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Warnock (1978) Notes on the text
Appendices Appendix 1 List of contributors
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The Warnock Report (1978)
Special educational needs Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the education of handicapped children and young people London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1978
ISBN 0 10 172120 X
Chapter 11 Some curricular considerations
INTRODUCTION 11.1 While considering evidence and during visits to many schools we were impressed by the concern shown for individual pupils with special educational needs. But we also became aware that the quality of the education offered to them is in some respects less satisfactory. In particular, it is sometimes limited in scope and in the challenge which it presents to individuals. In this chapter we set out our views on aspects of the curriculum in special education, including its development and dissemination. 11.2 The secular curriculum in maintained schools is controlled by the local education authorities and the schools themselves. The Schools Council, which works closely with authorities and teachers, is the major agency for curriculum development and dissemination in England and Wales while in Scotland the Consultative Committee on the Curriculum is responsible for curricular guidance. Our concern in this chapter is with principles and with issues of special importance. We consider the particular needs of children and young people with different disabilities without, however, entering into a detailed discussion of specific areas of the curriculum. A considerable amount of detailed work is currently being undertaken on the curriculum for children with different disabilities which we regard as very important, and we suggest ways in which it should be promoted in future. 11.3 As we explained in Chapter 1, we believe that the general aims of education are the same for all children. We also recognise that the activities and experiences planned for children in a school are necessarily a selection from a much wider range of possibilities. The curriculum which evolves from this selection and planning implies certain more precise objectives which a school sets for its pupils. The term 'curriculum' as we use it here therefore means those school activities which set out to achieve specific aims within the general aims of education as a whole. Thus the curriculum should take into account the particular needs of children with different disabilities and learning problems. A curriculum for deaf children, for example, should pay particular attention to language and communication while one for blind children should emphasise the interpretation of the environment through touch and sound. 11.4 Children normally learn through unplanned interaction with their surroundings as well as through being taught in school and many children with special needs are no exception. Some children, however, are impeded by their disability or disorder in the development of social skills and relationships, often of the simplest kind. These children may need to be taught as part of the school's curriculum many things which other children learn naturally. Whether children with special needs are in ordinary or special schools, their development should be regularly reviewed to see if any elements which for other children are self-taught should for them form a deliberate part of the curriculum. Although arrangements in ordinary schools may make some forms of incidental learning easier for children with disabilities or significant difficulties, staff in ordinary, as in special schools, must be alert to the importance of this aspect of education and to the need to take special steps to promote it wherever necessary. Equally, when young people enter further or higher education, attention needs to be paid to ensuring that they have an opportunity to acquire, if they have not already done so, the many skills necessary for successful participation in the activities of a complex educational institution.
I THE NATURE OF THE CURRICULUM 11.5 There are four interrelated elements which contribute to the development of a curriculum. They are: i. setting of objectives; ii. choice of materials and experiences; iii. choice of teaching and learning methods to attain the objectives; and iv. appraisal of the appropriateness of the objectives and the effectiveness of the means of achieving them. 11.6 The first question in planning the curriculum is frequently where to begin. One starting point is the detailed specification of each child's attributes and needs. Another is experience and knowledge of the problems faced by children with different disabilities, at home, in the neighbourhood and as young adults in achieving the maximum degree of independence. In all cases the available premises, resources and staffing will set limits to what is possible. 11.7 The objectives set for a school, class or group must be practicable, related to the particular children to whom they apply, and informed by careful analysis of what is to be learned. When the objectives have been determined it will be necessary to work out the steps by which they are to be reached. Finally there must be a means of judging when objectives have been attained. In selecting objectives every attempt should be made to offer a rich and varied range which covers not only a variety of separate subjects but also a range of goals, including emotional, social, intellectual and physical development. Where children have complex or multiple disabilities difficult decisions will have to be taken in the selection of priorities. However, every attempt should be made to see that the chosen objectives are as near in scope and quality to those of other children of the same age as is practicable, given the nature and degree of the children's disabilities. 11.8 The choice of materials, experiences and teaching and learning methods will be determined by the objectives and by the nature of the children's disabilities. Children who have difficulties with mobility or manipulation may require means of learning different from those appropriate for children with severe learning difficulties. In some fields of special education there is a preoccupation with the choice of teaching methods which neglects consideration of the objectives or the materials or the experiences which may prepare a child for adult life. In others too little attention is given to appraisal of the planned programme and its effectiveness. 11.9 In Chapter 4 we discussed the importance of regularly reviewing individual progress, and the means of doing so. Such reviews are required for two purposes: for appraisal of the response of individual children to their education; and, taken together, for regular reconsideration of the school's curriculum as a whole. However, the response of individual children is only one element in this reconsideration. Teachers, other professionals, parents, potential employers and other agencies which may subsequently be concerned with the children's care all have a contribution to make to an assessment of the appropriateness and success of the school's work, including its curriculum. Curriculum development in ordinary schools 11.10 The scope for developing suitable curricula for children with special needs will vary according to where their education takes place. One important factor in determining the success of special educational provision in ordinary schools is the degree to which such schools, particularly secondary schools, can modify their curriculum to accommodate different groups of children with special needs, without detriment to the quality of education offered to other children in the school. There are at least two senses in which modification may be necessary. First, modification of materials may be needed for children with physical or sensory disabilities who may be able to follow an ordinary curriculum provided that special materials are prepared in advance, for example tapes and tactile material for the blind. This requires that lessons are carefully planned and prepared and that materials are selected in good time. Secondly, modification of teaching objectives as well as materials may be needed for other children with a variety of mild or moderate learning problems. They need access to the whole range of the curriculum, not just a limited part of it. For example, there is scope for devising for them modern language courses which include a greater proportion of oral work and less written work and study of grammar. The organisation of the school will also be significant for slow learners, or children with moderate learning difficulties as we have defined them, and the curriculum for mixed ability groups will require particular attention to the selection of aims and materials if these children are to make useful progress. Ordinary schools vary widely in the degree to which they recognise and are able to cater for individual needs within their curriculum and organisation in all the ways described. 