Are our children being over-treated at school?
Series: Child and therapy - Part 1
Ten-year-old Linus likes to daydream in class. He moves very carefully in the classroom.
Numbers are a mystery to eleven-year-old Lea.
Manuel from Year 1 can't sit still, bumps into everyone all the time and can't manage the scissors.
Shouldn't strengths be strengthened rather than weaknesses
be eradicated?
When his bench neighbour Lisa says «das Ross und der Bär», it sounds like «das Loss und del Bäl». Her mouth simply does not yet produce the «R».
Social behaviour, linguistic expression (articulation), physical (motor) skills and reading, writing and arithmetic: All of this comes up at the latest in the annual location or parent meeting between mum, dad and the class teacher. The question arises as to whether children like Linus, Lea, Manuel or Lisa need special support for their academic development. Do children need the support of a special needs teacher, an assessment by the school psychology service or another possible form of educational support? Or is it enough for parents and teachers to give the child more attention and focus on other areas? Shouldn't strengths be strengthened rather than weaknesses eradicated?
Funding mania versus support
Experts have been arguing about the therapeutic needs of schoolchildren for ten years. The rift in this discussion runs right through society. Some - parents, grandparents, paediatricians, teachers - see schoolchildren as being subjected to an obsession with support and therapy. Others, mostly paedagogues and psychologists, want nothing more than the best possible support for children so that they can keep up with the school's ever-increasing pace.
Special educational measures
Therapies in the school sector are summarised under the term special educational measures. In the 2017/2018 school year, almost 42,00 children in Switzerland received what are known as enhanced special educational measures. In concrete terms, this means that in addition to lessons in their regular class, they received individual or group lessons with a special needs teacher, a speech therapy lesson or a psychomotor therapy lesson. According to the Federal Statistical Office, a total of 4.5 per cent of all learning children and young people in Switzerland were affected.
More than half of Swiss schoolchildren receive therapy at some point during their school career. Far too many, say some paediatricians and experts, and plead for more serenity when it comes to school and learning difficulties. Parents, on the other hand, are often at a loss, question their expectations and fear stigmatisation. In this five-part series, we would like to shed some light on the field of school therapy programmes. What is the aim of so-called special educational measures? When are they necessary? What does a special needs teacher do in the classroom? How does a speech therapist work? What does psychomotor therapy mean? And don't we perhaps simply have the wrong idea of what is and isn't the norm?
You can find all previously published articles here: Child and therapy - the series
The figures show that children with learning difficulties and learning disabilities are integrated into mainstream schools much more often today than they were 20 years ago. This is what the law of integration wants - with the effect that children who would previously have been taught separately and attended a special school are now in a mainstream class.
At the same time, the social norm has changed and the idea of what is normal has become increasingly narrow. If children who attend a mainstream class have a weakness in motor skills, language or arithmetic, are dreamy or do not learn easily, attempts are made to relativise their weaknesses so that they can keep up in normal lessons. They should no longer be marginalised because of their weaknesses, but instead be part of a larger whole.
But when does a child really suffer from a dysfunction that can be treated, and when is their development merely delayed? In other words, when does the child simply need a little more time and space to develop? Experts admit: This diagnosis is not always easy to make. «These days, attention deficit disorders are being diagnosed more and more often,» criticises Solothurn paediatrician and author Thomas Baumann.
Andreas Müller, a development specialist and child and adolescent therapist from Chur, has also observed that schools today have a very narrow «band of norms». «Within this framework, behaviour quickly becomes conspicuous,» says Müller. «The greater the range of special educational measures on offer, the greater the demand.»
Children who previously attended a special school
now attend a mainstream class.
For Salome, the mother of dreamy Linus, the kindergarten teachers' and teachers' ideas about normality led to a great inner struggle in which she sometimes questioned herself as a mother. For the first time, Salome received feedback on her son from the kindergarten teacher. The nursery school teacher had identified symptoms of autism in Linus and advised the parents to have the boy assessed. The school psychologist assessed the boy and Linus was subsequently supported by a speech therapist and a special needs teacher.
But even when he started school, Salome experienced how Linus was very much in the focus of the teachers. At one point he was labelled as having Asperger's syndrome, then hypersensitivity, she explains.
The stigma of being different
She consulted a specialist who described Linus as «clumsy». The teachers agreed that Linus needed support with his development at school. The paediatrician advised Salome not to go against the school's recommendations. At the same time, the boy suffered from this declared otherness. He was teased by the other children and at some point he refused to go to school. This situation - the constant confrontation with teachers, therapists and school psychologists - became too much for Salome.
Looking back, she says: «The therapists and therapies were worth their weight in gold for Linus. He loved the one-to-one sessions with the speech therapist and also those with the remedial teacher who worked with him on psychomotor skills.» But at some point, she herself simply had a strong desire for her son to simply be considered «completely normal».
The family moved house, changed neighbourhoods and thus school. On the first day of school, Linus came home relaxed and happy. He said: «The teacher is nice. The other pupils too!» Of course, the new school was aware of Linus' difficulties, but in a conversation Salome asked the class teacher to consider her boy completely normal for a trial period. The teacher found no argument against this. The result: Linus enjoys going to school again. So are the teachers the deciding factor? Sometimes yes, but sometimes not. On the one hand, society's demands on schools have grown considerably over the last twenty years. Psychologist Andreas Müller recognises this. He says: «Teachers are under increasing pressure to perform.» Some parents have high expectations of their children. Zurich paediatrician and development specialist Oskar Jenni agrees: «Many children suffer from the great pressure of their environment,» says Jenni. He advises parents to be more relaxed and, above all, to trust in their children's developmental potential.
