Where were all the special needs students when we were at school?

I remember a lad in early 70s who was dyslexic. It was quite a new diagnosis then. Trying out new ideas to make dyslexic pupils' lives easier in school has been moving apace for the last 50 years.

Corporal punishment was outlawed in UK state schools in 1986, but prior to that was only administered by senior teachers and had to be logged. Outlawed in private schools 1998-2003 depending on which UK country you were in.) I don't remember it being used after late 70s.

You are right greenlady. There has never been a time when all children could read, write and do mental arithmetic beyond a very basic level. Even today, there are many adults who are functionally illiterate and innumerate. There are also people, mainly born in the 1930s, who never received an education beyond elementary level.

Until the Warnock Report in 1978, there were many more children with special needs in separate schools. Since the 1980s the trend has been to integrate more children into mainstream schools. That's why anybody who left school before 1978 might not have come across many (or any) children with special needs.

They were all in my school. Sadly there was no special treatments for them back in the day but I was born when Noah had the ark!

I said I wouldn't post again but I think you need to read how many people with specific learning difficulties or learning disabilities and autism end up in our criminal justice system because they have not been supported properly, including being diagnosed 'in the past'

report here

Thank you nanna8 for starting this thread. The responses show that we shall always have more to learn about human behaviour, including the fact that many of us take offence and make judgements as a knee-jerk reaction.

IF it is a fact that there are more “learning difficulties” than previous generations it is likely for 2 reasons.
1. Women having children in their 30s and beyond where the risk is known. (aging fathers too)
2. Drug and Alchohol abuse has damaged DNA in the parents, being passed on to the child but that’s difficult to separate from childhood damage by parents continuing drug abuse.

Regarding Autism, although it was Kanner who first described it in 1940s US, it was psychiatrist Lorna Wing who is often perceived as doing the first serious UK study.
'In 1979 Lorna Wing and Judith Gould examined the prevalence of autism, as defined by Leo Kanner, among children known to have special needs in the former London Borough of Camberwell'

Oh

My Mum was an infant teacher , sometimes she had well over 40 infants ! The Teacher moved up the school with the class for three years , then went back to infants , she said every child she taught could read write and count to some degree , ranging from excellent to the poorest , but , with high unemployment at least they could sign their name and not put a cross !
She was not boasting , she loved her job and did her best
Any “slow” children were helped , even by sitting them next to a “clever” child if it was possible . The children all seemed happy to see her out of school too

It was always there, they were either in the back corner of the class or at was called then a Special school. Every teaching authority seemed to have its own ideas and schools.
I was always bottom in spelling tests and remembering having to move desks, then moving back when we did the mental arithmetic tests.
My child was picked up by a supper head who said it was Dyslexic it was not recognised by our authority and I moved them to an authority where it was. When testing them they asked if I minded being tested as well. They found I had mild dyslexia as well.
I was a teacher and often had to say to parents I agree your child has....... but you will have to see the Head and see if they can arrange testing I also told of the adjoining authority where help was given. At uni, a computer and the lecturers' notes were given after each lecture.
I know someone who is a Sen. coordinated and they say it is all more sorted out now, so why do we hear of so many parents crying for help?

Although I lived in a very poor area my primary school used to have lots of children passing their 11plus and going to grammar school. In my last year I was in a class that had lots of bright academic children. It was only years later that I remembered that there was another class. I assume that’s where the children with special needs were. Even recently @ 30 years ago I had a friend who was headmistress if a primary school saying to me that ‘there is no such thing as dyslexia’. She was a very good teacher but I’d love to ask her now why she thought that as it was very out of character for her.

Katie59

IF it is a fact that there are more “learning difficulties” than previous generations it is likely for 2 reasons.
1. Women having children in their 30s and beyond where the risk is known. (aging fathers too)
2. Drug and Alchohol abuse has damaged DNA in the parents, being passed on to the child but that’s difficult to separate from childhood damage by parents continuing drug abuse.

I don't know if it is true (I'm sceptical), but don't believe for one moment that children in the past weren't affected by alcoholic mothers.

During the war, my mother was evacuated to a family in rural Herefordshire, where the mother was rarely sober. My mother remembered being dragged into town every Saturday. The family's mother spent some of the day shopping, but most of the day in the pub, getting drunk and sometimes going off with men she met. The daughter of the family would most definitely be labelled as "special needs". My mother was 8/9 and the girl was a couple of years older and couldn't read and was "backward".

