Commonsense Methods for Children with Special Educational Needs

The internet and young people with Additional Support Needs (ASN): Risk and safety

“…are also common in ASN populations (Davidson, Neale & Kring, 2004;Fuster, 2002;Mayes & Calhoun 2007;Westwood, 2011), which ay have resulted in some young people resorting to strategies that were likely to also get them into trouble if they had been discovered..…”

“…The term ASN will be used within the current paper to describe individuals who fall within this category. It has been documented that individuals with ASN may constitute as much as 20% of young people within education (Westwood, 2011), although it would appear that in the UK the number of children with special educational needs decreased from 1.55 million pupils (18.7%) in 2013 to 1.49 million pupils (17.9%) Recent research has indicated that a high percentage of the ASN population are making use of advances in technology for learning, socialising and entertainment, similar to that of other young people (Cerebra, 2012;Didden, Scholte, Korzilius, De Moor, Vermeulen, O'Reilly & Lancioni, 2009;Del-Manso et al, 2011). This includes: children with ADHD; Asperger's Syndrome (Kowalski & Fedina, 2011); Intellectual Disabilities (ID) and developmental disabilities (Didden et al, 2009).…”

“…Those selected were considered particularly important to consider however due to documented difficulties 'off-line' such as developing friendships (Bellini, 2004;Carr, 2006) as well as experiencing a range of cognitive impairments e.g. impulsivity (Carr, 2006;Fuster, 2002;Mayes & Calhoun, 2004;Westwood, 2011). Furthermore, teaching staff who were consulted did not distinguish between individuals falling within each of the three categories but instead considered them to be unified as a result of a common set of uses and challenges related to their online behaviour.…”

“…Research has also indicated that young people with ASN may be at increased online risk in comparison to those without ASN. Reasons for this may include the group's social naivety (Cerebra, 2012) and range of cognitive deficits, which can impact on their ability to generalise safety strategies and consider long-term consequences of behaviour (Carr, 2006;Mayes & Calhoun, 2004;Westwood, 2011). Further to this, young people with a range of disabilities may be more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviour than those without (McNamara & Willoughby, 2010). Del-Manso et al, (2011) employed focus groups to explore internet use by seven females with ASN (aged 13-16) and their understanding of the related benefits and risks.…”

Can an Intervention Program Affect Students’Attitudes Toward Inclusive Physical Education? An Application of the “Theory of Planned Behavior”

“…Any attempt to educate these children towards their autonomous or semiautonomous life is vital [1]. Learning life skills in knowledge, and attitudes -such as learning basic exercise rules -is a key priority in the educational integration of children with special needs [2].…”