Evolving Perspectives: Attitudes towards SEN Children in UK

Attitudes to children with special educational needs have changed significantly in the UK over the last century. The Underwood Report (1995) continued to refer to children with special educational needs as maladjusted. The report states that the children are involved in daycare and can only attend independent schools which are recognized by the local education authority. The Report provides an initial indication of support for children with special needs, such as clarifying the support they should receive when returning to school and strengthening the training of health inspectors so that they can respond promptly to the difficulties children with special needs encounter in learning (Underwood Report, 1955).

More than 20 years later, the Warnock Report (1978) opened a new chapter for children with special educational needs. The report makes it clear that the right to education for children with special needs means that all children have the same educational goals and that individual children will need different support. At the same time, the Warnock report introduced the concept of special educational needs, which challenged the prevailing assumption that children were classified as disabled and non-disabled (Simon, 1986). The Report argued that children with disabilities should not be treated by the education system as children in need of treatment, but as students with a right to mainstream education (Warnock Report, 1978). The emergence of this report is significant for the development of special education needs. After this report, the UK began to formally and systematically introduce the assessment of children with special educational needs to determine whether these children with difficulties in their educational process have special educational support needs and what means should be used to meet these needs (Armstrong, 2007).

Support for children with special educational needs is detailed and specific in the report, including support and education programs for children under the age of five. And more emphasis is placed on the involvement of parents, especially for children in nurseries, which emphasizes that parents should provide effective support and help for children, and unite with nurseries to cultivate children's attitudes so that they can better adapt to their later education (Warnock Report, 1978). It can be said that both children with special educational needs and their parents have received more attention and recognition, and schools are more sensitive to children with special educational needs, and their assessment and support are more professional (Lindsay, Wedell and Dockrell, 2020).

If Amelia’s nursery, as discussed above, was a pioneer in the practice of special educational needs, then after the publication of the Warnock report, the education system's support for those children with special educational needs has been better developed and more widely used, and the inclusion of children with special educational needs in the mainstream education system is no longer the only case.

Reference list

Armstrong, F. (2007). Disability, Education and Social Change in England since 1960. History of Education, 36(4-5), pp.551–568. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/00467600701496849.

Lindsay, G., Wedell, K. and Dockrell, J. (2020). Warnock 40 Years on: The Development of Special Educational Needs Since the Warnock Report and Implications for the Future. Frontiers in Education, [online] 4(164). doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2019.00164.

Simon, B. (1986). The 1944 Education Act: A Conservative measure? History of Education, 15(1), pp.31–43. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/0046760860150104.

Warnock Report (1978). Warnock Report. [online] Available at: http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/warnock/warnock1978.html.

www.educationengland.org.uk. (1955). Underwood Report. [online] Available at: http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/underwood/underwood1955.html.

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