For someone who works with bright, creative children and their families who think and learn in neurodivergent ways, the attached article is deeply saddening.
In summary:
- Children with special needs are being failed
- The system is “on the verge of crisis” as the demand for specialist support soars and even less money is available.
- Parents and the education system are funding hugely costly court cases, that the parents normally win, in order to secure some sort of provision.
It is time that mental imagery is taught in primary school, as is a vital part of all learning and should be included in any school curriculum, being the key to visual learning. School are good at teaching visually but have not been trained in how children learn visually and what can go wrong :
- The great majority of these cases, (doubling this year), are about literacy and numeracy challenges. This is often caused by the national insistence that there is only one way to teaching children literacy and numeracy, whereas those good at literacy are visualising words and those good at numeracy are visualising numbers, that the government refuses to acknowledge.
- The stress levels in families and school are high, compounding the challenges for children who feel unsafe in their daily learning environment.
- Homeschooling is on the increase, as the last resort for many parents.
For literacy challenges, children can be quickly and easily taught to visualise words, in minutes, not months, for numeracy the same is true for visualising numbers. For other neurodivergent skills, learning how to control mental images is a great benefit reducing much anxiety.
#guardian #neurodiversity # dyslexia #specialneeds #crisis #homeschooling #literacy #stress #government
Olivehickmott 