NAAIDT: D&T and SEN pupils

	Modelling
	AT1 Designing
	AT2 Making

Design and Technology and pupils with special educational needs in ordinary schools

Introduction

It is estimated that at some point in their educational experience, one in every five pupils will have special educational needs. For some pupils these needs will be transient and for others they will be ongoing. The challenge for every teacher is to address these needs through careful planning and effective teaching.

The spectrum of special needs is substantial. Children with profound and severe learning difficulties will most frequently attend special schools. Other children with moderate difficulties might attend special schools which have arrangements for integration with ordinary schools. But the majority of children with special educational needs will attend ordinary schools and will be fully integrated with other pupils.

Pupils' needs might be multiple and complex but can be crudely considered under three basic categories:

physical or sensory difficulties;
intellectual difficulties;
emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Additionally, whilst strictly speaking not falling within the framework of special educational needs, linguistic difficulties are a fourth category. For some schools in areas with high numbers of pupils with an emerging understanding of English this is a high priority. However this subject demands more attention than can be given in this brief Guideline.

The code of practice which followed the 1993 Education Act proposed individual educational plans for pupils at or beyond stage 2 of assessment. Such plans should specify how the curriculum will be adapted to take account of the particular learning difficulty.

Adaptations might include:

changes to the type of task;
special support given to carry out the activities;
modified learning resources.

How does all this relate to Design and Technology?

The new Order for Design and Technology has two attainment targets - Designing and Making.

It is worth considering the issues which each of these ATs might present.

Attainment Target 1 Designing

The nature of design has achieved much attention over many years from a wide range of interested bodies.

The Design Council, Engineering Council and the Crafts Council, have produced extensive materials on how designing can be developed in schools and supported by a range of activities to promote their own particular perspective on designing.
NCC, SCAA, SEAC, NAAIDT, NATHE, AAIAD, DATA, APU, IDATER, SCSST, and a plethora of other National Associations have provided extensive comment and advice on the subject.
LEAs, institutions of higher education, exam boards, publishers, advisers and design gurus have further added to the range of interpretation.

Designing presents intellectual challenges which are not yet fully explored with respect to pupils with special needs nor do we understand fully how these challenges differ from, for instance, language development, reading or numeracy.

What then are the special needs in designing?

All too often designing is a prescribed activity characterised by the 'design cycle'. Whilst this can be helpful as a structure, at times, it often constrains pupils.

Designing is not a paper activity, yet frequently pupils spend a disproportionate time in working through ideas on paper which have no sense of the reality of materials and processes.

The Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) proposed a model of designing which was an interaction between the mind and the concrete world.

This model has much to offer. A designer does not sit down and think about three ideas before eventually choosing the first idea that was thought of. Designing can be about adaptation and refinement as much as generating inventions.

Some teachers confuse designing with communicating and recording. This is quite understandable when one looks at the marking schemes of examination boards.

Graphical representation frequently becomes the primary objective and assessors can be seduced into thinking that because the graphics are well laid out that it is successful designing.

Compliance with this accepted norm becomes an assessment criterion in itself.

This has an effect on all those pupils who are perfectly good at designing with materials and processes but who find graphic presentation difficult. It is also detrimental for pupils with other learning difficulties who need a more direct link between the materials and the planned outcome, or those who need regular, tangible and concrete feedback to sustain motivation.

It would of course not be appropriate to dispense with the intellectual activity of designing in itself, but teachers need to be aware of the potential hazards of adopting too rigid an approach to the recording and communicating of design ideas and development.

Beyond the realm of graphic presentation, there are more clearly defined special needs issues which relate to designing.

Where intellectual, emotional or behavioural learning difficulties impair learning the following strategies might be considered.