11.11 Where units or classes for children with disabilities or significant difficulties are set up in ordinary schools it may be difficult for the units or classes to develop their own distinctive curricula if they are to share activities with ordinary classes. Such activities may have to be planned within the curriculum of the ordinary classes, and in this case it will be particularly important for all the teachers concerned to cooperate closely in the choice of materials and methods. On the one hand the materials and methods in use in ordinary classes will need to be adapted or supplemented for use by children in the units or classes; and, on the other, teachers in the units or classes will need to shape their work in ways that are compatible with the activities in ordinary classes. Curriculum development in special schools 11.12 The special school, in contrast, does not have quite the same constraints on the development of a curriculum appropriate for the particular children for whom it is intended. For those children whose disabilities are not associated with marked learning problems, it may be the methods and materials which need to be special, while the teaching aims remain the same as for other children. For children with severe learning difficulties, a careful selection of clear and simple goals is required if teaching is to be effective. However if transfer to ordinary schools is to be a possibility for some children, the curriculum must share common ground with that of ordinary schools. Special schools will need to pay particular attention to curriculum development, as we explain more fully below, if they are to become centres of expertise for children with special educational needs as we proposed in Chapter 8. 11.13 The evidence presented to us reflected a widespread belief that many special schools underestimate their pupils' capabilities. This view was expressed in relation to all levels of ability and disability. Many people also thought that the curriculum was too narrow, in concentrating on reading and numbers and giving insufficient attention to, for example, wider aspects of English and mathematics and to science and environmental and social studies. The importance of the social training provided by special schools was generally recognised but, as one contributor put it, 'a good educational programme is just as therapeutic and important to personal development'. The development of language was considered to be a major requirement of the curriculum, not only for children with impaired hearing but also for maladjusted children as a means of helping them to understand and express their feelings. It was considered by many to be a first priority for children with moderate and severe learning difficulties. Music, art, drama and physical education were emphasised in evidence as being particularly important for children with special needs, as was education in the forming of relationships with others. For children whose disabilities prevented them from moving about in, or profiting from incidental contact with, their surroundings, the need for well-planned excursions and activities outside schools was also emphasised in evidence. Finally, education in the use of leisure and preparation for adulthood was considered a very important aspect of the special school's curriculum. Some people, according to the evidence, believe that aspects of education such as these are not receiving adequate attention in many schools. Our own experience does not entirely support these views. Although, in the course of our numerous visits to special schools, we found some evidence to substantiate the beliefs expressed, we also saw much evidence to the contrary. We are also aware that during the period of our enquiry there have been changes in many schools, including developments in the scope of the educational programme offered. 11.14 The main problems faced by special schools in developing a satisfactory curriculum are inherent in the fact that their pupils are relatively few in number and may span a wide age range and present many combinations of abilities and disabilities. It is essential that the curriculum should be carefully planned and that everybody in the school should work to agreed ends. The leadership of the head teacher is a vital factor in forging common policies and practices to cover all aspects of the school's work. As part of the process of curriculum development and in order to ensure that the curriculum is understood and effectively followed the head teacher should consult his staff and the other professionals who work with the school, and also parents. We have seen some good examples of such leadership. The need in all schools for careful planning of the curriculum and full consultation on its implementation was emphasised in the Green Paper Education in schools: a consultative document published in 1977. (1) 11.15 The school's policies, aims and practices must be clear, since they provide the framework within which individual teachers and other workers can make their contribution, and within which flexible arrangements can be made for individual children. Wherever the quality of special education is high, we have found that two strands have emerged. First, well-defined guidelines for each area of the curriculum have been drawn up, which enable teachers to plan their own work and relate it to that of colleagues and other professionals. Secondly, programmes have been planned for individual children with clearly defined short-term goals within the general plan. We regard these strands as important criteria of effective special education. For, where pupils have learning difficulties, or where special methods are required, all teachers need to develop a continuity and consistency of approach to avoid confusing children. Moreover, teachers often need to work closely with other professionals, such as psychologists and physiotherapists, and to be effective all must work towards agreed goals within an agreed framework. Where programmes for individual children are carefully planned and monitored, it is possible to achieve a degree of flexibility in meeting assessed needs. This can be more difficult in a large regular class in the ordinary school, but may be possible in smaller groups. It should be a feature of the work of special schools and classes, where these are properly staffed. 11.16 Once the school's curriculum has been developed, it must be regularly reviewed. The regular monitoring of individual progress which we have already advocated, together with a systematic canvassing of the views of teachers, other professionals and parents about the work of the school, should afford the means of keeping the curriculum and its implementation under surveillance. This process is vital in order to establish whether objectives are being achieved and materials and methods are effective.
