Search

Vision problems can lead to negative developmental outcomes. Children with Williams syndrome and Down syndrome are at higher risk of vision problems, and these are less likely to be detected due to diagnostic overshadowing and difficulty accessing eye-care. Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans are statutory documents, introduced by the Children and Families Act 2014 in England, with the intention of integrating provision across these domains. Vision issues should be reported in these plans, and recommendations made about appropriate adjustments for them. We analysed the EHC plans from 53 children with Down or Williams syndrome. Our results showed significant underreporting, especially for children with Williams syndrome, and little explanation of what adjustments should be made. We also report pockets of good practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The new special educational needs and disability legislation in England has introduced Education Health and Care plans as statutory documents for children with special educational needs, and has extended provision beyond compulsory education, placing transition in a compelling position. This policy recognises the need to include the views, wishes and aspirations of children and young people in the development of provision to cater for their needs. For young people with autism spectrum disorders and their families, transition to post-16 education and employment could be challenging. This study aimed to explore how voices of young people with autism spectrum disorders are captured in their Education Health and Care plans. Methods: These views were collected from the Education Health and Care plans of 12 young people with autism spectrum disorders. These plans were analysed inductively and deductively through content analysis, using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: Children and Youth Version as a coding framework. Results: Discrepancies were found between plans concerning the ways in which the voices of young people with ASD were elicited. A total of 189 functioning codes were identified, with a prevalence of activities and participation codes to reflect their views, followed by body functions and lastly environmental factors. Conclusion: These disparities are discussed in light of the biopsychosocial model of functioning and health, and the new English policy. Implications for adopting the International Classification of Functioning framework to give voice to young people with autism spectrum disorders are also discussed. Young people with autism spectrum disorders face many challenges in their transition to post-16 education and employment. Engaging young people with autism spectrum disorders in matters that affect their own lives contribute to the development of provision that is aligned with their wishes and aspirations. Practitioners collaborating in the development of Education Health and Care plans should ensure that young people are effectively involved in the development of their own plans. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, Children and Youth Version provides a systematic framework and language for coding and recording data from different sources with which to capture young people's views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A crucial issue in special educational needs and disability policy and provision is the documentation of children's functioning, for which many countries have a statutory document. In England this is the education health and care plan. Recent research challenges the quality of these plans. Purpose: To provide evidence on the usefulness of the international classification of functioning, disability and health as a system with potential to support the development of higher quality plans in England. Methods: Twenty-five professionals participated in a one-day training session on the international classification of functioning disability and health, with a focus on designing higher quality SMART targets to be included in children's plans. Results: Overall, participants regarded the system as useful. Comparison of targets written before and after the training show improvements in relevance, specificity and on the extent to which they were action-oriented and measurable. Conclusions: Results are discussed in light of international lessons learned around the potential of the international classification of functioning disability and health to support policy change. A "no policy is an island" approach is proposed, suggesting local policy-makers should open horizons beyond geographical boundaries in evidence-based decision-making for supporting children with disabilities. The ICF can be regarded as a useful framework for supporting professionals developing targets for children with Education Health and Care (EHC) plans in England. For developing SMART targets with the ICF, professionals can use the taxonomy to look for detailed aspects of functioning, relevant to a certain developmental stage. Using the ICF can support in making more measurable targets in EHC plans if the universal qualifier scale is applied when describing detailed aspects of functioning. Professionals trained on the ICF recognise its usefulness for writing EHC targets. More in-depth training is recommended for supporting the development of more holistic biopsychosocial EHC plans in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the views and experiences of 12 young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in transition to post‐16 education and employment, in light of the changes introduced by the new special educational needs and disability (SEND) legislation in England. The extension of provision until the age of 25, and the introduction of person‐centred education, health and care (EHC) plans, have given a significant place to the views of young people with SEND and their families. The views, wishes and aspirations of young people must be captured in the newly developed plans, reflecting the statutory requirement for local authorities to systematically record these in a biopsychosocial way, focusing on participation and well‐being. Twelve semi‐structured interviews were conducted with young people with ASD attending specialist settings or receiving specialist support under the new EHC plans. These were analysed inductively, through thematic analysis. The findings suggest that at the time of transition, young people with ASD want to become increasingly more independent, present ambivalent feelings about their future and acknowledge the relevance of support systems in their lives. Implications for practice and future research are discussed, in light of the new English policy context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children with specific language impairment (SLI) are at risk of low self-esteem during their school years. However, there is a lack of evidence of the self-esteem of young people with a history of SLI during adolescence, as they transfer from compulsory schooling to post-compulsory education, employment or training. Aims: To examine the self-esteem of young people with a history of SLI at the transition from compulsory education (16 years) to the first year of post-compulsory education, employment and training (17 years) in England. Methods & Procedures: A total of 54 young people identified as having SLI at 8 years were followed up at 16 and at 17 years. The young people completed two measures of self-esteem: the Self-perception Profile for Adolescents (16 years) and the Self-perception Profile for College Students (17 years). Assessments of language, literacy and non-verbal ability were also conducted. Outcomes & Results: Perceptions of scholastic competence were significantly lower than the norm at 16 years; the female students also had lower self-esteem in the social and physical appearance domains and global self-worth. However, at 17 years there were no significant differences from the norm for these self-esteem domains. There was evidence of stability within self-esteem domains over this period but also an improvement in self-perceptions of scholastic and job competence, physical appearance and athletic competence, and also global self-worth, but not the three social domains. Non-verbal cognitive ability was not correlated with any measures of self-esteem, at 16 or 17 years. Language and literacy ability, especially spelling, were correlated with scholastic and job competence at 16 years but only spelling correlated at 17 years. Conclusions & Implications: This study has provided evidence for improvements in self-esteem for young people with SLI after they leave school and enter the world of non-compulsory education (typically at a college), employment and training. The study has also indicated the importance of addressing self-esteem as a multi-dimensional construct and the consequent necessity to use instruments that assess different domains of self-esteem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the Children and Families Act 2014 was introduced in England to regulate provision for children with disabilities. According to this policy, statements of special educational needs were replaced with education, health and care plans, which should include high-quality, holistic and participation-focused outcomes to regulate provision; this change aligns with international recommendations regarding provision for children with disabilities. This study aimed to evaluate the outcomes defined for children with education, health and care plans in England. 