Warnock (1978)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Contents, Introduction
Chapter 1 General approach
Chapter 2 Historical background
Chapter 3 Scope of special education
Chapter 4 Discovery, assessment and recording
Chapter 5 Children under five
Chapter 6 Schoolchildren with special needs: introduction
Chapter 7 Special education in ordinary schools
Chapter 8 Special education in special schools
Chapter 9 Parents as partners
Chapter 10 Transition from school to adult life
Chapter 11 Some curricular considerations
Chapter 12 Teacher education and training
Chapter 13 Advice and support in special education
Chapter 14 Other education service staff
Chapter 15 Health service and social services
Chapter 16 Relations between professionals, confidentiality and coordination of services
Chapter 17 Voluntary organisations
Chapter 18 Research and development
Chapter 19 Priorities and resources
Summary of recommendations

Appendices

Appendix 1 List of contributors
Appendix 2 Categories of handicapped pupils
Appendix 3 Possible grid as basis for statistical returns
Appendix 4 Organisation of health service
Appendix 5 Research project on services for parents of under 5s
Appendix 6 Research project on pre-school education
Appendix 7 Research project on employment experiences of handicapped school leavers
Appendix 8 Survey of teachers' views on special education

Index

Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the education of handicapped children and young people

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1978
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

ISBN 0 10 172120 X

Chapter 6: School children with special needs: an introduction
[pages 94 - 98]

INTRODUCTION

6.1 In recent years discussion of the education of handicapped children has tended to focus on where the education should be provided - in ordinary or special schools, day or boarding schools. Clearly the location of special education and the administrative arrangements for its provision merit deep consideration, and these are the subject of our next two chapters. As an introduction to those chapters, we consider the wide range of special educational needs and the corresponding variety of provision required to achieve an effective, sensitive and flexible matching of needs with services.

I RANGE OF SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

6.2 The idea of a continuum of special educational need is a concept which, though crude, is serviceable in conveying the idea of a spread of children's special needs, in contrast with the traditional system of discrete categories of disability. In practice, however, individual needs are extremely variable in their intensity and composition. A particular disability varies widely in its severity from child to child and is often complicated by interaction with other handicapping conditions. Thus a child with, say, impaired vision may additionally suffer to any degree from emotional disturbance or have additional learning difficulties. It is this kind of complexity which necessitates a variety of different kinds and degrees of specialist intervention. We see special education as a particular response to the complex needs of an individual child which have been assessed by the appropriate professionals.

6.3 As we explained in Chapter 3, in very broad terms special educational need is likely to be of three kinds, namely i. the need for the provision of special means of access to the curriculum, including specialist teaching techniques; ii. the need for the provision of a special or modified curriculum; and iii. the need for particular attention to the social structure and emotional climate in which education takes place. A child may very often have more than one of these forms of special educational need.

6.4 Need for the provision of special means of access to the curriculum may itself take a number of different forms. Modification of the physical environment may be required, perhaps the provision of ramps or handrails, or the acoustic treatment of classrooms. Special equipment may be needed: for example a comparatively simple hearing aid or, at the other extreme, a highly sophisticated and costly machine which affords a severely multiply handicapped child access to a learning programme. In some cases the need may be for specialist teaching techniques, for example techniques for assisting pupils who need part-time help in a special setting to overcome learning difficulties, or techniques for communicating with profoundly deaf children or for teaching through braille.

6.5 The basic elements of the curriculum may need to be interpreted differently for individual children. Thus, in the case of pupils with impaired hearing, particular emphasis will need to be placed on the development of language; or for some children mathematics may involve the binomial theorem, whereas for others it may not extend much beyond the recognition of shapes. Where learning difficulties are very severe, what amounts to a special curriculum may need to be developed. We consider the curriculum in more detail in Chapter 11.

6.6 Need for particular attention to the social structure and emotional climate in which education takes place may also take many different forms. Some children may depend upon the intimacy of small teaching groups to make educational progress. Some may need the reassurance which a small school can best provide; others a particular kind of organisation within a school, for example one which pays special attention to the setting of limits to behaviour.

6.7 Given that a child may have more than one of the three types of special educational need described in paragraph 6.3 and that each of these may itself take many different forms, it is clear that many combinations of individual need are possible. In the following section we consider the flexible range of special educational provision required if these different needs are to be adequately met.

II RANGE OF SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL PROVISION

6.8 It would be impossible for the many different combinations of individual need that occur to be matched exactly by a corresponding number of organisational arrangements. The organisation of the educational system as a whole, as well as the resources available, impose limitations on the number of formal arrangements that are possible. We believe, however, that there should be available as great a variety of organisational arrangements as is practicable if special educational needs are to be met effectively. There should therefore be a range of special educational provision.

