Literature - Looking into Learning Difficulties, Disabilities and SEN

Linking Learning Difficulties, Disabilities and SEN into my Inquiry

 

As I have been teaching for a while I have come across a lot of children who have their own difficulties in certain areas. For my inquiry I want to help all of my students and to help them to learn by offering their strengths of learning as well as work on their weaknesses.

Within my inquiry I want to learn about SEN and Learning difficulties however I know that I cannot look at all of them as I need to research heavily into each one individually. I have made up my mind to look into two difficulties which I deal with a lot but do not know that much about, these are;

Dyspraxia and Cerebral Palsy.

The idea for me to look into these two learning difficulties is because I want to learn about their behaviour, their particular problems and to find strategies for dealing with those difficulties.

 

 

Definition of special educational needs (SEN) and Ethics

The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (SEN Code) (DfES, 2001) was introduced to demonstrate the rights and duties introduced by the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) 2001. This code sets out a model of intervention for children with SEN within early education settings and in school setting and provides a toolkit to help practitioners with its implementation.

The law states that if a child has a significantly grater difficulty than most children their age with their schoolwork, communication or behaviour, they have a learning difficulty. According to Directgov (2009) the term SEN refers to 'children who have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn or access education than most children of the same age.' (J.Thompson, 2010) 

History of disability and integration (1971 - 1989)



Taken from the book by J.Thompson, 2010

It has been an interesting read about how children/adults were affected in the past and to see how over the years how much we have integrated those who have difficulties in specific areas.
I then looked into the Warnock Report (1978) and how after this report was made the term special educational needs was introduced into UK legislation.
The Warnock report had two categories for SEN children;
- Children who had difficulties at school whose needs could be helped within a mainstream school.
- Children who's difficulties where more complex that required a specialised educational environment/school as their difficulties could not be met within mainstream.
This was a big turning point for children with SEN as they were introduced into mainstream rather than being segregated, this then gave teachers a 'responsibility in the identification and assessment of children who they suspected may have special educational needs.'(J.Thompson, 2010)

Below is the Social model of disability and inclusion;


Taken from the book by J.Thompson, 2010

The impact of the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda has been significant, as it advocates a multi-agency approach to ensuring that the needs of children with SEN are met. The focus of ECM is to ensure inclusive lifelong learning opportunities for all children, ensuring that every aspect of school life is taken into consideration. (J.Thompson, 2010)

Here I want to cater for every child within my inquiry however I know I need to research just two SEN. However in the furture I want to do more research into other SEN so I can cater for most people who want to learn dance. I need to take into consideration the Warnock Report as I may not be able to cater for those with complex special educational needs and they may require specialised help

 

General Learning Disabilities

The model of learning disabilities that is currently most widely used evolved during the 1960s. Four stages of information processing used in learning are identified and difficulties experienced by learners are categorised accordingly. (D. Fulton 2014)

The four stages that are used within a learning environment that some children with learning difficulties/disabilities/SEN may struggle to face;

1). Input

Some may struggle to take in and process information that has been given to them.

Input is usually received through all of our senses, but we most commonly use our vision and hearing to take most information in. The difficulty with vision may be that the perception of an image/shape/orientation can be distorted or difficult to identify. The problem with auditory may mean that the student has not heard what has been accurately, as certain letters/sounds may not be identified altering words.

2). Integration

Some may find it difficult to understand the way information is interpreted or placed into a sequence which is linked with previous learning.

Integration is usually difficult for students with learning difficulties as they can not remember the sequence/order of information.

3). Memory

Students may find it difficult to recall on information which they had learnt in the past.

Students can have a difficulty with memory with long-term or short-term. Most commonly it is short-term memory so with more repetitions the student should start to remember more each time.

4). Output

There may be a difficulty showing the actions which could be verbal, gestural or a movement from an input which has been stored.

The difficulties of output is the frustration of not being able to recall information to generate a response.

 

Here I already can see how some of these effect dyspraxia and cerebral palsy.

