Essay
special educational needs case study
- Institution
- Anglia Ruskin University (ARU)
comparing the treatment of a child with special educational needs through historic and modern perspectives
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What has changed? For one fictional child with a particular SEN, describe the educationalsupport available to them in 1960, and the support they would receive today, discussing
what has changed and why.
A special educational need (SEN) as defined in the SEN code of practice (2001) is when a child has a
specific learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. Children
have a learning difficulty if they; have a significantly greater difficulty in development or learning
compared to their peers, or have a disability preventing them from taking advantage of educational
facilities available for children of the same age. In the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) a person is
described as having a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment which has a
considerable and long-term adverse effect on their ability to achieve every-day normal activities
(DfES 2001). In this essay I will be outlining the early identification of my chosen SEN, glue ear, and
provision available for children diagnosed with it.
I decided to write about this condition in particular as my brother was diagnosed with glue ear at age
4 and before we knew he had it, he was considered as below average in school and a
stubborn/difficult child and put into special classes. After he was diagnosed and had medical
treatment to help with his hearing impairment he was able to join in and function in the mainstream
class and is now on the gifted and talented list. I believe there is more support available now for
diagnosing children than there was in the past and because of this more SEN children are able to get
better educations in mainstream classes. In the essay I will also be describing the educational
support which would have been available to a Kane, age 5, in 1960 and the support he would receive
today, discussing what has changed and why. I will also debate the appropriate strategies and
interventions used in education and justify their use to meet the child’s special educational needs.
Glue ear is a common condition mainly found in children under the age of 8 where the middle ear
becomes filled with glue like fluid similar to ear wax. The NHS estimates that 1/5 children under the
age of 5 are affected by glue ear and 4/5 children will have suffered from it at least once by the age
of 10 (NHS 2013). As the liquid builds up within a child’s ear, it blocks the airways needed for good
hearing. Glue ear is known to clear up on its own within a few weeks, but if the problem persists for
longer than 3 months then medical intervention is required to prevent long term hearing problems.
The medical term for glue ear is ‘otitis media (with or without effusion)’ which means it can either be
seen in children (leakage of ear liquid), or cannot be seen - making it harder to identify.
If a child has glue ear they may experience temporary deafness, which can affect or change their
behaviour and disturb their educational progress. Changes in behaviour could include; becoming
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, tired or seeming frustrated, lacking in concentration, preferring to play alone, or not responding
when being talked to (NDCS 2011). In an educational setting a teacher may assume a child is being
stubborn, and may label the child as ‘difficult’ when in reality the child is becoming frustrated and
being misunderstood because they cannot hear properly. Early diagnosis of glue ear is extremely
important as it can be linked to ‘delayed learning’ in children, especially under the age of 3,
specifically affecting speech and language development. The child will be able to achieve the same
milestones in roughly the same order as their peers, but at a slower rate due to the pressure glue ear
puts on their hearing (Peer 2012). The longer glue ear goes unnoticed, the higher the risk of the
child’s speech and language development becoming significantly delayed (NDCS 2011) especially if
the child does not start receiving extra support as soon as possible.
Diagnosing children with SEN is important from a young age as they may need extra educational
support in order to achieve the same milestones as their peers. A child with a hearing impairment
may have the same intellectual intelligence as others in their class, but because they cannot
communicate in the same way that everyone else is able to, they are at a disadvantage. Early
diagnosing of a hearing impairment allows parents and teachers to put extra provision in place for
the child, however long term hearing impairments that go unnoticed may hinder a child’s speech
and language development. For example Bruner (1978) states language is important in developing a
complex cognition as it increases children’s ability to deal with abstract concepts. The use of
language aids development of concepts and eliminates the limitations of the idea of ‘here and now’
(McLeod 2008). This means that a child going through the early developmental stages of their
cognition could be adversely hindered by hearing loss if their communication process is not
accommodated in another way.
In addition to this, studies have shown that children that do have hearing impairments can catch up
to their peers as soon as they start receiving additional support (NDCS 2011). The sooner a hearing
impairment like glue ear is detected, the faster provision will be put into place and the child will be
able to regain their educational status. This contradicts Piaget’s stages of development (1956) as he
stated children must have successfully passed the last stage of development before being able to
move onto the next. His concept would suggest that as Kane has glue ear and has dropped behind
his peers with learning, he would not be able to move on to the next year without successfully
retaking the last. In contrast to this Bruner’s (1978) theory of continuous learning would suggest that
Kane is capable of regaining educational achievement and pick up where he left of once he has the
opportunity to equal access of education (McLeod 2008). For example he would not have to retake
the learning he fell behind with, but his cognition would be able to accommodate for the new
information being learned as soon as his glue ear is diagnosed and necessary support is given.
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