News
Boys twice as likely to be diagnosed with special needs
13 Jul 2012
The data published by the Department for Education reveals that some 23.8 per cent of boys – 510,985 – were diagnosed with some form of special needs in the current academic year. This was slightly down on 24.8 per cent 12 months earlier. However the figures show that in comparison just 13 per cent of girls – 268,675 – had particular problems affecting their ability to play a full part in school life.
Earlier this year, Jean Gross, the former Government adviser on speech, language and communication needs, insisted that problems were often “used as an explanation for failure” at school, particularly among boys. She said:
One third of nine and 10-year-old boys have special educational needs. It’s at that age that schools start to think they are not going to get a [pass] on their SATs, so they get labelled as having special needs. This is not done out of malice – schools are just trying to explain themselves. It is a real incentive to do this when schools don’t hit their floor target.
The Government plans to introduce screening measures to prevent pupils from being incorrectly classed as having special needs. The process used to identify children with the most severe special needs will be replaced with a single assessment covering education, health and care.
Read the full story on The Telegraph