II ASPECTS OF THE CURRICULUM FOR DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS Educational programmes for children under five 11.17 Early learning is important for all children but it need not always be deliberately planned. Young children with disabilities or significant difficulties, on the other hand, need structured programmes, and the importance of training and education before the age of five cannot be overestimated. It is therefore necessary to ensure that early education programmes for children not yet attending school are developed in close consultation with schools, particularly those which are acting as resource centres for children with special educational needs. Collaboration between those working with young children below school age and staff in schools is essential if the starting points of a school's curriculum are to be a natural extension of early education programmes. Transition to adult life 11.18 Within schools all members of staff should be aware of the implications of the curriculum for the future life of their pupils, particularly for their prospects of employment. The implications are especially important for those with disabilities and difficulties who are receiving special education, and for whom the concluding stages of the curriculum should include significant elements of preparation for the next phase in their life. Sometimes this will require a review of the range of subject options to see that they do not unnecessarily restrict a pupil's qualifications for employment. More commonly it will require a positive approach to helping young people acquire the self-confidence and skill to manage their personal life as independently as possible and to cope with the conditions which they will find in further education or at work. 11.19 If schools are to prepare young people for adulthood as effectively as possible, they will need to accumulate knowledge about the living and working conditions which the pupils are likely to face on leaving school and their opportunities for leisure-time activities. As the Circular issued jointly by the Department of Education and Science and the Welsh Office in 1975 on the discovery and assessment of special needs stressed, (2) it is particularly important for handicapped young people that careers guidance of a high standard should be available in schools and that there should be close cooperation between teachers, careers officers, or their specialist colleagues, and parents on all matters concerning further or higher education and employment, and collaboration with those involved in further education and local industry and commerce. It is equally important that the school should be closely in touch with social and health services, voluntary agencies and the community in which the young person is to live. These links between the school and other bodies and professionals should help to guide the teaching staff in planning the school's curriculum for older pupils. Further education 11.20 In the last chapter we set out our views on the opportunities which need to be available to young people over the age of 16 with special needs. Many of the considerations applicable to curriculum planning in schools which we have discussed in this chapter are applicable also to establishments of further education. Colleges of further education will need to consider both the modification of ordinary courses and the provision of special courses, either as links between school and college or as bridging courses to prepare young people with special needs for ordinary courses or work. A survey by Her Majesty's Inspectorate during 1976-77 revealed a steady increase in the number of courses available to students with special needs, but at the same time insufficient knowledge on the part of lecturers of the needs of young people with particular disabilities. We return to the subject of training for lecturers in establishments of further education in teaching young people with disabilities or significant difficulties in the following chapter. We recognise that some students will continue to require the facilities of the specialist establishments of further education, at present national colleges, which we recommended in the last chapter should in time become part of the regional pattern of further education for students with special needs. We hope that such establishments will develop as resource centres which offer support for students and lecturers in other colleges as well as special courses for those who cannot follow ordinary ones. We urge that the Further Education Review and Curriculum Development Unit should pay particular attention to the curriculum for students with special needs.
III THE PARTICULAR NEEDS OF CHILDREN WITH DIFFERENT DISABILITIES 11.21 In other chapters in this report and in the previous section of this chapter we have been concerned with general principles which we believe should apply to all children with special needs. It has not been our task to make a study of each of the major areas of disability or disorder, although we have considered each of them in forming our general views and have drawn attention to some of them to illustrate particular points. However, during our work we have identified a number of issues specific to children with different disabilities which we discuss in this section. Some of them directly concern the curriculum; others concern the organisation and other aspects of provision. 11.22 Two general considerations have been brought to our attention which make it essential that the particular needs of children with different disabilities are not too narrowly conceived. Special schools and classes now contain many children who each have a number of special needs, either because they have several handicapping conditions or because of factors such as interrupted schooling as a result of periods of medical or other treatment. This consideration has influenced many of our comments throughout this report and also needs to be borne in mind in curriculum development. The second consideration is that many children with disabilities, particularly those which are severe or complex, have associated emotional problems, especially in adolescence. The incidence of emotional and behavioural difficulties in such groups is high and there are few professionals in the fields of child psychiatry and mental health who have specialist knowledge of the problems associated with handicapping conditions, particularly when communication difficulties exist as part of the condition. We hope that in future health services will give greater attention to this area of work. Visual disabilities 11.23 Our evidence suggests that the recommendations of the Vernon Committee (3) remain valid and widely acceptable, although some disquiet was expressed at the slow rate at which the recommendations are being implemented. Some organisations for the visually handicapped argued for a much clearer policy of integration, with the whole of special provision being based in units in ordinary schools. It was pointed out in other evidence that visually handicapped children in special schools increasingly have additional disabilities which bear upon their placement. In general, we believe that our views on integration expressed in Chapter 7 are applicable to both the blind and partially sighted, although the educational needs of the two groups should be considered separately. 11.24 A programme of early training and education is particularly important for children with visual disabilities. For this reason we stress the importance of an educational component in multi-professional assessment, particularly for children under five. It is also vital that advisory teachers of the visually handicapped should be readily available in all areas to work with parents and children. They should ensure that the education of children under five years of age in interpreting and responding to their surroundings, and in mobility, is started as soon as possible. Moreover, they should help parents to acquire special skills and to gain confidence in rearing their children, so that the children themselves will grow as confident learners. 11.25 Children who have been ascertained as blind are not necessarily totally so. They, no less than partially sighted children, need to make maximum use of whatever vision they may have. The Schools Council Project on the training of the visual perception of children with impaired vision has been very valuable in showing how limited vision may be assessed and used in teaching. 