Assessing Special Educational Needs: the child's contribution

This article is concerned with the role of the child in assessments under the 1981 Education Act. It focuses on the implications of the child's contribution for professional practice. Despite the recommendations of the DES in Circular 22/89 that the feelings and perceptions of the child should be taken into account and that the concept of partnership should be extended to children and young people, in practice the child's contribution is often minimal. The reason for this may in part arise from clinical difficulties in gaining access to children's thinking. In part, however, it may also arise from constraints which influence the way professionals conceptualize children's needs. A further issue discussed in this article concerns the effect on children's behaviour of their “metaperceptions” i.e. their beliefs about the purposes of an assessment and about the role of the professionals involved. It is argued that these may have an impact upon the child's thinking and behaviour, with implications for the way in which professionals understand ‘the problem’.