Engaging Learners with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities

A resource book for teachers and teaching assistants

Barry Carpenter, Jo Egerton, Beverley Cockbill, Tamara Bloom, Jodie Fotheringham, Hollie Rawson, Jane Thistlethwaite

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317533733
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Children and young people with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities (CLDD) have co-existing and overlapping conditions which can manifest in complex learning patterns, extreme behaviours and a range of socio-medical needs which are new and unfamiliar to many educators. Their combination of issues and layered needs – mental health, relationship, behavioural, physical, medical, sensory, communication and cognitive – mean they often disengage from learning and challenge even our most experienced teachers.

This book provides school practitioners and leaders with an approach and resources to engage this often disenfranchized group of children in learning. The Engagement for Learning Framework has been developed and trialled by over 100 educational settings (both special and mainstream) with learners from early years to post-16. It gives practitioners from a range of disciplines a shared means of assessing, recording and developing personalized learning pathways and demonstrating progression for these children. The focus on inquiry means that however complex a young person's needs, educators will be able to apply the approach.

This practical and engaging book provides literature, tools and case study examples outlining who children and young people with CLDD are, why their engagement for learning is important and how the Engagement for Learning Framework can be used effectively by teachers and other professionals to ensure the best possible outcomes for these children.

Chapter 1

The Engagement for Learning Framework

An introduction

We are guilty of many errors and many faults, but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life. Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made, and his senses are being developed. To him we cannot answer ‘Tomorrow’, his name is today.

(Gabriela Mistral, 1889–1957; Chilean poet, educator, diplomat, and feminist; winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1945)

The approach to engaging children and young people with complex learning needs described in this book emerged through the Department for Education¹-funded Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities (CLDD) Research Project (Carpenter et al. 2011) following Salt Review recommendations (Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) 2010).

The Engagement for Learning Framework is a resource for educators – all professionals who support children’s education including teachers, teaching assistants and therapists. It enables them to explore and identify effective teaching and learning strategies for children with CLDD, as well as to record, measure and demonstrate learning outcomes in a meaningful way.

The impetus for the project emerged from teachers. The Department for Education (DfE)/Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) listened to their repeated concerns about a new generation of children with learning difficulties whose complex learning needs they felt poorly equipped to manage. To address this issue, they commissioned under tender the then Specialist Schools and Academies Trust,² a schools networking organization, to investigate ways to improve learning outcomes for this group of children through developing evidence-based pathways to personalized learning.

These children with CLDD now coming through the school system are not only those who are traditionally considered to have the most complex needs, such as children in special schools at the profound end of the learning disability spectrum, but also a new population of children in mainstream schools whose difficulties were not being acknowledged or recognized. Chapter 2 describes this new population, which includes children whose needs challenge the creativity and resourcefulness of even the most experienced and talented teachers. As one teacher commented: ‘I find it really hard, because I’ve never taught a child like this ever, not in mainstream settings, not here. We’ve tried everything. Nothing works consistently’ (Teacher Interview, CLDD Project (Blackburn and Carpenter 2012: 41)).

These children’s difficulties may arise from premature birth, advanced medical interventions in infancy, parental substance and alcohol abuse (e.g. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)), or rare chromosomal disorders, for example. The group also includes children who have co-existing and co-occurring diagnoses, such as dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), tuberous sclerosis and autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). Some children have compounding conditions such as sensory perceptual issues or mental health problems which exacerbate the difficulties of their primary diagnosis, and some require regular invasive procedures, such as supported nutrition, assisted ventilation and rescue medication.

The research

To address the needs of this group of children, Professor Barry Carpenter convened a core research team, as well as practitioner researchers – teachers, teaching assistants, therapists and psychologists – from 96 schools, and over 200 children as participants. They were supported by a multidisciplinary team of researchers and advisors with specialisms across education, health, psychology, therapies and neuroscience.

In Phase 1 of the project (November to July 2010), the research team worked together with 12 special schools and staff, 60 children, and their families, to develop an effective teaching and learning resource for the children with complex needs in their classrooms. Each of the schools was designated good or outstanding, and held Government-recognized special educational needs (SEN) specialisms in ‘cognition and learning’, ‘communication and interaction’, ‘emotional and behavioural difficulties’ and/or ‘physical disabilities’.

The project built on and synthesized existing national and international expertise in the field, as well as drawing upon practitioner experience to develop and trial modified and new approaches for these children. Between September and December 2010, the resources were trialled in 50 further special schools in the UK and 15 internationally (five in New Zealand; one each in Wales and Northern Ireland; and two each in Australia, Ireland, Scotland and the USA). In Phase 3 of the project (January to March 2011), the resources were trialled in 12 mainstream schools – six primary and six secondary – and two early years settings.³ There was also a transition group of six schools.

The Engagement for Learning Framework

The outcome of the project was the CLDD Engagement for Learning Framework – developed with schools and for schools to support educators of children with CLDD. The key components (available to download online at http://complexld.ssatrust.org.uk) include:

• CLDD Briefing Packs: a series of information sheets on conditions which commonly co-exist within the profile of CLDD; these give information on effective educational strategies associated with particular disabilities.

• The Engagement Profile and Scale: an observation and assessment resource focusing on children’s engagement for learning.

• The Inquiry Framework for Learning: a framework of starter questions towards learning solutions in 12 areas including communication, emotional well-being, motor skills, etc.

The engagement for learning ethos

Attention, or engagement, is the most important predictor of successful learning outcomes for a child, even above IQ (Wolke 2013). Multiple studies over several decades have clearly demonstrated that without engagement there is no meaningful learning (see Chapter 3).

It is important to emphasize here that we are talking about engagement for learning. The engagement for learning tools support educational outcomes. This book is not about giving children what they like to ‘keep them quiet’, but about how educators can work with children to construct the ‘learning readiness’ that has eluded them. It is about making knowledge, understanding and skills desirable to them so that they thirst to learn, and become engaged learners. Ultimately, it is about extending their post-school life chances.

Educators often think about children’s engagement in learning as though it is a quality over which they have no control – as if learners are either engaged or not engaged through their own inclination or disinclination. However, the reality is much more complex, and children’s engagement in learning is very much in the gift of educators, as described in Chapters 4 and 5.

Engagement can be understood as an ‘umbrella’ which covers a group of related ideas. To be able to direct children’s engagement for learning, educators need to break engagement down into manageable components that allow them to focus on, engineer and develop different aspects of learning. The Engagement Profile and Scale use seven ‘indicators’ of engagement for learning (see Figure 1.1).

When educators commit to these indicators in facilitating and adjusting children’s learning experiences, the outcomes can be transformative. Chapter 3 looks at such outcomes for children from the CLDD Project.⁴

Figure 1.1 The seven indicators of engagement for learning

Even the most hard-to-reach learners have some interest, whether at school or outside, that captures their attention. As educators, we often know a lot about what children cannot do, but very little about what they can, and do, do. For children with complex learning needs it is crucial that educators have a grasp of what engages their interest and why, and explore how this can be used to increase the learning impact of what educators deliver each day in the classroom. Other children may be prevented from engaging by distractions in their environment, and will need reasonable adjustments made to this and to educator’s expectations to enable them to learn.

Multiple perspectives

Children with CLDD often have learning needs beyond the experience not only of educators but also the resources they are using. The educators who took part in the CLDD Project had often reached the edge of their considerable experience in trying to engage these children with unique learning needs. Meeting their needs required a shift in perspective that would take both learner and educator beyond the straightforward learner-learning task relationship. Chapters 6 to 8 introduce these processes.

Chapters 6 and 7 again focus on deepening perspectives to engage complex learners, but this time emphasizing the immeasurable gains brought by talking with families, and through multi- and trans-disciplinary discussions and practice.