11.26 Where visually handicapped children are being successfully educated in ordinary schools (and we gave some examples in Chapter 7), they have usually been well prepared as independent learners and have access to good supporting services and special tutoring. Even so they still depend on the curriculum being clearly planned and predictable so that special materials can be prepared. Changes at short notice can place blind children at a severe disadvantage in following normal courses. Moreover, a distinction can be drawn between different school subjects in terms of the difficulties encountered by blind children in studying them. The humanities, for example, can be studied relatively easily given good preparation and adequate resources. Sciences, on the other hand, present particular difficulties, especially with regard to practical work and studies at an advanced level. There is therefore a danger that the choice of subjects, especially at O and A Level, available to children with severe visual disabilities in ordinary schools may be very restricted. These difficulties should not be underestimated and it is to be hoped that further progress can be made in solving them. We would urge those concerned with syllabuses and examinations where practical work is involved to take these problems into account, and we note the valuable work that has been carried out in this respect in science at the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh. We would not wish to see courses leading to different certificates for any group of pupils with disabilities but we would support the development of alternative courses suitable for all children which are not heavily based on practical work. Visually handicapped children should not be prevented from taking the same range of courses and the same examinations as other children on account of default in the planning of their practical aspects. 11.27 Children with visual disabilities who are educated in special schools, other than those for the blind and partially sighted, seldom have the services of teachers who have specialised in the education of the blind and partially sighted. We regard it as essential that the services of advisory teachers of the visually handicapped should be regularly available to all special schools with such pupils. For their part special schools for the blind and partially sighted need the services of other advisory teachers wherever they admit children with additional disabilities, particularly learning and behavioural difficulties. 11.28 We are aware that, of those children who may require some form of special educational provision at some time during their school career, a considerable number other than those in special schools or classes for the blind and partially sighted may have visual disabilities. Failure to detect these children or to ensure that prescribed spectacles are worn when necessary may lead to their developing learning problems. The present development of health surveillance procedures for children under five, including improved arrangements for testing visual acuity, should reduce the number of children entering school with undetected visual disabilities and prevent possible early learning difficulties. But continued assessment at intervals is also needed as part of health surveillance, since some conditions requiring correction manifest themselves for the first time during childhood and adolescence. Many children and their parents may be unaware that visual difficulties exist which need correction and not all teachers will know of the learning problems which may result from a failure to wear glasses. Two problems are not uncommon: the first, a failure on the part of parents and children to follow up appointments with opticians; and the second a failure on the part of the children to wear glasses regularly once prescribed. School nurses should ensure that both problems are known to the school and both tackled strenuously so far as home circumstances permit. 11.29 The majority of special schools for the blind and for the partially sighted are non-maintained schools run by voluntary organisations. Many are residential and not all are well situated to serve regional needs. Some evidence submitted to us expressed disappointment at the absence of a national plan for the visually handicapped (a recommendation of the Vernon Committee). It is essential that these schools should in future work within a planned framework of regional and local services. The services themselves should be organised on a regional basis and this should be one of the tasks of the regional conferences for special education whose functions we discuss in Chapter 16. 11.30 The provision of further education and training for the visually handicapped needs reconsidering in the light of our recommendations in the last chapter. In particular, the present national specialist centres will need to provide support and advice for students and teachers in other establishments of further education. The relatively small number of young people with special needs in this field requires that specialist advice is widely available so that opportunities are as extensive and carefully planned as possible. Hearing disabilities 11.31 The last major enquiry in this field, which was carried out by the Lewis Committee, (4) concerned methods of educating deaf children. That Committee was set up as a result of concern about oral and other methods of instruction, an issue also raised in much of the evidence presented to us. It was frequently linked with concern about the limited levels of language and literacy achieved by many young people in schools for the deaf. The steady increase in units for partially hearing children in ordinary schools and the placement in them of children with more severe hearing losses but with reasonably well developed language have meant that the population in some special schools for the deaf is both decreasing and coming to consist increasingly of more multiply and heavily handicapped children. All these developments in our view point to the necessity of a single service for hearing impaired children to embrace special schools, units and peripatetic services. Such a service needs to be planned on a regional basis, a further important function of the regional machinery for special education proposed in Chapter 16. 11.32 The need for early diagnosis of impaired hearing is particularly important in order that advice and support for parents can go hand in hand with early education programmes. Peripatetic services are not yet available in all areas and there is evidence to suggest that in some localities parents are not treated as partners in their children's education. Peripatetic teachers can effectively support and encourage the activities of parents but it is essential that parents should not feel failures if their child does not progress as rapidly as they hoped. Where parents are unable to carry out early education programmes effectively, peripatetic teachers should assume responsibility and see that regular teaching is carried out. Our evidence suggests that additional training is necessary for teachers of the deaf who are to work with young children under five years of age and their parents, and we return to this in the following chapter. 11.33 The curricular needs of pupils currently termed deaf or partially hearing are different, since the deaf have greater difficulty than the partially hearing in acquiring, and learning through, language. In the education of the deaf there has often been more concern with methods than with the curriculum to be taught. Thus, the report of the Lewis Committee was concerned mainly with methodology and said very little about the curriculum. More recently the Schools Council Project 'Language Development for Deaf Children' has produced guidance based on work in schools which should help in the setting of objectives and the selection of materials and methods. The current diversity in methods of teaching is not necessarily an unhealthy state of affairs, but rigid adherence to a single method may be unhelpful. The different needs of individuals should be considered and appropriate methods used. We consider it essential therefore that each school should plan its curriculum carefully to ensure that the material is stimulating for the child and that there is continuity. Schools need to ensure that the approaches of different staff so far as methodology is concerned are consistent and compatible and that teachers are properly trained in the use of any new methods that they intend to adopt. As the Lewis Committee recommended, there is a continuing need for well planned evaluative research into methodology and the teaching of language. 