What do you think?
Rate this book
The Basics
Special Educational Needs and Disability: The Basics
Special Educational Needs and The Basics has been fully updated in light of the 2014 Children and Families Act in England and now also includes a focus and discussion of legislation across the whole UK. Providing an engaging and complete overview, it examines the fundamental principles of the subject from policy to practice. This book covers the historical development of special provision and key legislation, policy-making, the identification and assessment of young people’s special or additional learning and behaviour needs, and ways to address barriers to learning associated with various kinds of difficulty. Essential revisions to this second edition This book is an ideal starting point for all those with questions about what constitutes special educational needs and disability and how individuals can be supported in practice. It is essential reading for policy-makers, trainees, teachers and all those working with young people who experience difficulties and their families.
260 pages, Paperback
First published November 10, 2011
54 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 7, 2023
Detailed and informative, this book provides some key information which will undoubtedly be useful to school leaders and governors with responsibility for SEN (Special Education Needs).
The breadth of the book was impressive: possibly too impressive. Chapter by chapter it worked through all the major classifications and types of SEN. But was that kind of even-handed approach the most appropriate? The DfE produce annual data on the numbers of those with different types of SEN, and it always shows large numbers with certain types of SEN, compared to relatively few with other types. Wouldn’t it make more sense for the book to commit more space to the more prevalent types, which more teachers will probably find themselves having to support?
At the beginning of the book there was significant coverage of background issues, such as academic ‘models of human learning’ (chapter 1) and the history of SEN (chapter 2). Those chapters were informative but they felt a little ‘heavy’ and overly detailed. I think devoting more time to case studies and to practical SEN strategies which schools can implement, would have been more helpful. For example, the book dealt with dyslexia in chapter 4. But it didn’t refer to many resources which teachers can use to identify and evaluate potential resources to support dyslexics. A resource used by many is Greg Brooks’ What works for Literacy Difficulties, a book which is in its 6th edition because of its eminently practical value to teachers. It would have been helpful if the book could have flagged up more resources like that, which schools can consult, in order to plan their provision.
The tendency towards too much background information also led to a very odd political excursus on page 100, where the book noted that Nazis had murdered people with Downs Syndrome. Yes that is horrifically true. But the politics of social engineering and killing those with Downs Syndrome now typically includes wider issues about the high numbers of abortions (up to birth) of those with Down Syndrome. But that is not mentioned in the book. If the book is going to digress into politics, then it should at least attempt to give a fair representation of all the issues. On the other hand, why is a book on SEN provision in schools even raising issues of Nazis at all?
Elsewhere in the book, some of the issues were a bit surprisingly vague. For example, the discussion of bullying made the point that it varies from country to country and from school to school, but no actual data was cited (p.158). Yet PISA has produced international data on these issues. The book also talked about Restorative Justice, as a strategy for dealing with bullying. Whilst there is some evidence to support that approach, there is also other evidence that queries the effectiveness of restorative approaches in some cases of bullying. Once again, the book needs to present the ‘full’ picture to the reader.
Overall, I think that there is a potentially good and very useful book struggling to manifest itself here, but the current version feels as if it has too much background information, and that it isn’t focused sharply enough on providing the most relevant up to date research, on some of the issues which it raises.
These comments are based on a reading of the 2nd edition, published in 2016.
The breadth of the book was impressive: possibly too impressive. Chapter by chapter it worked through all the major classifications and types of SEN. But was that kind of even-handed approach the most appropriate? The DfE produce annual data on the numbers of those with different types of SEN, and it always shows large numbers with certain types of SEN, compared to relatively few with other types. Wouldn’t it make more sense for the book to commit more space to the more prevalent types, which more teachers will probably find themselves having to support?
At the beginning of the book there was significant coverage of background issues, such as academic ‘models of human learning’ (chapter 1) and the history of SEN (chapter 2). Those chapters were informative but they felt a little ‘heavy’ and overly detailed. I think devoting more time to case studies and to practical SEN strategies which schools can implement, would have been more helpful. For example, the book dealt with dyslexia in chapter 4. But it didn’t refer to many resources which teachers can use to identify and evaluate potential resources to support dyslexics. A resource used by many is Greg Brooks’ What works for Literacy Difficulties, a book which is in its 6th edition because of its eminently practical value to teachers. It would have been helpful if the book could have flagged up more resources like that, which schools can consult, in order to plan their provision.
The tendency towards too much background information also led to a very odd political excursus on page 100, where the book noted that Nazis had murdered people with Downs Syndrome. Yes that is horrifically true. But the politics of social engineering and killing those with Downs Syndrome now typically includes wider issues about the high numbers of abortions (up to birth) of those with Down Syndrome. But that is not mentioned in the book. If the book is going to digress into politics, then it should at least attempt to give a fair representation of all the issues. On the other hand, why is a book on SEN provision in schools even raising issues of Nazis at all?
Elsewhere in the book, some of the issues were a bit surprisingly vague. For example, the discussion of bullying made the point that it varies from country to country and from school to school, but no actual data was cited (p.158). Yet PISA has produced international data on these issues. The book also talked about Restorative Justice, as a strategy for dealing with bullying. Whilst there is some evidence to support that approach, there is also other evidence that queries the effectiveness of restorative approaches in some cases of bullying. Once again, the book needs to present the ‘full’ picture to the reader.
Overall, I think that there is a potentially good and very useful book struggling to manifest itself here, but the current version feels as if it has too much background information, and that it isn’t focused sharply enough on providing the most relevant up to date research, on some of the issues which it raises.
These comments are based on a reading of the 2nd edition, published in 2016.
June 4, 2020
Very informative, but also very very heavy going due to the level of detail. I also did not feel I got a huge amount of practical application out of reading this, which is a shame considering the length. However, it might be useful for going back to look at specific challenges pupils may face.
November 1, 2013
Well written, good explanations of concepts and easy to read.
August 9, 2019
In serious need of further proof reading before being published!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews