How do primary school children view learning and behaviour problems and to what extent can a brief Philosophy 4 children (P4C) intervention change their feelings, behaviour or thoughts?

We know very little about how young children perceive others with special educational needs, or about how malleable these beliefs are. We designed and delivered a Philosophy for Children (P4C) intervention focused on improving attitudes to others with special educational needs and evaluated it using a randomised control trial design and child-friendly methods. Participants were children, from two primary schools in the north of England (n = 165). An English version of the CATCH scale was used to assess aspects of children’s attitudes (affective, behaviour and cognitive) before and after intervention. Post-intervention, children’s Affective attitudes had significantly improved, Behavioural attitudes had improved for both control and interventions groups, and Cognitive attitudes were more positive towards peers with behaviour (but not cognitive) differences, but not significantly. This demonstrates the positive potential impact of early intervention on children’s acceptance of others who are different to them, particularly with regard to Affective attitudes.