Geoff Lindsay

Educational psychology and the effectiveness of inclusive education/mainstreaming

BACKGROUND Inclusive education/mainstreaming is a key policy objective for the education of children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities. AIMS This paper reviews the literature on the effectiveness of inclusive education/mainstreaming. The focus is on evidence for effects in terms of child outcomes with examination also of evidence on processes that support effectiveness. SAMPLES The review covers a range of SEN and children from pre-school to the end of compulsory education. METHOD Following an historical review of evidence on inclusive education/mainstreaming, the core of the paper is a detailed examination of all the papers published in eight journals from the field of special education published 2001-2005 (N=1373): Journal of Special Education, Exceptional Children, Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, Journal of Learning Disabilities, Remedial and Special Education, British Journal of Special Education, European Journal of Special Needs Education, and the International Journal of Inclusive Education. The derived categories were: comparative studies of outcomes: other outcome studies; non-comparative qualitative studies including non-experimental case studies; teacher practice and development; teacher attitudes; and the use of teaching assistants. RESULTS Only 14 papers (1.0%) were identified as comparative outcome studies of children with some form of SEN. Measures used varied but included social as well as educational outcomes. Other papers included qualitative studies of inclusive practice, some of which used a non-comparative case study design while others were based on respondents judgements, or explored process factors including teacher attitudes and the use of teaching assistants. CONCLUSIONS Inclusive education/mainstreaming has been promoted on two bases: the rights of children to be included in mainstream education and the proposition that inclusive education is more effective. This review focuses on the latter issue. The evidence from this review does not provide a clear endorsement for the positive effects of inclusion. There is a lack of evidence from appropriate studies and, where evidence does exist, the balance was only marginally positive. It is argued that the policy has been driven by a concern for childrens rights. The important task now is to research more thoroughly the mediators and moderators that support the optimal education for children with SEN and disabilities and, as a consequence, develop an evidence-based approach to these childrens education.

Inclusive education: a critical perspective

The Gulliford Lecture 2002 was given by Professor Geoff Lindsay, Director of the Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR) at the University of Warwick. Professor Lindsays lecture, on which this paper is based, addressed a number of key topics, including the development of inclusion and inclusive practices; models of special educational needs and disability; and the values that underpin our thinking about these matters. Basing his argument on the research evidence, Professor Lindsay provides a searching critique of prevailing notions about inclusion and of current approaches to research. His conclusions will be of interest to everyone concerned with the education of children and young people with special educational needs.

Constraints in the production of written text in children with specific language impairments

The writing performance of 64 elementary school children with a history of specific language impairment was examined to evaluate both the nature of the childrens difficulties with writing and the relationship between oral language, reading, and writing. Children were assessed at age 8 on a range of language, literacy, and cognitive measures and reassessed at age 10 when they completed a standardized writing measure. At age 10 the children continued to experience problems with oral language and language levels were significantly poorer than nonverbal skills. Writing was characterized by short texts with poor sentence structure and little evidence of ideas and organization. Both concurrent measures of receptive vocabulary and reading skill were significant factors in explaining levels of written language.

Whose Job Is It? Parents' Concerns About the Needs of Their Children with Language Problems

This study examined the perspectives of parents of children with specific speech and language difficulties in the United Kingdom and described the issues they raised when considering provision to meet their childrens needs. The study used a mixed-methods approach. Data from interviews were analyzed using a computer-based qualitative interview analysis method (ATLAS/ti; Muhr, 1997), with reference to evidence from a parent-completed rating scale and assessments of the childrens language and educational development. The issues generated by the analyses were considered in relation to whether the child attended mainstream or special school. Results are discussed in the context of current educational policies for inclusive education and parental participation in meeting childrens educational and social needs.

The Impact of Specific Language Impairment on Adolescents' Written Text

This study examined the writing performance of 58 students with a history of specific language impairment, assessing them at ages 8, 11, 12, 14, and 16 to evaluate longitudinal trajectories of writing performance and relationships with oral language, reading, and handwriting fluency. At age 16, participants continued to experience problems with oral language and literacy: Their writing evidenced short texts, poor sentence structure, and difficulties with ideas and organization. Concurrent measures of vocabulary and spelling were significant factors in explaining writing performance. Handwriting fluency remained a particular difficulty for the current cohort and directly affected writing performance. Path analysis indicated that previous levels of literacy mediated the impact of oral language skills.

Consultation as a model for providing speech and language therapy in schools: a panacea or one step too far?

In recent years there has been a pressure to introduce an indirect “consultative model” to working with children with speech and language needs. It is favoured by educationists because it avoids the need to take children out of class and embeds any support children received in the curriculum. This paper reports the results of a recent study which indicates that Speech and Language Therapists are concerned about the universal application of this model of service delivery. It introduces and discusses a number of interrelated factors which need to be in place before the consultative model can be successfully introduced.

The ways in which speech and language difficulties impact on children's access to the curriculum

The wider educational needs of children with specific speech and language difficulties are of major concern to practitioners. Yet few studies have documented the literacy skills of these children across a range of different types of educational provision. The present study was designed to address this gap by profiling the language and literacy skills of 59 year 3 children in two local education authorities and 10 children attending specialist residential provision. Children completed standardized measures of language, literacy, numeracy and non-verbal ability. Children’s language and literacy scores were significantly delayed, with an average delay of two years. The implications of these difficulties for practice are discussed.

Educational provision for children with specific speech and language difficulties: perspectives of speech and language therapy service managers

BACKGROUND Children with specific speech and language difficulties (SSLD) pose a challenge to the education system, and to speech and language therapists who support them, as a result of their language needs and associated educational and social-behavioural difficulties. The development of inclusion raises questions regarding appropriate provision, whether the tradition of language units or full inclusion into mainstream schools. AIMS To gather the views of speech and language therapy service managers in England and Wales regarding approaches to service delivery, terminology and decision-making for educational provision, and the use of direct and indirect (consultancy) models of intervention. METHOD AND PROCEDURES The study reports on a national survey of speech and language therapy (SLT) services in England and Wales (129 respondents, 72.1% response rate) and interviews with 39 SLT service managers. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS Provision varied by age group with support to children in the mainstream common from pre-school to the end of Key Stage 2 (up to 11 years), and to those in designated specialist provision, common at Key Stages 1/2 (ages 5-11 years), but less prevalent at Key Stages 3/4 (11-16 years). Decision-making regarding provision was influenced by the lack of common terminology, with SSLD and specific language impairment (SLI) the most common, and criteria, including the use of the discrepancy model for defining SSLD. Practice was influenced by the difficulties in distinguishing children with SSLD from those with autistic spectrum disorder, and difficulties translating policies into practice. CONCLUSIONS The implications of the study are discussed with reference to SLT practice, including consultancy models, and the increasingly prevalent policy in local education authorities of inclusion of children with special educational needs.

The Early Identification of Educationally ‘At Risk’ Children Revisited

The basic assumptions underlying the development of early identification procedures are reviewed. The effectiveness of screening measures designed to identify educationally “at risk” children is critically examined. It is concluded that there is a general lack of evidence for the usefulness of such instruments. The implications of these findings are considered, and an alternative strategy of action based on the use of sequences of educational objectives rather than predictive instruments is proposed.

Paired reading: a review of the literature

This paper synthesizes and analyses the research on the technique for non‐professional tutoring of reading known as paired reading. Data from many extant small‐scale studies are compared with the very large quantity of new data available from multi‐site field trials in the Kirklees Local Education Authority.