal. Do we not owe the next generation the ability to cope with the injustices of life? Do we not owe them a chance to learn how to accommodate the different needs of other people? Do we not have the duty to teach the children in our care to be emotionally literate enough to recognise the needs of others?
Imagine how different your school would be if all children could recognise each other’s emotional needs, if they could recognise when a friend is becoming angry and help him/her to access calming techniques. What if a class of children could ignore inappropriate behaviour rather than be drawn into it? What if insecure children with SEBD knew that the staff and other children around them understood their needs and would support them?
Today, this style of school is starting to become a reality – and it’s a very different style to that expected even just ten years ago, when it was common to see children with these needs being sent to pupil referral units or special schools for the rest of their education, when containment rather than understanding emotional literacy was often the priority. This transition is being felt across the country and enlightened school leaders are supporting staff to learn new skills.
Reasonable adjustments in the classroom
This all means that teachers are obliged to make reasonable adjustments in their classroom for children with SEBD. Well-informed teachers have made a plan with their SENCO and included all of their support staff in envisaging what this plan entails. Parents are also involved in ensuring that the plan will meet the child’s needs. This is then communicated to the child with SEBD using language that is appropriate to him/her, and the rest of the class has the reasonable adjustments explained to them, so that they understand the benefits and calmness these arrangements will bring to the class. The whole class therefore understands that they are all giving a little to help a child with additional needs to succeed and be a part of their class.
Examples of reasonable adjustments that could be made might include:
- a work station
- specific seating plans
- labelled equipment with clear storage
- a separate pen pot on the table
- designated seating on the carpet or on a chair
- additional adult support to settle to task
- pre-teaching the content of a lesson
- circle times discussing the differences between people
- recognition of the things the children like about each other so that they remember this during the difficult times
- the opportunity for children with SEBD to earn rewards for the class
- allowing these children to be special helpers rather than distractions during whole class input
- rewarding them for being good, rather than punishing them for misdemeanours
- having a staged response for particular children – for example, asking them to do something three times with a minute’s thinking time in-between.
Pre-teaching (above) involves working individually or with a small group of children to practice the content of a lesson so that children know what to expect, understand the routine and can begin to work on the answers they will be expected to give. It can empower children with SEN and speed up understanding of subject learning.
Reasonable whole school adjustments
Our understanding of meeting the needs of children with SEBD has changed significantly over the last five to ten years and many staff may not be familiar with some of the newer techniques. This then affects the operation of the whole school. Practices, policies and procedures across the whole school, such as exclusions, need to make reasonable adjustments for children with disabilities and SEN. The Department for Education (DfE) states that “it would be unlawful to exclude a pupil simply because they have additional needs or a disability that the school feels it is unable to meet.” The Department says that state schools must have due regard to:
- eliminate discrimination and other conduct that is prohibited by the Equality Act
- advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
- foster good relations across all characteristics – between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it.
Questions school leaders may like to consider include:
- does your whole school behaviour and attendance policy include reasonable adjustments for SEBD?
- does your SEN policy include SEBD?
- when considering exclusion, is it down to a child’s disability or SEN?
- do you have interventions to teach children the tools they need to follow the rules or know what to do to when they make a mistake?
- is the emotional literacy of your staff team supported and are staff empowered to model this to pupils?
- are recognised de-escalation techniques seen as such or are they viewed as “rewarding bad behaviour”?
- are staff empowered to promote an inclusive environment where the differences between children are recognised?
- do you support staff to teach and meet the needs of all children in their class?
Understanding and addressing the causes
In the new SEN Code of Practice, the behaviour, social and emotional category is being removed and replaced with “social, mental and emotional health”. This reflects the view that behaviour is very much a symptom of underlying unmet needs. The best ways of supporting children with SEBD include getting to the root of the problem and addressing these needs. Children don’t choose to have negative behaviours; they use the tools they think will work for the problem, dilemma or choice they are faced with. Although we commonly hear these children described as naughty, we should reframe our view to look at what is actually happening with these children and whether they have the right tools to manage their behaviour. Helping the thousands of children in our schools with SEBD begins with the right mind set, not with impossible expectations.
Author: Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis is a specialist behaviour teacher. He runs The Root Of It, a team of multiagency professionals who provide support for schools, unpicking the causes of a child’s difficulty and helping the school to meet those needs. Richard is also known to many parents as The Kid Calmer:
www.rootofit.com
www.thekidcalmer.com