11.34 Units for partially hearing children have been pioneering examples of the organisation of special educational provision in ordinary schools. Many have been successful but problems still remain. It may seem self-evident that children with impaired hearing often have difficulty in learning and in mixing with other children as a result of poor command of speech, limited grasp of language or simply failure to understand or be understood by others. Yet many of these problems are not readily appreciated by teachers in ordinary schools, and the stress on individual children can be very great. Teachers in charge of units and peripatetic teachers need strong support in their efforts to help such children, particularly in creating the conditions in ordinary schools which facilitate their mixing with other children. Children with impaired hearing need to be educated in good acoustic conditions wherever they are taught within the ordinary school, and not merely in their own particular base. For them, no less than for their counterparts in special schools, the supply and maintenance of effective equipment, including individual aids, are crucial. More discussion is needed between consultants and teachers about the appropriateness of aids for activities in school. Unless technicians who understand both the equipment and its use are readily available to schools and units, much equipment tends to be both misused and under-used. 11.35 We are aware that there are many children in ordinary schools who suffer from temporary and episodic impairments of hearing which may lead to educational difficulties if they occur frequently. Teachers need to be informed about children for whom this is a likely occurrence and where necessary to receive advice and support from specialist teachers of children with impaired hearing. Moreover, the school nurse should, in our view, be particularly attentive to such children and alert teachers to any change in their condition. Teachers in their turn should ensure that the school nurse is informed of these children's educational progress. 11.36 Provision for young people with hearing disabilities in further and higher education is currently receiving attention, for example at the Open University and the City Literary Institute and more recently at the College of St Hild and St Bede, Durham. These efforts, among others, demonstrate both the possibilities and the gaps in provision which exist in large areas of Great Britain. We recommend that there should be at least one centre in every region to support students in further and higher education who have impaired hearing and to train those who work with them. Such a centre might be an integral part of a special unit for students with disabilities or significant difficulties such as we recommended in the last chapter should be developed in an establishment of further education in each region. 11.37 Teacher training is considered in detail in the following chapter but there are two aspects relating to the education of the deaf which call for special mention here. The courses leading to qualification as a teacher of the deaf are at present too narrowly conceived and should be broadened to give students a wider view of special education, including an understanding of other disabilities. Secondly, there is need for special elements of additional training in aspects of education for the deaf which the one-year course or its equivalent cannot reasonably encompass. The counselling of parents, peripatetic work, particularly with children under five, and different methods of teaching are all areas where additional courses of training are required. Physically handicapped children 11.38 Arrangements for young children with physical disabilities involve many different professions and the importance of collaboration between them cannot be overstressed. In addition to medical and nursing care, other services such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy or speech therapy may be provided for individual children, and social services departments may support their families. Moreover, early education programmes are increasingly recognised as important. Careful planning is necessary to ensure a balanced scheme of activities and treatment which is easily understood by parents and to which they can contribute. This calls for the training of teachers and other professionals in working together in a multi-professional framework. 11.39 Many children with physical disabilities may be educated in ordinary schools if adequately supported. It should be recognised, however, as we stressed in Chapter 3, that there is no simple relationship between the degree of physical impairment and educational handicap. Sometimes very severe learning problems may be experienced by children with comparatively minor physical disabilities, and it is therefore important that the regular support of a specialist teacher knowledgeable about their difficulties should be available wherever necessary. Arrangements for physically handicapped children in ordinary schools demand careful educational planning and may also involve the planning of services provided by area health authorities including nursing, physiotherapy and speech therapy. We return to the provision of these services in Chapter 15. Ancillary helpers in schools need training in how to help children and at the same time to encourage them towards independence. In all these respects the teachers in day to day charge of the children need to know what supporting services are available and how best to work with the professionals in those services. The effective use of ancillary helpers should also be covered in in-service training. 11.40 There will be some children with both severe physical disabilities and severe learning difficulties whose needs can be met only by the concentration of both health services, including therapeutic services, and specialised teaching in one setting, and for whom placement in a special school will therefore be essential. Some special schools catering for such children should be designated as resource centres, as we proposed in Chapter 8, to be sources of advice for teachers and others working with physically handicapped children and centres of research. Boarding schools will continue to be needed, not only to cater for those children who cannot be looked after at home, but also to offer a much wider range of recreational and leisure opportunities than is available to severely handicapped children living at home. We hope that more short-term residential provision will be available to help children and young people with severe physical disabilities to develop their independence and to provide necessary relief for their families from the exacting daily task of looking after them. 11.41 When children of any age who have physical disabilities are receiving medical treatment that involves spending a cycle of periods in hospital, at home and at school, their education may lack continuity. Hospital and home teaching services should work closely with children's schools to ensure that education is provided when the children are not in school and that the provision made in the various settings has a unity of purpose and progression. 11.42 Opportunities for further and higher education and training for physically handicapped young people are limited and many more young people could, with adequate preparation and support, benefit from attending colleges of further education. In particular, more opportunities are needed for independent living and independent study closely linked with schools and colleges. These points and many others in this section form part of the conclusions and recommendations of the McCann Committee. (5) Children with epilepsy 11.43 The great majority of children who have seizures experience them only for brief periods of time, or at very long intervals. Only those who have repeated seizures, or who need continuous anti-convulsants, can justifiably be described as children with epilepsy. Most such children are educated in ordinary schools, but not all are known to their teachers. This may be because society's attitudes to epilepsy make some parents reluctant to pass on or let their doctors pass to the school information which they think might be embarrassing to the children. In other cases the epilepsy may be so well controlled and so much a part of everyday life that parents and children consider it hardly worth mentioning. We consider that every effort should be made to inform staff in schools and colleges about the facts of epilepsy, how it may be controlled by drugs, what the side effects of these drugs may be and how to manage seizures should they occur, in order to create the right attitudes to children with epilepsy. Lack of full knowledge may cause a child's activities to be unduly restricted and if the school does not know about the existence of the condition the child may run unnecessary risks. This is an instance where mutual confidence and understanding between parents, doctors and teachers is particularly important. 