As a parent of a person with “special needs”, and now a voluntary worker supporting families with the same disability, I feel I have every right to comment (Parents too quick to seek special needs label, 24 February). The system must be at fault if “lobbying parents” are winning because pressure leads to a misdiagnosis and “genuine sufferers are losing out”. Parents like myself have to battle for a diagnosis against impenetrable barriers. Professionals cannot have the same understanding of a child’s needs and difficulties as a parent, yet feel able to ignore them.
Many of the parents we support are accused of poor parenting and do not receive a diagnosis until a crisis occurs. Most have to fight tooth and nail to “prove” their child’s disability. This can entail seeking second and third opinions, only to finally have their autism spectrum disorder confirmed. The heartache, time, effort and stress involved is exhausting. Few parents choose that path to “seek a label” in order to “blame” their child’s disability. They simply want recognition and appreciation of their child’s difference. They go in search of acceptance, inclusion, empathy and not criticism, blame and exclusion.
Teachers have probably 30 children to consider in most classes. In the secondary phase, they may see a child for an hour’s lesson and the emphasis is on examination results. Individuals easily get lost. Many teachers can and do address basic behavioural issues effectively. However, even students with an accepted diagnosis, on the register of special needs, are not acknowledged as requiring specialist, differentiated support or materials. Training of teachers can be limited too. I have listened with horror, and intervened, regarding information on Asperger’s which has simply been incorrect.
Ann Moore
Stocksfield, Northumberland
• There’s a good reason why middle-class parents are better able to get a special needs diagnosis for their child: cash. There is a dire shortage of educational psychologists in local authorities, and children can expect a wait of at least a year to see one for a diagnosis. I advise everyone coming to me to get an assessment privately if they can. But it’s nonsense to suggest these children get an unwarranted diagnosis – assessments are scrupulous and no one gets extra time in exams or any other advantage without this official recognition.
We need to be concerned instead about the poorer kids who don’t have this option. The teachers’ union ATL says that at least 200,000 children are slipping through the net following government reforms in 2014, which saw the proportion of children identified with SEN cut from 20% to 15% – when, sadly, there was no widespread miracle. And support in schools for special needs is one of the biggest casualties as budgets are slashed.
Bernadette John
SEN director, The Good Schools Guide
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