6.9 Our conclusion that up to one in five children are likely to require special educational provision at some time during their school career means that the majority of children with special educational needs will have to be not only identified but also helped within the ordinary school. As part of the range of special educational provision which we are advocating, therefore, a number of different forms of such provision will be required in ordinary schools. Where a child's need for special means of access to the curriculum can be met through, say, special equipment such as a hearing aid, or the provision of ramps to classrooms, it may be possible for him, depending on the severity of his disorder, to continue his education full-time in an ordinary class with any necessary support. Where, however, a child requires a modified curriculum, specialist teaching techniques or the more intimate atmosphere of smaller teaching groups, some of his education will probably need to take place away from the ordinary class in a special class or other supporting base. If a child requires intensive specialist support for most of the time, he may need to receive most, if not all, of his lessons in a special class. Within each different form of special educational provision there should be scope for variety and flexibility in the way in which individual needs are met.

6.10 At the same time, we are entirely convinced that special schools will continue to be needed, particularly for the following three groups of children:

(i) those with severe or complex physical, sensory or intellectual disabilities who require special facilities, teaching methods or expertise that it would be impracticable to provide in ordinary schools;

(ii) those with severe emotional or behavioural disorders who have very great difficulty in forming relationships with others or whose behaviour is so extreme or unpredictable that it causes severe disruption in an ordinary school or inhibits the educational progress of other children; and

(iii) those with less severe disabilities, often in combination, who despite special help do not perform well in an ordinary school and are more likely to thrive in the more intimate communal and educational setting of a special school.

6.11 Although it is not exhaustive, the following list of different types of provision gives an indication of the range which we believe will be needed in future for children with special educational needs. Each of these types of provision is considered further in the course of the following two chapters.

(i) full-time education in an ordinary class with any necessary help and support;

(ii) education in an ordinary class with periods of withdrawal to a special class or unit or other supporting base;

(iii) education in a special class or unit with periods of attendance at an ordinary class and full involvement in the general community life and extra-curricular activities of the ordinary school;

(iv) full-time education in a special class or unit with social contact with the main school;

(v) education in a special school, day or residential, with some shared lessons with a neighbouring ordinary school;

(vi) full-time education in a day special school with social contact with an ordinary school;

(vii) full-time education in a residential special school with social contact with an ordinary school;

(viii) short-term education in hospitals or other establishments;

(ix) long-term education in hospitals or other establishments; and

(x) home tuition.

6.13 A number of experiments has already taken place in developing cooperation between ordinary and special schools, and we commend these. The evidence we received revealed a widespread conviction that ordinary and special schools should develop much closer links and should, wherever possible, share resources, for example the services of a specialist teacher or expensive plant such as craft workshops or a swimming pool. Arrangements for sharing resources or for pupils in one school to attend certain classes in another will, of course, be possible only when the schools are geographically close enough to permit an exchange of pupils without undue stress or waste of time. Moreover, such arrangements will require careful advance planning, including the coordination of timetables, the dove-tailing of supporting services and, where necessary, the provision of special transport. Nevertheless, we entirely support the views of many of the contributors to our evidence that much closer links of these kinds should be developed and we return to this subject in Chapter 8.

6.14 Information about the range of special educational provision in any area needs to be widely available both to professionals and to parents. Lists of special schools are published by the Department of Education and Science (List 42) and the Scottish Education Department (List G) containing details of the category of handicap and age range of pupils catered for. We consider that these lists would be more useful if they were to include a description of the types of special educational need catered for. In particular this would facilitate the task of matching the needs of children recorded as requiring special educational provision with the provision available. We recognise that to produce such lists, and keep them up to date, would entail a considerable amount of work. We recommend, however, that, at least in the case of residential special schools, the lists should in future include details of the types of special educational need catered for. They will thus help those responsible for placing children in special schools outside their area, although they will not obviate the need for local education authorities to make their own enquiries about the suitability of placements for individual children.

6.15 Within each area information needs to be readily available to professionals involved in the assessment of special educational needs, and to parents, about different types of special educational provision. We therefore recommend that each local education authority should produce and keep up to date a handbook containing details of special educational provision in its area for children recorded as requiring such provision. Like the lists referred to above, this handbook should include information about the types of special educational need catered for in individual schools. It should also contain the names, office addresses and telephone numbers of officers of the local education authority concerned with the provision of special education, including the assistant education officer for special education and members of the proposed special education advisory and support service, so that parents know whom to contact, if necessary, about problems concerning provision for their child. This handbook might be issued on its own or it might form a section of the handbook on local facilities of various kinds which we recommended in Chapter 5 should be produced under the aegis of Joint Consultative Committees (or in Scotland Joint Liaison Committees).

CONCLUSION

6.16 If the Named Person is one of the cornerstones of the service which should be available for parents of children with special needs, full information about the range of special educational provision in their area is another. The range of provision needs to be extensive and flexible, to match as nearly as possible the extremely varied and changing needs of individual children. It should embrace different forms of provision in ordinary schools, as well as separate provision in special schools and other institutions. In the following two chapters we consider these different forms in more detail.