11.44 Even where satisfactory control of seizures by anti-convulsants is achieved, many children with epilepsy may have serious problems in concentration and behaviour, which affect their learning. Recent surveys and research (6) have shown that significant numbers of children with epilepsy fall behind in their, school work. Their particular difficulties are not always recognised by schools and colleges, and better arrangements for reviewing their progress are needed, as part of the general procedures which we suggested in Chapter 4, if these children are to be helped to develop their potential to the full. 11.45 Some children with epilepsy need to go to special schools either because their seizures are difficult to control or because they have additional or associated disabilities or difficulties, sometimes consequent on adverse social conditions, which make unreasonable demands on their families and on ordinary schools. There are at present six special schools for such children and their population, which has changed markedly in recent years, now includes a very high proportion of children with other problems, mainly moderate and severe learning difficulties and behavioural disorders. We think that the functions of these schools should be reconsidered. We see an important task for the regional conferences for special education, which we discuss in Chapter 16, in making sure that members of advisory teaching services are aware of the needs of children with epilepsy and that they and the schools concerned have available specialist advice on the condition. We consider that there should be at least one residential special school in each region where expertise in the multi-professional assessment and approach to the health, care and education of children with epilepsy is developed. It should be of a sufficient size to command adequate medical and nursing support. Such a school would be designated as a regional resource centre under our proposals in Chapter 8. Children with speech and language disorders 11.46 The special educational needs of this group of children are only slowly becoming recognised and understood. The group includes children whose language development is delayed, those who have severe problems of articulation, those who are dysphasic and those who have other communication difficulties. Although speech therapy services work intensively with many of these children, the development of language and communication should be an important part of the educational programme provided for them. There has been a growth of provision in recent years but no corresponding development of teacher training. We believe that in the immediate future medical officers, speech therapists and teachers should work together more closely to develop appropriate forms both of special education and of teacher training in this field. Children with specific learning difficulties 11.47 We have received much evidence from dyslexia associations about the needs of children with specific learning difficulties in reading, writing and spelling. The Secretary of State's Advisory Committee's Pamphlet Children with specific reading difficulties published in 1972 discusses the issues and we generally concur with its conclusions. (7) There are many reasons for perceptual and learning difficulties in reading, writing and spelling, and careful assessment is required. We hope that our proposals for procedures for assessing children's special needs, involving a formulation of individual need, will be particularly helpful in devising programmes to meet the requirements of this group of children. 11.48 Although there are no agreed criteria for distinguishing those children with severe and long-term difficulties in reading, writing and spelling from others who may require remedial teaching in these areas, there are nevertheless children whose disabilities are marked but whose general ability is at least average and for whom distinctive arrangements are necessary. There has been an increase in clinics and centres both inside and outside the education service to meet their needs and a survey carried out by the Department of Education and Science in 1977 found that three quarters of local education authorities in England and Wales had reading centres or clinics, or remedial centres, or both. We are of the opinion that further work is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of the different approaches being followed. In the meantime assessment services and in-service training for teachers should pay greater attention to what is already known and make a more discriminating approach to children with reading, writing and spelling difficulties. Children with mild learning difficulties 11.49 Children with mild learning difficulties, as we have described them, are those for whom remedial services and remedial teachers in ordinary schools usually have responsibility at present. We have argued in Chapter 3 that the distinction between remedial and special education can no longer be maintained, and we see these children as forming the largest proportion of all those who, in our view, require special educational provision. Their problems should not be underestimated. If adequate arrangements are not made for these children when they are young, more severe difficulties in learning, motivation and behaviour may arise as the result of their failure and frustration. It is necessary in all instances to look beyond a lack of progress, for example in reading, to see whether other factors such as minor physical or sensory difficulties are contributing to learning difficulties. 11.50 In many instances children with mild learning difficulties can be helped successfully to follow the normal curriculum and, indeed, we envisage that the majority will be able to manage, with appropriate support, in ordinary classes. But some will continue to have difficulty in mastering complex ideas unless preparation is thorough, explanations are clear and tasks are well defined. Many may require persistent, personal support and encouragement if they are to make progress. The proposals for teacher training which we make in the next chapter will ensure that more teachers are aware of the difficulties in learning that children experience, and are acquainted with the means of overcoming them or at least mitigating their effects. Children with moderate learning difficulties 11.51 Children with moderate learning difficulties is the term which we propose should be used to describe those children currently described as ESN(M), whose difficulties stem from a variety and combination of causes. These often include mild and multiple physical and sensory disabilities, an impoverished or adverse social or educational background, specific learning difficulties and limited general ability. The children showing these difficulties constitute the largest group of children at present in special schools and a large proportion of children in many ordinary schools for whom special education is needed. Much of our report is concerned with general procedures which it is hoped will prevent moderate learning difficulties from becoming severe handicaps in school and in the community. 11.52 The report of the Schools Council Project 'The curriculum for slow learners', which has recently been completed, will reveal a far from satisfactory situation in both ordinary and special schools. Examples of good practice were not common and much work seen was narrowly conceived and poorly planned. More research is needed into the causes of moderate learning difficulties and into the development of curricula, including methods and materials, which will be of most benefit to the children in this field of special education. We recommend that particular attention should be given to curriculum development for children with moderate learning difficulties and that further research should be carried out into the causes of such difficulties. 11.53 Provision in ordinary schools for these children normally takes two forms: support in ordinary or special groups by the school's remedial teachers; or units set up by local education authorities as part of their special educational provision. Our recommendations for assessment, improved supporting services and improved training for teachers, set within our wider concept of special education, should in the long run make for better and increased provision for children with moderate learning difficulties in ordinary schools. We have discussed both in Chapter 7 and in earlier paragraphs of this chapter the provision to be made for them. Moreover, the organisation of schools and the allocation of resources within them are key factors in the achievement of satisfactory arrangements, whilst these in turn depend upon the extent to which head teachers and their senior colleagues appreciate the children's needs and know how best to meet them. 11.54 We consider that both day and boarding special schools will continue to be needed for children with moderate learning difficulties, although the numbers required may decrease as ordinary schools acquire greater expertise and experience in this field. We envisage that the special schools will provide for children with more complex learning problems combined with other disabilities and emotional and behavioural disorders. Increasing recognition of the complexity of the problems of such children, which are often associated with difficult home circumstances, particularly in the case of children in boarding schools, has implications for the staffing of the schools. Both the numbers and training of teachers, child care staff and ancillary helpers need to be improved as the population of the special schools changes in character. As a matter of urgency, these schools also require increased and regular support from specialist teachers, for example of the hearing impaired, and from psychiatric, medical and social services. 11.55 A notable feature of many special schools for children with moderate learning difficulties has been their programmes of preparation for work and independence. Such programmes, sometimes linked with attendance at a college of further education, have shown the value of continued education between the ages of 16 and 19 years. An increasing number of colleges of further education is developing special courses for young people with moderate learning difficulties and we see this as a valuable development and one which should be more widespread. 11.56 As we have already indicated, many of the children whom we describe as having mild or moderate learning difficulties may live in adverse conditions and their educational difficulties are often a result of this. Our proposals for special arrangements to meet their special educational needs, for example support from specialist teachers and small teaching groups, can be seen as measures of compensatory education. At the same time, they have to be seen alongside other measures taken in the neighbourhood and community by other agencies to alleviate social disadvantage. Children with severe learning difficulties 11.57 Children with severe learning difficulties is our preferred description of those children who are commonly referred to as being mentally handicapped and defined in statutory regulations as severely educationally sub-normal. The majority of these children are at present educated in day special schools or hospital schools, although a few units for them have been set up in ordinary primary and secondary schools. Their education has been developing in scope and purpose in recent years. Publications by the Hester Adrian Research Centre at Manchester University, the Schools Council Project on the education of severely mentally handicapped children and the Department of Education and Science's Education Pamphlet Number 60 Educating mentally handicapped children all outline the main issues and suggest guidelines for development, with which we concur in principle. It is now recognised that the tasks and skills to be learned by these children have to be analysed precisely and that the setting of small, clearly defined incremental objectives for individual children is a necessary part of programme planning. We commend current work in curriculum development for them and hope that means may be found to disseminate successful practices more widely. 11.58 Particular attention has been directed more recently to the most profoundly and multiply handicapped children in this group. They require a form of special education which necessitates intimate collaboration between doctors, nurses, teachers, therapists of all kinds and psychologists, so that programmes can be devised which build on the slightest responses elicited from individuals. Hospital schools in particular have a very high proportion of such children. This kind of work is on the frontiers of special education and continues to demand research and development by inter-professional teams. 11.59 Our evidence suggests that many children with severe learning difficulties continue to learn useful skills well beyond the minimum school leaving age. It points to the need for continued education allied to social and vocational training between the ages of 16 and the early twenties. We believe that there should be a specifically educational element in adult training centres and in the last chapter we recommended that it should be provided by the local education authority. It is very desirable that the programmes for young adults in adult training centres and day centres should be separate and different from those for older people. Indeed, we commend this principle to all those services - health, educational and social - which have responsibility for meeting the varied needs of young people with severe disabilities. Children with emotional and behavioural disorders 11.60 Children with emotional and behavioural disorders have few common distinguishing features. Unlike most other kinds of disability, specific characteristics of maladjustment are not always noticeable until the child has been at school for some time. Such disorders spring from many causes, including difficult home circumstances, adverse temperamental characteristics and brain dysfunction. In many cases the cause may be exceptional and may sometimes be unrecognised. Often, especially in the case of antisocial children, such disorders are accompanied by difficulties in learning. The problems underlying maladjustment may derive from or be influenced by the regime and relationships in schools and many children may simply be reacting to these. A number of research projects is currently being undertaken to investigate contributory factors to maladjustment in schools. Although the small number of children with severe emotional and behavioural disorders can and should be identified as early as possible, it is unlikely that early screening procedures will be very effective in identifying the majority of children who may develop problems of adjustment. The identification of such children is more likely to be improved by increased awareness and sensitivity on the part of teachers, as a result of training and experience, and good arrangements in schools for maintaining contact with individual pupils. 11.61 The education of children with emotional and behavioural disorders and others classified as maladjusted is now receiving more attention. Much early work concentrated on treatment and the fostering of good personal relationships. Although these objectives continue to be of prime importance, they are only part of what is needed. Educational failure is now recognised as a significant factor in maladjustment and the contribution of successful learning to adjustment is more widely recognised. The Schools Council Project on the education of disturbed children has found that for this reason many more special schools and classes are placing greater emphasis on the quality of education that they provide. Areas of conflict between therapeutic and educational objectives are still evident, particularly where the latter are characterised as being formal and academic. However, relationships are often developed within well planned educational activities which are recognised by the individual as both serving his needs and being intrinsically interesting. This is particularly true of arts subjects which, if well taught, may be of great benefit in their own right, as well as being media for therapies. We are of the opinion that special education for maladjusted pupils is not complete unless it affords educational opportunities of quality which subsequently enable them to profit from further education and training on relatively equal terms with their contemporaries. 11.62 In some cases truancy or indiscipline in school is a sign of emotional or behavioural disorders as we have described them. The need to adjust the curriculum to meet the particular requirements of unruly pupils who find school boring and irrelevant was emphasised by the Pack Report on truancy and indiscipline in schools in Scotland. (8) While we see merit in the proposals made in that Report for provision for children excluded from classes in ordinary schools on grounds of indiscipline, we consider that the Report drew too sharp a distinction between such provision and special educational provision. In many cases unruliness in pupils is a symptom of special educational needs which require careful assessment in the ways we have proposed and which need to be met within our framework of special educational provision. In fact, the type of provision proposed for such children in the Pack Report could well be organised within this framework. 11.63 The complexities of the aetiology of emotional and behavioural disorders, the number of different agencies involved in dealing with children with such disorders and the range of present provision require that further attention is given to the development of services and of special educational arrangements. Various research projects are being completed, including those at the Nuffield Psychiatric Unit of Newcastle University, which may yield useful information. Our limited studies lead us to believe that more work is required in assessing the needs of different sub-groups within the maladjusted group and in developing appropriate objectives and methods for their education. We also suggest that a pamphlet of guidance for teachers concerned with maladjusted children on the lines of that published by the Department of Education and Science in 1965 (9) but now out of print should be issued. 11.64 Childhood autism is a disorder in which there are fundamental disabilities in both language development and the formation of personal relationships. At this early stage in our understanding of the complex educational needs of children with this disorder it is difficult to know how important it is for such children to be educated separately, though research (10) has established the importance of appropriate educational methods.