236 Education Health and Care plans were included in the analysis, providing 2813 outcomes to be examined, which came from 11 local authorities and 42 schools and belong to 69 girls and 167 boys from 4 to 21 years of age. The outcomes were independently rated by two experienced researchers using a Goal Functionality Scale. Inter-rater agreement was calculated for 10% of the outcomes. Most outcomes were considered not to be functional or high-quality; differences in quality were found between local authorities, types of school, type of outcome, and the children's main need. There are important quality concerns regarding the outcomes that have been designed for children with disabilities in England, which should be addressed through standardised training and guidelines on procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is widely accepted that early childhood intervention for children with disabilities should address the assessment-intervention cycle holistically. Documenting both assessment and intervention is important to support provision effectively. In England, the official document that describes needs and provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities is the Education Health and Care plan. This document requires inter-professional collaboration and a focus on children's holistic participation, rather than diagnosis.Aim: To examine the consistency between provision, outcomes and needs of young children with disabilities in England, as described in their Education Health and Care plans.Methods: The plans of 68 young children were examined and the relationships between documented needs, outcomes and provision actions analysed.Results: provision is more related to children's individual needs, than to their diagnoses, when needs are described in sufficient detail; interdisciplinarity leads to higher quality documentation of provision and outcomes. However, more needs to be done to support professionals in developing higher quality needs descriptions and interdisciplinary collaborations.Implications: Training and interdisciplinarity with a common language between professionals have the potential to improve currently observed challenges regarding consistency between provision, needs and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Portraying the voices of children with complex genetic neurodevelopmental disorders about their health, care and education needs in their statutory documents is a challenging task. This study examined the ways by which the perspectives of children diagnosed with Down Syndrome (DS) and Williams Syndrome (WS) are portrayed in their statutory documents, namely the Education Health and Care plans, in England. Using the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health for Children and Youth, we analysed the content of Section A of the Education Health and Care plans of 52 children and young people with WS and DS, between 5 and 26 years of age. A minority of statutory documents (7.7 %) explicitly reported the children's voices, and many failed to document how the children's voices were accessed. Only a few specific or evidence-based tools to access their voices were reported. Most statutory documents portrayed parental rather than children's voices concerning aspects of their health, care, and education. This study highlights the need to establish the use of evidence-based tools for ascertaining the voices of children with complex neurodevelopmental disorders and including them in decision making about their health, care and education needs., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Professionals play a key role in supporting children with special educational needs in schools. However, the views of those working with neurodevelopmental disorders are less known., Aims: This study examined the views of professionals (including teachers, teaching assistants, educational psychologists, speech and language therapists, physio and occupational therapists etc.) working with children with Williams Syndrome (WS), Down Syndrome (DS) or with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in terms of how informed professionals are about the disorder and their views about the type of support these children need to be receiving., Methods and Procedures: Professionals working with 77 children with ASD, 26 with DS and 38 with WS completed an online questionnaire., Outcomes and Results: Professionals in all three groups highlighted relevant areas of difficulty for these children, but they did not recognise some of the less phenotypical difficulties that children with a specific disorder may experience. In addition, there was a disconnect between the difficulties identified by the professionals and the type of specialist support that may be necessary., Conclusions and Implications: Although professionals have a lot of knowledge about the specific neurodevelopmental disorders, further evidence-based training would allow more effective support for children with neurodevelopmental disorders in the classroom but also equip professionals better and raise their confidence in meeting these children's needs., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Giving young people more and better opportunities to have their voices heard is a key feature of current educational policy and research internationally and in the UK., Aims: To examine the views of young people with a history of specific language impairment (SLI) as they entered post-16 education., Methods & Procedures: A total of 54 students identified as having SLI at 8 years of age were followed up through primary and secondary school to post-16 destinations. Most had been educated in mainstream schools. The young people were interviewed individually in relation to their perceptions of their special educational needs, their views on service provision, the role of family and friends as support systems, and their aspirations and barriers to future education at the early stages of post-16 education, training and work., Outcomes & Results: The young people were able to offer accurate accounts of their history of special educational needs and to explore issues related to their development. Most young people were aware of the specific difficulties they experienced and had positive views about the support offered to them during their schooling. All the young people had at least one person in their family or friendship circle to whom they could talk about their joys and concerns, and friendships were an important and positive element in their lives. Additionally, most had a positive view of their post-16 courses, with comparable numbers hoping to undertake further study or training, or to go into work. They also had optimistic hopes for their futures five years ahead., Conclusions: The current study has demonstrated that young people with a history of SLI have an awareness of their difficulties and of the impact that these needs have on different aspects of their lives. They were also able to provide valuable views of service provision, both in terms of evaluating the support they received and suggesting ways of improving it. Ascertaining the views of younger children with SLI and including them in decision-making about their education and lives should be an important aspect of the role of those professionals working with this group of children. The study supports the importance of gaining the views of young people with SLI not only as a matter of rights, but also for the practical benefits that can ensue.