Learning needs and difficulties among children of primary school age

This chapter is concerned with learning needs and difficulties among children of primary school age. This is an aspect of provision and policy where research is extensive and methodologically diverse. In a recent review, Dockrell, Peacey and Lunt (2002) outline the difficulties that are revealed in a close examination of the literature concerning attempts to meet the needs of children with special educational needs (henceforth SEN). They argue that intervention studies are limited in that they usually only consider one model of treatment, often without appropriate controls. They also suggest that: there is ‘little focus on the reliability and validity of assessment measures used both in qualitative and quantitative research’ (p. 2); that there has been very little research which has looked for features of schools which are both ‘effective’ and ‘inclusive’ (p. 38); that studies often involve small samples and there are few population-based perspectives on diversity and needs (p. 1); and that there are very few longitudinal studies that consider change over time (p. 1). Similar reservations were noted by the Evidence for Policy and Planning Information (EPPI) systematic review group which maintained a particular focus on pedagogical approaches and found only 68 out of 2095 reports that met its criteria (Nind et al. 2004) This finding acts as a note of caution with regard to the limitations of reviews such as the one we present here. Importantly, Davis and Florian (2004a) also note that reviews inevitably carry with them a cultural and historical specificity which renders them an important but incomplete part of any evidence base. They refer to the EPPI review conducted by Dyson, Howes and Roberts (2002), in which the authors acknowledge the constraints of rigid criteria for inclusion in a review.