Aspies For Freedom

Class disruption rises as autistic pupils brought in

KEVIN SCHOFIELD
EDUCATION CORRESPONDENT
The Scotsman

THE increasing number of autistic children in mainstream education is leading to rising classroom indiscipline, a new report has found.

Academics at Glasgow University were commissioned by the Scottish Executive to assess the implementation of its mainstreaming policy.


While they found that the policy was not having a negative effect on pupil attainment, they did highlight other areas where improvements could be made.

The report revealed that nearly a third of local authorities are having difficulty including children with special needs in mainstream secondary schools.

It also found that fewer than half of Scotland's councils had carried out the necessary preparatory work in order to implement the policy effectively.

It also uncovered evidence that linked the increasing number of children with autistic spectrum disorder in mainstream education with rising levels of indiscipline.

The report said: "Children on the autistic spectrum may exhibit behaviour that is incongruous and challenging, and which severely disrupts teaching and learning.

"It is possible that the perceived rise in the incidence of challenging behaviour in schools, and indeed in the incidence of social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, is related to the reported increase in the number of children on the autistic spectrum."

One council official told researchers that the worst part of the mainstreaming policy was the "insufficient recognition of the challenge facing schools in dealing with behavioural issues".

In Dundee, those taking part in the survey said the teaching workforce was "fast becoming demoralised".

"We are also seeing a backlash from the parents of other children who do not want their children's education to be disrupted," the report said.

A report last month on school discipline by the General Teaching Council for Scotland said that moving children with special needs to mainstream schools had been a major factor in rising levels of indiscipline.

Teachers said they were not given enough support to deal with pupils with behavioural difficulties, and warned that some of the indiscipline displayed by children with special needs affected the learning of their classmates.

Bill Welsh, the chairman of Action Against Autism, yesterday called on ministers to carry out more research into the treatment of autism, rather than encouraging parents to send autistic children to mainstream schools.

He said: "With over 3,400 children in pre-school and primary school in Scotland with the diagnosis of autism, the problem of disruption is only going to get worse until the Scottish Executive starts seriously investigating the causes and the treatments of autistic spectrum disorder. Bio-medical treatments for autism now exist and this should be being implemented immediately to assist these unfortunate children."

Yesterday's report also said that the move towards mainstreaming of children with special needs was supported by local authorities, and there was "some evidence" that it had led to closer links between special and mainstream schools.

But many councils were not carrying out an audit of the numbers and specific needs of children moving from special to mainstream schools.

Robert Brown, the deputy education minister, said the report showed the Executive had "got the balance right" between mainstream and special needs education provision.

"Every child deserves an education that meets their needs, allows them to fulfil their potential and helps them achieve their goals in life," he said.

"Many pupils with additional support needs benefit from being taught in mainstream schools, and mainstreaming helps all pupils understand that everyone has different needs."

But Fiona Hyslop, the SNP education spokeswoman, said the report "points to failings in the system".

She added: "It is time for the Executive to admit that there have been problems in the roll-out of mainstreaming and address them so that this important policy can be made to work properly.

"Children must not lose out as a result of ministers' steadfast refusal to acknowledge that there are problems."

Source: http://news.scotsman.com/education.cfm?id=63402006

These problems happen around the country when autistic children are pushed into mainstream on a very tight budget and expected to fit into a mould.

One size does not fit all :evil:

The article doesn't manage to say that this forced "mainstreaming" is a direct result of government spending cuts on SEN, and a result of New Labour's white paper Valuing People: A New Strategy for Learning Disability for the 21st Century published on 20 March 2001.

This document withdrew "learning disability" status from people with ASD who have an IQ over 70.

It seems clear from the article that Spectrum children dumped in mainstream schools are set to become objects of resentment who will be made scapegoats by some for the failure of the educational system.

Ditto again.

poor old Peter

oh not at all Peter....  I just meant what a horrid time you had at school, and how dreadful things must have been for you.

what gets me is the confusion between the words inclusion and mainstreaming within schools, some people will insist that to have the first one MUST have the second, or that they mean the same thing, and they dont, at all...

My lad's special school isnt perfect, i have a good number of issues with the school!-  but he is very much a part of that school community. my fear would be that in mainstream, he would be so different and have his work so very differentiated and seperate to the other children's that he wouldnt be 'included'... he would be mainstreamed, but he wouldnt be a part of that school community in the way he is now. Plus he wouldn't have autistic peers which would only add to the isolation.

Name one...


More to the point though, do autistic kids really disrupt lessons? - Our lessons were disrupted often, and I always ended up the scapegoat because my bodylanguage didn't make me look innocent, or I would be the target of an NT's kids dicking about, and thus become the disruption due to NT actions, not because my aspieness was itself disruptive.

"It's not our fault our schools are badly behaved, it's those damn special needs kids" is the underlying tone.

Bio-medical treatments for autism now exist and this should be being implemented immediately to assist these unfortunate children


AKA drug up the poor unfortunates.

On the bright side, Alison, when the autistic children grow to be 17 or so and start taking their frustration out on everyone around them, teacher included, you get to say "told you so". :lol:

Who cares if the bullies are "scarred" because somebody tells them their behaviour is unacceptable. What about their victims? I don't think bullies' behaviour is "sad" - it is "bad" and that's that.

In the Stephen King book "Carrie" the girl who was bullied took a frightful revenge in the end. I wouldn't have wanted that but would have been happy to transport some of the bullies a few thousand kilometres away from me.

To transport them just a few feet would have made me happy - six, straight down.
Alison

Generally speaking, you just have to cut down one and the others fall back into line. I have a few teachers who, should I ever meet them again, will get that with interest owed.

The problems have more to do with class sizes and what is expected from one teacher.  If the student to teacher ratio was smalled than some problems could be prevented or eliminated.  

Also how the classroom is set up and what methods are used for teaching.  Some children just do not learn well with a verbal method of teaching, sitting in a desk listening to someone talking.  I always found that I learned much better from reading from a book or having someone show me step by step processes for math than listening to someone talk about a subject lecture style.  Unfortunatley, lecture style is often the easier with a large number of students.  

Mainstreaming students with special needs into regular classrooms can be beneficial if certain criteria are met such as having teaching assistants available when required, having the teacher informed about how to deal with certain issues and having the students themselves act more inclusive toward students who are diverse.