Letter: Treating the symptom

Pat Newman said schools will have no option but to suspend students with high behavioural needs if they do not get adequate resources. Photo/John Stone

I often read the Age online, as I am now living in Wellington. As you know I have been involved with education and people with a disability for over 15 years. Here is my take on the distressing news of bad behaviour and violence in the classroom.

Read more here:
Northland schools face suspending high needs kid

I think we must be careful to distinguish between children with special needs who have behaviour issues and the general student. Corporal punishment is anathema to learning for any student, and totally abhorrent for a student with special learning needs.

We have already had the debate about seclusion rooms, perhaps seen as a mild form of punishment by some, and we have agreed that they are absolutely unacceptable. The fact that Special Education has dedicated staff (psychologists, RTLBs and SENCOs) and a range of interventions that often do not prove effective is the major concern for me, and this is what David Wales, MoE's national director for learning support, urgently needs to address.

Why don't these expensive clinical approaches work?

This ineffectiveness is also seen in the behaviour support services for adults with an intellectual disability. They treat the symptom, not the cause.

Yes, home life has a very significant effect on standards of behaviour, and family therapy should be integral to habilitation, but we must also look at the programmes that are in place in the special needs classrooms and in the day bases for people with a disability.

Much education and many programmes are not person-centred, with no clear plan for improvement and meaningful engagement with the community. They are thus purposeless and extremely boring.

How would you behave if you were forced to remain in this environment and did not have the ability to articulate your frustration? Behaviour is communication.

MARK R SHANKS
Lower Hutt