The Telegraph reported this week on recent data published by the Department of Education about children with Special Educational Needs (SEN). You can read the article in full here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9395373/Boys-twice-as-likely-to-be-diagnosed-with-special-needs.html

The Department of Education’s data demonstrated that boys are twice as likely to receive a diagnosis of special needs than girls. This equates to almost one in four boys receiving a diagnosis of learning impairments, behaviour problems or communication difficulties.

The Telegraph reports that this data has reawakened concerns that more and more children are receiving a label of special needs to cover for maladaptive behaviours or poor exam scores: “According to today’s figures, some 23.8 per cent of boys – 510,985 – were diagnosed with some form of special needs in the current academic year. This was slightly down on the 24.8 per cent labelled 12 months earlier.

But it was considerably up on instances of special needs found among girls. Figures show that just 13 per cent – 268,675 – had particular problems affecting their ability to play a full part in school life.”

Jean Gross, Communication Champion and former Government adviser on speech, language and communication needs, spoke earlier this year about such concerns. She insisted that problems were often “used as an explanation for failure” at school, particularly among boys.
She said: “One third of nine and 10-year-old boys have special educational needs. It’s at that age that schools start to think they are not going to get a [pass] on their SATs, so they get labelled as having special needs.

“This is not done out of malice – schools are just trying to explain themselves. It is a real incentive to do this when schools don’t hit their floor target.”

The Department of Education has launched a green paper attempting to reform the SEN bureaucratic process for parents and carers, ensuring that education and health authorities work together to provide the necessary support.

If you think that your child may benefit from speech and language therapy or associated therapies, Integrated Treatment Services could be of help. Contact us here: https://integratedtreatmentservices.co.uk/contact-us/enquiry

Sarah Bennington, July 2012

Written on behalf of Integrated Treatment Services. Integrated Treatment Service is a private Speech and Language Therapy service based in Leicestershire, East Midlands and Southern England. It specialises in providing highly-skilled Speech and Language Therapists, but also associates with other therapeutic professionals, including Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Psychologists and Arts Psychotherapists.


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