Neurodivergent children are being failed in mainstream schools, teachers warn | 5 News

►In an exclusive 5 News survey almost half the teachers we spoke to say neurodivergent pupils aren't getting the support they need. According to a teachers' union, they're being "failed" in mainstream schools.

As many as one in five of the population are neurodivergent - a term that encompasses conditions including ADHD, autism, dyspraxia, dyslexia and dyscalculia. Our Chief Correspondent Tessa Chapman has this special report.


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[mandlin]

I’m dyslexic dyspraxic and have dyscalculia. Had zero behavioural problems, but teachers bullied the hell out of me and now I have lifelong depression. It’s any type of neurological difference they will make your life HELL.

What training does an adult need not to call a kid a failure daily? What training does an adult need not to make a class laugh at you saying “you’ll never get a job”? They can’t even do fucking empathy and teachers who traumatise (again I was very wel behaved) kids face no consequences! But I was left with a damaged body (anorexic ages 14-16 trying to cope with the PTSD they gave me), a damaged mind (stuck on antidepressants) and a stolen potential.

You get to retire from calling ND kids names, but ND kids live with your words for life 😖 😠

[simonedury]

Its discrimination..every child should be helped..if u have a good understanding teacher you child will thrive...getting shouted at barred from classes has a huge affect on a child

[Sunflower-kkul]

The problem is they hire Senco staff from supermarkets - they don’t have a clue how to do their jobs - the teachers have no support and the school use your kid funding to help themselves more than your kid. They have no clue how to support kids with disabilities - is a nightmare and a let down to these kids.

[lauraembleton]

has someone who has autism the same thing happened to me where teachers
didn't know what to do with me or how to teach me so I've been thou the
same thing myself and know what it is like.

[beautifulsoul]

People in these days are disgusting because when I go shopping with my autistic child my son makes abit nose and people just stair and give my son and I a bad look 😩 only people's gives u hard time 😢 gives you too much stress from school also people 😪

[apparentpathway]

Wouldn't it be nice for the burden of experiencing an non inclusive education be taken off the pupil and redirected onto ensuring that strategies and reasonable adjustments are implemented within their education throughout their development?

[emmakao]

Both my children have been failed for years and now are going into residential in May this year, They both had there diagnosis but were failed in the right school settings. The story starts in 2014 and I will be taking it to the education secretary once my children are settled

[mrsymoore]

My mainstream schools in the 70’s and 80’s were hell on earth, I was diagnosed autism in 74 and had remedial maths, labelled slow etc. I left school at age 16 in the early 80’s depressed, ostracised, bullied and ptsd. It took me a long time to believe in myself. Even university were horrible towards my needs. Shame on ignorant people in this day and age not taking the time to understand our needs.

[ilovetech]

my daughter's scoliosis got over looked because the education pulled funding for physicals. the public schools are a failure. they were more interested in big pharma kickbacks than basic common sense.

[Corina-dqmy]

No. The schools do NOT always help. In fact, they don't want a child with autism to succeed. I am not saying that all teachers, therapists, Admin., office staff, etc. do this. But some do. If a child has autism or they believe the child may have autism, they target the parent and try to chip away at the parent until the parent caves in and takes the kid out. They provide paperwork for "resources". But often the teachers themselves want to do the bare minimum and really they shouldn't have a teacher who doesn't like kids. Many kids with autism are not bad kids. Some kids are very difficult and aggressive. And in more extreme cases, that's different. But time and a little effort goes a long way. Change doesn't happen overnight. It takes time. Teachers, some at least, seem to expect instant change. Like in a few weeks or less, and if the kid is at all inconvenient in the eyes of those types of teachers, they will start making a laundry list of complaints against the child, to set a record of "problem" behavior. And the second a child who's five, or six years old, hits, or pushes, or cries, or doesn't want to sit and be quiet, they (those types of teachers) complain LOUDLY to that parent when parent picks the kid up, or whatever. Another kid who doesn't have the autism label, on the other hand, is not nearly as likely to be targeted as a bad kid for the same offenses. They definitely tend to want to ramp-up the image of the child as "BAD ". A teacher who genuinely cares about your kid is rare. Especially with autism. They may even sometimes embellish. It's not always true however and often is, or may be, exaggerated. The kid is gaslit. Among other things. If you are concerned contact an attorney. Otherwise they will keep doing this and putting a parent and their kid through this hell. Really a shame. The system isn't even the issue as much as it is the staff themselves. Because actually they do provide funding for many good things, which a child with autism may benefit from, but be prematurely denied. Some don't even have a chance. So unfair, So incredibly sad.

[electro_sykes]

I remeber doing the same type of work as my peers and they got higher marks and i didn't. Why, turns out it was because I had autism and it was to feed the stereotype that people like me are dumb and stupid

[Rugby-ey]

my daughter has been so lukeu she went to secondrey school disshartened, ruined and would mask due to her experience at primry school where she had been on the list for esesmant since seven and still at 11 was still on the list due to her school saying she wasnt and didnt have any symptomns. she went to secondry and masked and realy struggled until year eight where she met the new sendco, where he said she screamed ADHD, autism, anxitey and pda. it was so disshartning that she was struggling so much and we couldnt give her any more support and neither could her primary school . she had been failed. we couldnt get her in to speciel or get or one to one as she had only just then been diagnosed a few months later . a unit opened up at her school wich ment she got quater of the time in mainstream the rest in the unit with one to one support when going in to mainstream and an echp . this is what the hoverment need to be funding more as this is what more and more children are being failed

[temme]

They should go to a special needs school. It is doing a disservice to both general Ed and special Ed children. There is nothing wrong with that