Families – whether this is a birth or other relationship – have insights that we as educators cannot have. Parents have often researched their child’s condition from a very young age, have been the constant presence through illness, hospital appointments or justice system involvement, and have out-of-school insights into what engages their son or daughter. Siblings have yet other perspectives on their brother’s or sister’s interests, responses and talents which may provide the missing key to successful learning experiences. Chapter 6 describes the inside view from families on their son’s/daughter’s complex learning needs, their impact, their ideas and their hopes. This family-focused approach has influenced the Government Green Paper on SEN, Support and Aspirations (DfE 2011), and the family-centred approach advocated in the new Code of Practice (DfE 2014), moving us on from the traditional parent partnership models.

Chapter 7 looks at the impact that colleagues from other disciplines had on the learning experiences of children involved in the CLDD Project. Occupational therapists, speech therapists and music therapists collaborated with teachers to orchestrate massive steps forward in children’s engagement that were not seen when each worked individually. Even minor adjustments to children’s learning environments made in consultation with occupational therapists, for example, meant that children who had not been able to do so previously were able to focus on learning or to communicate effectively with their educators and peers. Using the Engagement for Learning Framework, professionals from multiple professional backgrounds are able to share a common language which transcends their disciplinary boundaries and supports a collaborative focus on learner need. In so doing, they have opened up pathways to achievement, attainment and progress for children with CLDD.

In Chapter 8, the impact of emotional well-being and mental health problems on children’s engagement is discussed. Among the children who took part in the CLDD Project, mental health difficulties or problems had the highest incidence of any of the other co-occurring, co-existing or compounding conditions. They had a massive impact on children’s ability to engage in learning, but often were not being addressed through lack of school or regional resources. These issues must be addressed in order that children can learn (Dossetor et al. 2011).

For children whose learning pathways cannot be accommodated within educational approaches that often prescribe our teaching, educators need to move beyond the familiar and routine. Chapter 9 considers how schools can take engagement for learning initiatives forward using inquiry approaches, and, in Chapter 10, the schools themselves describe the processes and practicalities of implementing the Engagement for Learning Framework.

To meet the needs of this new generation of children with CLDD in this twenty-first century, schools are developing, as one headteacher described, a ‘finding out culture’. Educators are beginning to see themselves as innovators, opening new lines of inquiry and following new leads into learning for children. The engagement for learning approach offers the resources to construct personalized learning pathways, the flexibility to adjust and optimize them, and an effective means to evidence children’s progress. It has provided many educators, children and their families, both in special and mainstream education, with a way forward. As one CLDD Project mainstream teacher stated: ‘Instead of failing all the time, [these children] can succeed.’

Notes

1 Previously Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)-funded.

2 Now SSAT (The Schools Networ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 The Engagement for Learning Framework: an introduction
• 2 New generation children: the complex learning challenge
• 3 Engagement and learning: a brief introduction
• 4 Evidencing engagement for learning: the Engagement Profile and Scale
• 5 Personalizing engagement: case studies
• 6 Learning with families
• 7 Together everyone can achieve more: collaborating with other professionals
• 8 Mental health and children with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities: a ticking time bomb
• 9 Inquiry gives you wings: school-based inquiry and engaging children with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities
• 10 Visioning the future: schools taking forward the Engagement for Learning Framework
• Appendix A: Instructions on completing the Engagement Ladders
• Appendix B: Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities Briefing Packs
• Appendix C: The Inquiry Framework for Learning
• Appendix D: Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities Project questionnaires
• Appendix E: Accessible Research Cycle template
• Appendix F: Project information and consent form relating to the Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities Project
• Appendix G: Engagement passport example from Parkside School, Pukekohe, New Zealand
• Appendix H: Parkside School’s ‘Engagement Profile and Scale Final Report’ template
• Appendix I: Schools involved in the original Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities Research Project (2009–2011)
• Index