Children as a projection surface
Not an easy thing, because children often serve their parents as a projection screen for their own unfulfilled wishes: Missed out on a dream job? The son should have it better. University career botched? That shouldn't happen to the daughter. Is their own social status below expectations? Then job descriptions such as locksmith, farmer or bricklayer often don't fit in with the parental family image. «In an increasingly competitive society, it's a big challenge not to transfer your own expectations and demands onto your children,» says Jenni.
Comparisons put parents under pressure
Andreas Müller, a child and youth psychologist from Chur, knows that parents come under pressure when their child's level of development becomes an issue at primary school. According to Müller, it takes a thick skin not to be irritated by the comparisons made by a teacher. He hopes that parents will be more tolerant and emphasises that the level of development at primary school is extremely varied: «In a bed of tulips, there are also flowers that bloom early. And alongside the masses that bloom at the same time, there are those that develop late. But each one is beautiful in its own right.»
Developmental psychology topics must be given a higher priority in teacher training, demands Oskar Jenni.
The speech therapist has been working with Lisa and her «horse and bear» for a few months now. And Manuel has been training his body awareness in psychomotor therapy since the holidays. Eleven-year-old Lea, on the other hand, has been able to benefit from slowing down in maths lessons. Maths used to be stressful for her. Since she has been able to adjust her learning goals and receive individual maths lessons from a remedial teacher, the stress has disappeared. Lea's mum Jenna describes the new setting as the best thing that could have happened. «Maths is now Lea's favourite subject.» Her mum feels very relieved by the curative education support. «If the school has such clear guidelines about what fits into the system and what doesn't, it's good that those who don't fit in are supported.»
Stress blocks development
Müller has observed in his many years of practice that children often just need more time. If they are under stress from their parents or school, this has a negative effect on their development. The child then perceives less well, is less able to retain the material and is ultimately blocked. Müller criticises in particular the tendency towards a lot of independent work and weekly targets in lessons. «This is a major challenge for children who are not yet able to structure their learning due to their stage of development.» The antidote is: «Give time, allow time, give time and, above all, take time for children. Commitment, attention, appreciation and being present are crucial,» says Müller. «Educators should become actual development specialists,» Jenni also demands. In his opinion, developmental psychology topics should be given a much higher priority in teacher training in future in order to make development-orientated teaching possible at all. Both Jenni and Müller are critical of society's efforts to identify all special needs and ultimately optimise them with therapies. Jenni sees this as an «industrialisation of childhood»: «Education has become a commodity in Switzerland,» says the development specialist from Zurich. However, his colleague from Chur, Müller, also points to positive experiences: «In one-to-one settings, the children often receive beneficial and ongoing recognition for their efforts, which strengthens them. It is ideal if the individual lessons are coordinated with the teachers in terms of support. This often turns failures into courageous fighters!»
What the statistics say
A distinction is made between support measures in mainstream schools and separate programmes, i.e. special classes in mainstream schools, special schools, introductory classes or classes for foreign language learners. The latter has become less common in the course of integrative schooling: Of the 940,000 schoolchildren in Switzerland, only 1.5 per cent now make use of separate provision. It is far more common for children to receive support from curative education, speech therapy or psychomotor therapy: 42,000 children (in the 2017/2018 school year). These concepts are more often part of everyday school life for boys than for girls. 5.7 per cent of boys took advantage of an enhanced special educational measure in the mainstream class, but only 3.2 per cent of girls. (Source: BFS)
The diversity of the offer
There is a wide variety of special educational support in Switzerland: maths in small groups with a remedial teacher, individual therapy with a speech therapist or psychomotor therapist, games with a kindergarten teacher trained in special education to practise gross and fine motor skills. Every municipality, indeed practically every school, has its own programme for children in need of educational support. In rural areas of Switzerland, children with learning difficulties are more likely to receive integrated schooling than in urban areas. This is according to figures from the Federal Statistical Office. 91 per cent of special schools in Switzerland are located in urban areas. Only 9 per cent of special schools are located in rural communities. (Source FSO)
Read more about therapy:
- Wann braucht mein Kind eine Therapie?
Ein Kind hält den Stift nicht richtig, ein anderes kann beim Turnen nicht auf einem Bein hüpfen – diese Dinge kommen im schulischen Standortgespräch im Kindergarten zur Sprache. Oft folgt ein Therapieangebot: Welche Therapieformen gibt es und wie sinnvoll sind diese? - Medikamente gegen Stress: Wann kann ein Kind selbst entscheiden?
Ist ein Kind noch nicht fähig, ein eigenes Urteil zu fällen müssen Erwachsene über medizinische Behandlungen entscheiden. Doch wann ist ein Kind urteilsfähig? Ein Wegweiser durch den juristischen Dschungel. - «Nicht schon wieder schreiben»
Für Kinder mit einer Lese- und Rechtschreibschwäche ist das Lesen und Schreiben ein «Chnorz». Die Logopädin Andrea Weber-Hunziker über Anzeichen und Ursachen und wie das Lernen in der Schule trotzdem gelingen kann.
