Perhaps your child is struggling at school – and you’re tearing your hair out about how you can best support them to achieve as much as they possibly can. Or maybe they’ve already been diagnosed with a specific learning difficulty and you need help untangling a knotty issue. Talk ÍÑ¿ã°É’s SEND expert, Silja Turville, has all the answers and she’s here to help: email your SEND-related questions to
talk@talkeducation.com and we’ll publish Silja’s response here (all questions will, of course, remain anonymous).
As an educational consultant and neurodiversity coach focused on supporting families with children with additional needs, Silja is director of Acorn to Oak ÍÑ¿ã°É – and passionate about sharing her knowledge to help parents. She lives in London with her children and a very excitable Labradoodle. This week, Silja has advice for parents considering a specialist learning environment for their child...
Should an autistic learner be in a mainstream learning environment with pupils who do not have any learning difficulties, or should they be in a school surrounded with other pupils with additional needs?
Autism, like all types of learning-related need, affects every individual in a unique way. It is independent from intelligence, so it is possible for autistic learners to perform excellently in mainstream schools.
The challenges for some autistic learners who are able to do well at school can be around maintaining friendships, and there can be difficulties in understanding what is required of them and the implicit rules of interaction with others. For some learners, difficulties with social communication and in the ways that they experience the world can create barriers to learning.
Our clients tell us that their experience with autism is that it can also be a risk factor for bullying and loneliness for learners, especially in mainstream secondary schools. This can be a risk even for those learners who appear to be neurotypical to others for much of the time, as their reactions are seen as ‘difficult’ behaviour rather than expressions of how they experience the world.
Sometimes, appearing neurotypical is the result of masking behaviours that, over time, can be exhausting. It might also hide significant anxiety, which can be common for autistics.
Whether an autistic learner should remain in a mainstream setting depends upon whether their needs are being met in their current setting or whether they can be met in the current setting with the right support.
Assessing a learner’s needs involves thinking about their sensory and cognitive needs, as well as the type of peer group they will be in, the academic pathways that are right for them and the learning-related interventions and therapeutic support that they might require. Clues as to whether these are being met would be if they are making as much progress as you feel they are capable of and if they seem happy and content at school.
Parents have told us that the best way to judge this is how learners are at home after school, as there may be signs that the effort of masking or keeping going in what may not feel like a comfortable environment can show in behaviour at home.
Parents may decide to select a more specialist environment for their child if it is clear that their child is not fully involved in school life and the learning pace, environment, style or curriculum in class is not right for them.
Some clients tell us that where their child is receiving full time one-to-one support at a mainstream primary school, they do not wish to see this continue for secondary school as their child matures and seeks greater independence, so they then prefer a more specialist environment. Families are hoping to see their child be fully involved in classroom learning.
We also see families choosing more specialist types of setting for their child even when they are doing well at school, where the sensory overload of a busy and unpredictable environment becomes a barrier to learning and participation due to the stress it can cause. This is because the sensory overload can feel totally enveloping and suppress any feelings of safety and security. In this kind of situation, parents report to us that a smaller, more specialist environment is needed for their child so that they can think and feel safe.
Another factor leading to consideration of a specialist setting would be where the school curriculum and therapeutic input available are not appropriate for the learner. For some learners, the curriculum needs to be bespoke and integrated with therapeutic targets from speech and/or occupational therapy, for example.
Where learners do feel successful in a mainstream environment, families often look to supplement the support their child receives depending upon their needs. For example, social skills and social learning or additional support with developing friendships or understanding language can be helpful. This might be mentoring or coaching outside of school with an appropriate professional.
It is worth noting that specialist settings are not a panacea. It can be hard to find specialist settings with the right support but which also have the right academic pathways and peer groups for learners with the capability to perform well in academic work.
Families have told us that they have moved to more specialised settings to make sure their child is learning social skills, the strategies they need to manage their sensory and other needs, and how to make sense of the world – which they would not be taught in mainstream education. Some of our clients report that, within a specialist setting, their child’s mental health has been transformed even if they have felt that their academic abilities are not being fully developed and they have supplemented the academic work undertaken at school.
The peer group and academic pathways in a school can be as important as the social learning and teaching of strategies. We have noticed that it is equally difficult for learners in a setting where the work or environment is not suitable, whether that is because the work or environment are experienced as too challenging or not sufficiently challenging.
There is no simple answer as to whether an autistic learner should be in a mainstream school environment. The key areas to consider are whether the school appears to be meeting the learner’s needs and whether they are content at school and able to function well in the way that is right for them. Specialist schools vary greatly in the support and peer group that they offer, and it is key to base decisions upon your child’s needs and to know as much as possible about the school places available to be able to weigh up what is best for your child.
We know this can be hard to do and sometimes it can help to discuss the options with someone who understands. An educational psychologist and other professionals could provide useful input about what kind of learning environment is most suitable for your child. A multi-disciplinary assessment for autism should also provide a full impression of the areas where an individual could benefit from support, and this would provide useful data to use to assess the available school options.
If you have any questions about SEND or how we can help, please contact our advisory team. We are here to talk, and can help you identify schools that meet your child’s needs, draw up shortlists of potential schools or colleges and help with applications.