Norah Frederickson

Very little is known about the extent to which eleven-year olds might consider a career in medicine. This exploratory study therefore asked children and their parents about medicine as a possible career, looking also at the relationship to a range of background measures. A longitudinal, three-wave, questionnaire study of students transferring from primary to secondary school (STARS), with data collection at primary school (wave 1; mean age 11.3 yrs), in the first months of secondary school (wave 2; mean age 11.7 yrs) and at the end of the first year of secondary school (wave 3; mean age 12.3 yrs). Parents/carers also completed questionnaires. Children were entering ten large comprehensive secondary schools in the south-east of England; 46.3 % were female, 15.6 % receiving free-school meals, 39.8 % were Black or Minority Ethnic and 28.8 % had a first language which was not English. Of 2287 children in the study, 1936 children (84.5 %) completed at least one questionnaire of the three waves (waves 1, 2 and 3). The main outcome measures were an open-ended question in each wave, “What job would you like to do when you grow up?”, and a more detailed questionnaire in wave 3 asking about 33 different jobs. 9.9 % of children spontaneously mentioned medicine as a career on at least one occasion. For the specific jobs, would-be doctors particularly preferred Hospital Medicine, followed by Surgery, General Practice and then Psychiatry. Would-be doctors were also more interested in careers such as Nurse, Archaeologist, Lawyer and Teacher, and less interested in careers such as Shopkeeper, Sportsperson, or Actor/dancer/singer/musician. Would-be doctors were less Neurotic, more Open to Experience, more Conscientious, and preferred higher prestige occupations. Those interested in medicine did not score more highly on Key Stage 2 attainment tests or Cognitive Abilities Test, did not have a higher family income or greater parental/carer education, and did not have more experience of illness or deaths among family and friends. An interest in a medical career, unlike high prestige jobs in general, is not associated with higher educational attainment or cognitive ability, and it is likely that only one in ten of the children interested in medical careers will have sufficient educational attainment at GCSE or A-level to be able to enter medical school.

Despite embracing a bio-psycho-social perspective, the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) assessment framework has had limited application to date with children who have special educational needs (SEN). This study examines its utility for educational psychologists’ work with children who have Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Mothers of 40 children with ASD aged eight to 12 years were interviewed using a structured protocol based on the ICF framework. The Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorder (DISCO) was completed with a subset of 19 mothers. Internal consistency and inter-rater reliability of the interview assessments were found to be acceptable and there was evidence for concurrent and discriminant validity. Despite some limitations, initial support for the utility of the ICF model suggests its potential value across educational, health and care fields. Further consideration of its relevance to educational psychologists in new areas of multi-agency working is warranted.

The effectiveness of a 12-week, small group emotional literacy (EL) intervention in reducing bullying behaviour in school was evaluated. Participants were 50 primary school pupils identified through peer nomination as engaging in bullying behaviours. The intervention was implemented in schools already engaged with a universal social and emotional learning initiative, including an anti-bullying component. Within schools, participants were randomly assigned to an intervention or a wait-list comparison group. Response to the intervention was found to be dependent on baseline levels of EL. Only children whose baseline level was low showed a significant reduction in peer-rated bullying behaviour. No effect of the intervention was detected on victimisation or adjustment scores, although positive changes in adjustment were associated with increased EL.

An initial evaluation of the utility of designing an intervention to address neuroscience-based subtyping of children who have conduct problems was undertaken in this pilot study. Drawing on the literature on callous–unemotional traits, a novel intervention programme, ‘Let's Get Smart’, was implemented in a school for children with social emotional and behavioural difficulties. A mixed-methods design was used to investigate the perspectives of staff participant-observers in the change process, alongside standardised scores on measures of pupil performance and behaviour. Both qualitative and quantitative results showed reductions in externalising behaviour and improvements in measures of hypothesised underlying cognitive and affective processes. While externalising behaviour improved across subtypes, associated changes in underlying processes differed by subtype, supporting the potential value of neuroscience-informed contributions to intervention planning.

Evaluation data are reported on a Transfer Support Team (TST) intervention which supports pupils identified as vulnerable during secondary school transfer. Information about school concerns and broader adjustment measures were collected from TST supported pupils on three occasions and from a “typical benchmark group” on two occasions. Factors known to confer additional vulnerability around school transfer were also analysed: English as an additional language, free school meals eligibility and special educational needs. Findings indicate that this relatively brief transfer support programme impacts positively on targeted pupils’ levels of school concerns and illustrates the importance of differentiated monitoring of intervention outcomes.

Central coherence refers to an in-built propensity to form meaningful links over a wide range of stimuli and to generalize over as wide a range of contexts as possible. In children with autism this ability is diminished, and the impact of central coherence deficits in children with autism have previously been observed using static measures of learning, such as reading comprehension test performance. In this study, the relationship between central coherence and more dynamic indicators of learning are investigated. The responses of 52 children with autism (mean age 9:10 years) on a test of central coherence and a dynamic assessment task were analysed. All the children showed significant improvements in dynamic assessment test scores after mediation; however, among those with below average nonverbal intelligence scores, weak central coherence was significantly associated with smaller gains in performance after teaching. Implications for the validity of dynamic assessments for children with autism are discussed.

In the last decade, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of pupils with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) attending mainstream schools. However, particular concerns have been expressed about their inclusion, focused on an increased risk of peer rejection and lack of staff knowledge about appropriate teaching approaches. Parental views of inclusive placements are consistently more positive where there is an ASD resource base in the school. This study was designed to investigate characteristics of the provision available to pupils with ASD in mainstream schools with and without a specialist ASD resource base. Information was gathered from semi‐structured interviews with staff in 26 schools about levels of inclusion and support, about the strategies used to support pupils with ASD, both at an individual and whole school level, and about changes considered desirable. Interviewees were also asked to describe how they would respond to scenarios depicting situations that are commonly experienced in working with pupils who have ASD. Findings confirmed that the features of mainstream placements identified as important by parents of children with ASD were more likely to be found in schools with ASD resource bases. However, it was found that comparable provision could be made across settings given appropriate staff training. Scope for further development across settings was also identified, particularly in the use of evidence‐based peer‐mediated strategies.

Children with special educational needs are generally less accepted, more rejected and more likely to be victims of bullying than their typically developing classmates. However, they are sometimes treated more favourably than classmates, more like friends than acquaintances. In this article, based on her contribution to the Gulliford Lecture series, Norah Frederickson of University College London argues that attributional processes which appear central to the establishment of peer acceptance and supportive relationships are more likely to be triggered when a child's difficulties are severe or obvious, classmates are older and explanatory information is given to them. Schools are sometimes reluctant to discuss the special needs of a pupil with their classmates due to concerns about labelling. However, the literature on labelling suggests that such concerns have been exaggerated and that labels can sometimes serve a protective function. Norah Frederickson suggests that respectful, helping relationships between typically developing classmates and pupils with special needs are valued by young people, their parents and teachers, and can build to friendships within a context of positive opportunities for interaction.