Use pupils' interests, experiences and strengths. Avoid abstract design situations.
Ask yourself why would a child want to engage in this activity? Is it relevant to their situation? Does it make the best use of their experiences?
Provide clear and precise rules and methods of working; avoid over lengthy introductions and structures to achieve successful outcomes. Make sure you and the pupils have a clear idea of the criteria for success.
Promote discussion about ideas; most designers work within a community of interest. Value comments on each other's work and develop an atmosphere of mutual respect.
Celebrate work in progress through the creative use of display. Use everyday items to show how product design has developed over time.
Use IT to support recording.
Reduce the amount of writing and research required. All pupils will suffer, but especially those with learning difficulties, when too much emphasis is placed on abstract designing.
Make tasks less open-ended. Whilst perhaps limiting access to the higher levels of attainment, clear parameters and partly prescribed activities can ensure success and provide a sense of achievement.

Such approaches will:

ensure short-term successes with regular rewards;
make strong, clear and relevant links between making and designing activities. Designing should be seen as a purposeful and relevant aspect of the subject by providing regular reflection points rather than a bureaucratic chore;
provide lots of stimulus including potential solutions. Designing can include the adaption of existing ideas and where pupils have difficulty in making the first steps, a starting point can be provided to initiate motivation.

Attainment Target 2 Making

Generally speaking the making of artefacts holds the greatest fascination for many, if not most, pupils. Sadly, some of the issues already discussed relating to recording of ideas interfere with this enjoyment rather than enhance it.

Some pupils will have disabilities in making. These might be physical, intellectual or emotional and behavioural difficulties.

Physical and sensory difficulties are wide ranging. The use of specially adapted equipment is essential in such instances, but physical and sensory needs should be carefully assessed before making assumptions about adaptations. Changes in work heights, extended levers, special grips, non-slip surfaces, adapted light levels, are some obvious examples. But if pupils are to engage in a wide range of activities substantial modifications will need to be made and technician support will be essential to achieve this objective. It is also important to ensure the health and safety of pupils who have difficulties with gross and fine motor skills, especially where dangerous equipment is concerned. Equally every effort should be made to provide the widest range of experiences for pupils across a range of materials and processes.

Intellectually, some pupils will have difficulties in listening to or recalling long or complex instructions. Pupils may have limited appreciation of potential hazards.

Pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties frequently have difficulties in sustaining effort over an extended period to ensure that work is completed.

Additionally, there might be a large group of pupils who are not obvious SEN pupils but who have little experience of handling materials and using processes for making. For this potentially large group of pupils it is important that they are given a substantial amount of experience if they are to produce products of quality. The standards of making have noticeably declined over recent years as the range and content of the subject has expanded. It is not unusual for pupils to reach Y with very limited experience of certain materials and processes. The problems that this has for all pupils is a major issue, but where pupils have some of the learning difficulties highlighted above, the problems are multiplied many fold.

In such cases schools will need to consider a range of strategies which might include:

adaptations to tools and equipment to aid physical difficulties;
the use of templates, jigs, patterns and other 'shortcuts' to aid completion of a task;
carefully considered intervention and support to promote independence;
provision of pre-prepared materials;
use of IT to assist the making activity, eg textiles equipment, CAD/CAM;
provision of extra time to complete tasks;
support staff trained in D & T practices;
clear landmarks on the route to the completion of longer tasks;
regular rewards and feedback;
careful consideration given to comparisons between work of special needs and other pupils' work;
variety of tasks;
good advice on correcting mistakes where they occur.

NAAIDT recommends two publications which it believes can offer further support to teachers.

The first is by the Curriculum Council for Wales (now ACAC) entitled Design and Technology - One in Five. The other is Enhancing Design and Technology in Special Education, published by The ORT trust in conjunction with NAAIDT, DATA and the Department for Education.

Design and Technology - One in Five ISBN 1 898 033 31 5 price £5.00 each from ACAC (Tel: 01222 344 946)

Enhancing Design and Technology in Special Education price ,9.00 each, (or ,8.00 for 3 or more), from The ORT Trust, 126 Albert Street, London, NW1 7NE (Tel: 0171 446 8500)

This Guideline has been developed from a paper by David Williamson (Inspector for Art, Design and Technology, Haringey Educational Services) at the NAAIDT Conference, April 1995.

Please send any comments on this Guideline to: Guideline@naaidt.org.uk
For a list of other NAAIDT publications see the Publications section or send s.a.e. to:
DATA, 16 Wellesbourne Road, Wellesbourne, Warwickshire CV35 9JB.
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