IV CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION 11.65 Curriculum development and its implementation are related processes but each presents distinctive problems. Development may take place in a variety of settings: in a single class or teaching group, in individual schools or groups of local schools, in teachers' centres and workshops, or more generally in colleges, universities and other institutions, with local, regional or national coverage. In special education the nature of curriculum development will be influenced by many factors, but principally by the purposes it seeks to serve. It may be rooted in the programmes of ordinary schools and in such a case will include the adaptation of normal curricula for use by some groups of children with disabilities as well as the development of special curricula for others: or, it may be directed more particularly to the needs of children in special schools, units or classes; even here however it may include elements designed to promote a closer relationship between ordinary and special teaching programmes. Wherever it takes place, curriculum development should arise naturally from the work of schools and should involve the active participation of practising teachers. 11.66 The implementation of curriculum development is likewise a very varied process. It may be comparatively straightforward, as for example when a group of teachers in a local centre have been pursuing a particular theme or topic arising from their current work, and are ready to apply the results to their own teaching. At the other extreme the effective dissemination of a major national curriculum development project may call for extensive organisation and effort. Whatever the scale or complexity of the development, however, the aim of implementation is always the same - the mediation to schools of successful curriculum practices, and thereby the improvement of the teaching programmes for classes, groups and individuals. 11.67 In England and Wales since the 1960s the Schools Council and other foundations have undertaken projects in almost every area of the ordinary school curriculum. Teachers in ordinary schools have been closely involved in this development work but, although the results have influenced the work of some ordinary schools, most special schools have been isolated from these initiatives. Projects such as those concerned with language development, mathematics, science and the humanities could enrich the work of special schools. Such projects may need to be modified, either by putting the material in a form in which it can be used by, for example, the blind, or by making a special selection of materials, for example for children with moderate learning difficulties. The Schools Council has been able to carry out only a very limited amount of work in modifying materials and has not made any special arrangements to disseminate and implement completed projects within special education. 11.68 In Scotland there is no body like the Schools Council. The Consultative Committee on the Curriculum is appointed by the Secretary of State to advise him on all aspects of the curriculum through its Curriculum Development Service. It is responsible for curricular guidance and for the production of materials in a wide range of subjects. As in England and Wales, special schools in Scotland have not been greatly influenced by these national developments. Initiatives at a local level are taken by groups of teachers and advisers of the education authority working with colleagues from colleges of education and universities and through this collaboration some valuable curricular materials have been produced for special schools. In many instances these developments are financed in the initial stages through research grants from the Scottish Education Department. We strongly recommend that resources should be made available to the Schools Council, the Consultative Committee on the Curriculum and to local teachers' centres so that curriculum projects can be translated into forms useful to special schools, units and classes. 11.69 Curriculum development specifically for groups of children with particular needs presents many problems. Not all children with the same disability can profit from the same programme and the number of children in some groups is small. Material for even smaller groups who may be Welsh or Gaelic speaking also presents problems. There is evidence that curriculum materials for these groups take time to develop and are not attractive as commercial products to educational publishers. We recommend that funds should be allocated to subsidise the production of curriculum materials for particular small groups of children whose special needs are not commonly met by the normal process of curriculum development. 11.70 In England and Wales the Schools Council has taken useful initiatives in curriculum developments for special groups, many of which are mentioned in the previous section. However, the funds allocated to projects have not always allowed for the dissemination of the outcomes and the development of training for teachers in new approaches once the project is complete. Although the implementation of new developments is necessarily a matter of collaboration between the Council and the local education authorities and training agencies, we think that all projects should be funded to allow members of their staff to work for 6-12 months after completion with teachers in resource centres to ensure that new methods and materials are as widely known as possible. In Chapter 8 we discussed the future of some special schools as resource centres and we see the dissemination of curriculum developments as one of their important functions. There are, therefore, in our view two immediate needs: the setting up of further projects concerned with the curriculum for particular small groups and the dissemination of current special education projects to schools. We recommend that a special section of the Schools Council should be formed and given separate resources to carry out these tasks. We return to this in Chapter 18 where we also propose the establishment of a Special Education Research Group, with which the special section of the Schools Council would need to have close links. We are pleased to note that the Consultative Committee on the Curriculum in Scotland has adopted as one of its priorities consideration of the curricular needs of pupils requiring special education. We hope that arrangements similar to those recommended in connection with the Schools Council will be introduced in Scotland and that in the interests of economy and shared knowledge they will be coordinated so far as possible with those in England and Wales.
CONCLUSION 11.71 However effective the central initiatives proposed in this chapter are, the quality of special education will ultimately depend on the head teachers and teachers concerned. Their commitment to curriculum development is crucial if special education is to be of high quality. It is evident from our enquiries that the skills and knowledge required to develop the curriculum in special education are thinly spread. Accordingly we turn in the next chapter to the provision of opportunities through in-service training for the acquisition of such skills and in Chapter 13 to the organisation of advice and support for all teachers.
References (1) Education in schools: a consultative document Cmnd 6869 (HMSO 1977). (2) DES Circular 2/75, Welsh Office Circular 21/75, The discovery of children requiring special education and the assessment of their needs (17 March 1975). (3) The education of the visually handicapped Report of the Committee of Enquiry appointed by the Secretary of State for Education and Science in October, 1968 (HMSO 1972). (4) The education of deaf children: the possible place of finger spelling and signing (HMSO 1968). (5) The secondary education of physically handicapped children in Scotland Report of the Committee appointed by the Secretary of State for Scotland (HMSO 1975). (6) Holdsworth L and Whitmore K 'A study of children with epilepsy attending ordinary schools. I: Their seizure patterns, progress and behaviour in school', Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 16 (1974), 746-58. Hackney AC and Taylor DC, Education and the epileptic child: A comparison of psychiatric and epileptic patients (Research project based at the Park Hospital for Children 1975). (7) Children with specific reading difficulties Report of the Advisory Committee on Handicapped Children (HMSO 1972). (8) Truancy and indiscipline in schools in Scotland Report of a Committee of Inquiry appointed by the Secretary of State for Scotland (HMSO 1977). (9) The education of maladjusted children Department of Education and Science Education Pamphlet No 47 (HMSO 1965). (10) Rutter M and Bartak L, 'Special educational treatment of autistic children: A comparative study - II. Follow-up findings and implications for services', Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 14 (1973), 241-70. 
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