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Labelling Children

(239 Posts)
Lisalou Thu 12-Jan-17 05:47:40

I teach and I find increasing numbers of children in my classes who have been labelled with one learning difficulty or another. When I first started in education, it was rare to have a child in your class who had ADHD, Aspergers, ASD or any one of a ream of problems.
I wonder if anyone else feels that this appears to be a way of justifying a lazy child or one who needs to work hard to get results (which back in the day would have been considered normal) so that there is no guilt in not being at the top of the class? I see a lot of these children as normal people, with different attitudes to life, some of them more active than others, but not with any particular problem. Don't get me wrong, we do see some children with real difficulties and with the current trend, we have a lot more resources to help them, but so many who IMO opinion are just fine. Many of these may seem a bit different, but aren't we all?
Sorry if this comes across as a rant, I just had one child diagnosed with late development of the left brain and I feel frustrated. The boy started the school year doing zilch and getting bad marks, with a lot of help and support, as well as a strict approach to homework and study, he has come a long way. I can see him now slipping back as he is justified. Poor boy, that explains his laziness, cocky attitude and the downright lying about homework.

Anya Sun 15-Jan-17 18:15:14

One of them being the GS who is obviously 'lazy' and badly parented according to the OP.

Izabella Sun 15-Jan-17 18:50:53

Someone earlier in the thread asked if labelling was on the increase or if there is an increase in differently abled children. More children are appearing with difficulties due to both improved diagnosis and the survival of increasingly premature babies. I have no experience of teaching in schools but came across many infants of concern in pre-school years when I assessed them. My OH is clearly on the AS functioning well as an advanced programmer and mathematician. The rest of his family were horrified at my 'label' for him "as you have only known him 10 years" but on sitting down to draw a family genogram we immediately identified several others. Interestingly it has improved the relation ship my OH's siblings have with him. They are more patient and understanding now and go out of their way to support him in social situations. I feel he could have been helped more with an earlier 'label.'

Lisalou Sun 15-Jan-17 19:44:23

Anya, please stop. I never said anything about your grandson. I never said children with disabilities were lazy or anything else, and you know it. At no time did I say ANYTHING about bad parenting.
You have insulted me without knowing me in a number of the posts and I haven't taken the bait. I am getting really tired of the snide remarks. You disagree with me, which is fine. You have done your best to twist what I said from the start, and that is fine too. Just stop, please. I asked for opinions and got them and am very interested in many things which have been said, but I think that is quite enough in the way of personal jibes.

norose4 Sun 15-Jan-17 20:24:02

beginning to think this thread should be renamed Child's net or perhaps Egos net !! not coming across as good examples of caring intelligent individuals

Lyndylou Sun 15-Jan-17 22:46:55

Izabella Last year, in my efforts to try to help my DGS, I came across an European survey about babies born to mothers who had hyperemesis (as my DD did) in their first 8 weeks of pregnancy. They had a 3-4 times higher amount of learning difficulties than standard pregnancies. I think there is still a lot we don't know about brain development in children.

In general, the last thing we ever wanted was a label for DGS. We were constantly being told he wasn't meeting normal expectations, not disruptive or angry, just unable to grasp what the others could. Y3 was dreadful, his teacher seemed to think she could bully him into learning at the same rate as the class and constantly telling us how much he was failing. Now however, he has his label, slow processing speed and problems with his short term memory. He has a supportive teacher this year, morning classes of literacy and numeracy of 4 children with one teacher, and he is starting to progress. He has learned more this term than all of last year and has stopped crying about going to school. He walks in with a smile now and that is all we ever wanted.

trisher Sun 15-Jan-17 22:54:58

Sorry Lisalou you need to read your OP again
*When I first started in education, it was rare to have a child in your class who had ADHD, Aspergers, ASD or any one of a ream of problems.
I wonder if anyone else feels that this appears to be a way of justifying a lazy child*
If that isn't calling children with disabilities lazy I don't know what is.
Maybe you didn't mean to say it, but that is certainly how it reads.

Lisalou Mon 16-Jan-17 05:43:10

Maybe my phrasing was unfortunate, but that is not what I meant, in case I have still not made myself clear, what I was trying to say is that there are a number of children where I wonder about the diagnosis. (Not in one class, but in several over several years) I also explained (at least I think I did) that I work very hard to help children with or without difficulties.
Oh, whatever, some clearly need somebody to beat up this week. Might as well be me.

grannypiper Mon 16-Jan-17 06:57:53

Anya, yes i do. A report that started with a great big whopper regarding the registration and greeting of the children on the day of the inspection, which took place at 09:00, we were accused of being being unwelcoming toward the children, ignoring parents, and marking children present who were in fact absent. As the inspector booked on to our military base at 09:32 and arrived at our door at 09:38 how she could possibly have any insight in to our registration i do not know.
The inspector then reviewed in great detail an activity that did not take place that day by a member of staff that none of us knew.
The report was littered with so many lies and the personal insults were awful( saying a member of staff sounded like strangled cat) The whole report was a fantasy and we then had to be re visited and strangely enough were given outstanding.

grannypiper Mon 16-Jan-17 07:12:53

Lyndylou How awful for your DGS to have such a bully for a teacher, my DS had such a teacher too in reception year, i dont think she liked a single child in that class, but it wasnt just the children she bullied, she was a awful woman, who believed she knew best about everything and only her opinion mattered and would shout anyone down who dared to state another point of view.
I hope you DGS continues to have a better calibre of teacher from now on.

Anya Mon 16-Jan-17 07:58:04

Thank you Lisalou for admitted my that your phrasing was 'wrong'. That is what has caused all this upset and your apology is accepted. Now, at least, you understand that I was not attacking you through 'snide' remarks but defending the children you inadvertently denounced, as were others who rose to defend their grandchildren

Sadly your OP seemed to attract a few who took your post to mean something other than you meant and that added fuel to the debate. You are not the victim in this but by admittedly you worded your post badly perhaps you realise how it came across.

Anya Mon 16-Jan-17 08:00:06

Excuse the typos. iPad taking over again, but I'm sure you get the gist.

Izabella Mon 16-Jan-17 17:56:22

Lyndylou not just that. Women who gave raised cortisol levels in pregnancy (usually stress induced) have children who have an increased risk of depression. I can't find the original research reference atm

Lyndylou Mon 16-Jan-17 20:19:49

Thank you grannypiper. The very first Saturday of this new term I asked him how he found Y4 and he said "Its great Nana, my teacher smiles at us and nobody shouts at us". That teacher has thankfully left the school now.

Izabella the following is from the Bristol University Children of the Nineties Study.

Supporting Pregnancy Data we’ve collected from you and your mums suggest that your mum’s emotional state during pregnancy can have longlasting effects on you: deep anxiety or depression during pregnancy doubled the risk of emotional and behavioural problems at least until you reached thirteen years old. These findings are starting to influence Government policy to focus attention on providing lots of emotional and practical support to women during pregnancy, such as through the Family Nurse Partnership.

I hope someone carries on this research and hopefully looks at the possible hyperemesis link too.