The FINANCIAL — Much more could be done to help children with physical and learning disabilities cope with the challenges they face on entering school, new research from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) suggests.
The behavioural problems of many disabled children worsen between the ages of 3 and 7. They encounter increasing difficulties in terms of hyperactivity, emotional problems and getting on with other children, according to LSE.
However, disabled children might have fewer behavioural issues in their early years if more schools introduced stringent anti-bullying measures and other support strategies, the researchers claim.
Lucinda Platt, Professor of Social Policy and Sociology at LSE, is the lead author of the paper, published today by the IOE’s Department of Quantitative Social Science (QSS).
The authors of the study, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, also recommend more support for parents of children with an impairment or special educational need.
The long-term benefits of such interventions could be substantial, the researchers believe, as behavioural difficulties are likely to compound disabled children’s problems and reduce their chances of having a happy and successful adult life, according to LSE.
The study’s authors — from the London School of Economics and Political Science, IOE and National Children’s Bureau — base their conclusions on an analysis involving 6,371 English children born in 2000 and 2001 who are being followed by the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS).
The researchers compared non-disabled children with infants who had:
a developmental delay at age 9 months (in relation to hand-eye coordination, for example, or early communication gestures)
a longstanding limiting illness (such as type 1 diabetes or asthma)
special educational needs at age 7 (stemming from learning difficulties or impairments such as hearing loss).
They were able to analyse assessments of MCS children’s behaviour at ages 3, 5 and 7 as parents had been asked about conduct problems, hyperactivity, emotional difficulties and whether their sons and daughters got on with children of the same age.
This enabled the researchers not only to record the emergence of any problems but establish whether the behaviour of disabled and non-disabled children had followed the same trajectory. They also took into consideration family background factors known to be associated with child behaviour, such as income poverty, parental discipline and the closeness of the parent-child relationship.
The researchers found that disabled children consistently presented more behavioural problems than their non-disabled peers between the ages of 3 and 7. However, the conduct of both groups of children followed the same development pattern, improving between 3 and 5 and then slightly worsening at about age 6, according to LSE.
At age 3, children with longstanding limiting illnesses and special educational needs were also more likely than non-disabled infants to exhibit the other three negative behaviours that were assessed: difficulties with peers, emotional problems and hyperactivity. But, worryingly, unlike conduct problems, these particular behavioural difficulties became more pronounced among children in these two disability categories between the ages of 3 and 7.
“Our findings suggest that some early school environments may exacerbate behavioural problems for disabled children in ways that cannot solely be solved by learning support – because the underlying issue is behavioural rather than cognitive,” the researchers say.
“Many disabled children find it increasingly difficult to engage with the social world as they pass from toddlers to the mid-primary school age. They also struggle with structured social contexts such as school. We need to gain a better understanding of the effects that schools have if we are to develop environments that do not, in effect, disable children further.”
The relatively high level of emotional problems for disabled MCS children is a particular concern, the researchers claim. “It is true that most children – disabled and non-disabled — experience increased emotional problems as they get older, since as they become more advanced cognitively there is more room for negative thoughts to fester and grow. Nevertheless, we should seriously consider the implications of the marked increase in emotional problems for disabled girls, in particular, in terms of future risks such as depression and self-harm.”
Philippa Stobbs, Assistant Director of the Council for Disabled Children, said that a key goal of the Children and Families Act, which started to come into effect on September 1, is improved outcomes for children with special educational needs.
“These research findings emphasise the urgency with which we need to act. They make it imperative that we focus on improving the learning environment for our youngest and most vulnerable children,” she said.
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