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Leading article
Are paediatricians failing at school?
  1. J M Goepel1,
  2. K D Forsyth2
  1. 1SEN Co-ordinator, Lydgate Junior School, Sheffield, UK
  2. 2Professor of Paediatrics, Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Sheffield, UK, and Flinders University, South Australia
  1. Correspondence to:
    Professor K D Forsyth, Department of Paediatrics, Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide 5042, South Australia, Australia;
    kevin.forsyth{at}flinders.edu.au

https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.87.3.173

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    Paediatricians need to understand the morbidity of children with special educational needs

    The notion that paediatricians act in the interests of the child to facilitate optimal outcomes is well entrenched within the medical culture. From this perspective paediatricians act to provide curative interventions in reversible situations, and to provide assistance and support for those children with chronic conditions where a return to full functionality is improbable.

    There has however been a shift in the spectrum of child health problems seen by paediatricians in recent years. The previous sharp demarcation between readily reversible acute child health problems and the chronic conditions and disabilities of childhood have been supplemented by increasing numbers of children with special educational needs (SEN). Section 312 of the 1996 UK Education Act states that:

    “Children have special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for them”

    Children with SEN are just as functionally compromised and in need of paediatrician support as those with organic pathology. Has paediatrics and the practice of paediatricians sufficiently adjusted to these changes? Are paediatricians sufficiently cognisant of the requirements of children with SEN to provide the supportive interventions that they so ably provide for those with organic pathology?

    Children with SEN are frequently first identified in early education settings or primary schools. The 1997 DfEE Green paper1 points out that “schools currently identify 18% of children as having special educational needs of some kind”. School teachers are in an excellent position to identify such needs in children, as they see the child for prolonged periods each day. Experienced teachers have a finely tuned perspective on the range of normality. They meet the parents or carers, so understanding the social context of the child. The UK government has given high priority to …

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