Dyspraxia

The name dyspraxia offers a description in itself, as 'dys' means 'faulty' and 'praxis' means 'the ability to use the body as a skilled tool'. (J.Thompson 2010)

Dyspraxia usually runs within families and is more likely to be seen within males rather than females. It is thought that dyspraxia affects 10% of the population. As I said before all children are unique and some children may show signs of dyspraxia which can be very mild or severe depending on where they are and what they are doing. People who are affected by dyspraxia understand their difficulties and develop their own strategies to dealing with their weaknesses.
People with dyspraxia usually develop the skills of walking, running, writing and talking later than others but with the correct help and support they will be able to accomplish these skills. Dyspraxia may not be recognised very quick as the children's condition is not visible but only apparent when the teacher/parent recognises it. As a teacher if I have a student that has dyspraxia I need to make a mental note to always ensure that child may be struggling and I need to offer the correct support for that specific child.

Research in Dyspraxia

Dyspraxia has been discussed by many people through literature for the past 100 years however there doesn't seem to be an agreement on the definition of this disorder.

The Dyspraxi Foundation (2009) suggests that developmental dyspraxia is An impairment or immaturity of the organisation of movement. It is an immaturity in the way that the brain processes information, which results in messages not being properly or fully transmitted. Dyspraxia affects the planning of what to do and how to do it. It is associated with problems of perception, language and thought. (J.Thompson, 2010)

 However a researcher Dawdy (1981, cited in Ripley et al., 1997, p1) described dyspraxia as something different. I believe that this debate on what dyspraxia is as a whole will always be ever changing and there will always be a disagreement on what is said.

Characteristics of dyspraxia

 

Photo taken from the book by J.Thompson 2010

 

Here within the characteristics of noticing dyspraxia and here they struggle I instantly can see the difficulty they may have when learning dance or when they are put into a dance studio environment.
Here the main issues for my teaching dance to people with dyspraxia will be;
- co-ordination
- overbalancing when changing direction
- may change the movement to the opposite hand/foot, this will then confuse them.
- poor concentration skills
-poor listening skills
- may get annoyed and angry if they cannot get anything due to lack of coordination and inability of controlling movements.
- difficulty making friends.

I need to make sure that when looking into my inquiry that I take into consideration the learning styles I could do or certain exercises to enhance co-ordination and the control of movements. This will challenge the students but motivation and praise will be needed and an extra assistant may be needed to give a one to one support.

Cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy covers a number of disorders affecting muscles, movement and mobility. This is effected by part of the brain which is damaged or has failed to develop properly resulting to a lack or no movement. There is no definite cause for cerebral palsy but it is thought that a virus, drug, poor nutrition or premature birth may have an effect on cerebral palsy as well as low birth weight, lack of oxygen around the time of birth, or injury to the brain before, during or just after birth.

There are approximately 1,800 babies diagnosed with cerebral palsy in Britain each year. (D.Fulton, 2014)

This struck me as I didn't realise how many diagnosis's were made for cerebral palsy every year in Britain.

Research in Cerebral palsy

When researching I realised that there was no cure for cerebral palsy however physiotherapy and other therapies helps people with the condition become more independent.

Further into my research I discovered there are three main types of Cerebral palsy but most people will have a mixture of these types;
Spastic Cerebral palsy
Dyskinetic cerebral palsy
Ataxic cerebral palsy

I need to look further into each of these three main types to fully understand the difference between each one looking at the difficulties each on has.  I have found a great website which I can refer to for this; More information on Cerebral palsy.

Characteristics of Cerebral palsy

Here I have looked at each characteristic and realised which ones will be difficult to overcome within a dance environment.
- limited or uncontrolled movement
- poor mobility
- muscle weakness/stiffness
- muscle spasm or floppiness
- problems with speech
- hearing difficulties
- visual difficulties
- difficulties chewing and swallowing food
- a tendency towards epilepsy

Already working with a child with cerebral palsy I have already learnt that I needed to include them within each class. This can be difficult if you are working on a specific move which is the area that has limited/no movement for the student with cerebral palsy as you need to keep mindful that they may feel left out so incorporating an arm movement or leg movement for them to work on at the same time keeps their mind active.

I currently have had training in moving and handling for this specific student with cerebral palsy and have used a variety of ways to keep them involved in the dance class.

Conclusion

Looking into the history of SEN and learning difficulties as well as the specific difficulties I want to look into further has really opened my eyes to the day to day difficulties they may face and how I as a teacher need to acknowledge this and make dancing a place and environment they feel valued like everyone else where they are treated like every other student that is present at my dance school.

Places which specialise in SEN for those who need extra help.

I have done some research into places near me that cater for SEN dance classes where I could point people in there direction if I cannot offer the specialisation that their child may need but I can also learn from them and look into what they do. Tiger Feet