Does anyone remember when Joey Deacon was featured on Blue Peter. That was the first time that many of us realised that children with cerebral palsy had a physical problem but were still intelligent. And I’d never heard of autism until I saw a film about it when I was in my twenties and started reading up on conductive education etc that was far more advanced in Romania than it was here.

so its a good idea to teach children that violence is ok?
I don't count smacking as 'violence.' Just discipline. I'm not advocating beating children. You only have to compare the behaviour of many children today, with that of the past, to see the difference. It's undisputable that behaviour has deteriorated in recent times, and in my opinion, a lack of proper discipline is a major factor. I didn't expect many people to agree with me though, as it's such an unfashionable view in today's society.

aggie

My Mum was an infant teacher , sometimes she had well over 40 infants ! The Teacher moved up the school with the class for three years , then went back to infants , she said every child she taught could read write and count to some degree , ranging from excellent to the poorest , but , with high unemployment at least they could sign their name and not put a cross !
She was not boasting , she loved her job and did her best
Any “slow” children were helped , even by sitting them next to a “clever” child if it was possible . The children all seemed happy to see her out of school too

Signing your name isn't reading/writing.

Foetal alcohol syndrome was first diagnosed in 1973

I can never recall during my schooldays 40's /50's hearing the word 'special needs'. I can only believe that were a child seen as '*different*', how I despise that word, they did not receive the education, if any education, I had.

Nanna8
"I posed a question, didn’t mean that I believe that. It is ignorant to pre suppose that. Extremely rude and judgemental. For the record, I think very few of these children show signs of autism because of their parenting but you just go on judging people if it makes you happy and content. I am appalled"
You say you were judged but then you drop the gem of autism due to parenting.
Just priceless.
No, that is not how autism works.at.all

Some kids are born to be clever, some are not. I wasn't a bright spark and did lessons at my own pace as I was more of a day-dreamer who'd rather watch what went on in the farmers field through the school window than join in with the subject in hand.

What I was listening to always seemed to penetrate though even though my concentration span was hit and miss as my exam paper results were always in the first bunch. I knew I could do better which was always in my school reports but by some quirk of nature, never had the desire to.

Children now are put under far too much pressure at school which is creating an inner fear in children---to do well. All children are different when it comes to learning, some being slower than others, but this doesn't always mean that there's anything amiss with the children.

It's down to the teachers to seek out the ones who fall behind in their work and not leave them to struggle trying to keep up. Nurturing classes are now in many mainstream schools for these children, thankfully, rather than them being " branded " as duffers as once was.

Frustration in a child can give out signals when a child isn't coping at school and this can be mistaken for ADHD which I think is happening, or if a child doesn't want to go to school and displays a meltdown. Best thing is to sit down with the child and ask what it is that's troubling them. Nine times out of ten it's because they can't either understand what the lesson's about and is scared to ask or they can't keep up.

Children's brains and their way of thinking or trying to work things out are very complex, made all the worse either if parents are too busy to bother or the background is sketchy. Either way it'll affect the child's learning ability.

Life itself today is high-speed and not leisurely as it was in the 40's/ 50's so it's not surprising that little notice can be given individually to a child. How has it got to this stage ? Why ?

Our own Ruby-Lou has been in a private Therapeutic Residential Home for over a year now after having wreaked havoc in the home and among her siblings before we eventually got help after years of psychiatric appointments etc., then my GD was blamed for being a " bad mother " and had all her children removed. She was going through looking after a very sick partner at the time up until his death, trying to reason with a child who was out of control, then because she had a breakdown, that was that and still is.

Nobody has time to listen any more

Antonia

"so its a good idea to teach children that violence is ok?
I don't count smacking as 'violence.' Just discipline. I'm not advocating beating children. You only have to compare the behaviour of many children today, with that of the past, to see the difference. It's undisputable that behaviour has deteriorated in recent times, and in my opinion, a lack of proper discipline is a major factor. I didn't expect many people to agree with me though, as it's such an unfashionable view in today's society"

Smacking is very much violence and not discipline. Totally unacceptable.

The parents of today are the children of yesterday- how they were raised determines how they parent nkw

What went wrong in that perfect golden age of manners that created changes in future generations?
If those manners were perfect and the system worked so well, why is it not followed today?

I’m always amazed at how many high achievers hated school and learning and how many are dyslexic. So much of education is based on the ability to read and read quickly.

EllanVannin It really is more complicated than some children being born to be clever.

MayBee70 you’re right.

Smacking is very much violence and not discipline. Totally unacceptable
Yes, as I said, in today's society. Go back forty years and it was very much accepted. Values change. Children have been physically disciplined for as long as children have existed. So what's so special about today's society that makes people think ' we know better.' The behaviour of many of today's children certainly doesn't bear that out.

I am 65; I was never, ever smacked by my parents. Was I naughty? Of course, I was, I was a child, but my parents told me what was acceptable behaviour. My dear dad would say 'Oh no Lois' and I knew it was wrong. I was so fond of him I didn't want to upset him. So, I learnt through example and explanation, not violence. I was shocked when a teacher smacked me at school, she was only doing it out of frustration; she should not have been a teacher.
Not all parents smacked children, even then.