ABSTRACT
The point was made earlier that the self-esteem of children with special needs may be particularly vulnerable to influence and damage so the issues of maintenance and enhancement for them are even more crucial. The twin areas of effort therefore for improving conditions via the teacher are: In-service training of special educational needs(SEN) teachers in strategies to enhance self-esteem in their pupils and Programmes or strategies aimed at directly enhancing the SEN teacher's own self-esteem. A major issue for teachers, which concerns both professional development and personal self-esteem, relates to the opportunity for in-service education which is currently available. Personal and professional development is an important ingredient in maintaining and enhancing teachers' self-esteem. Self-esteem enhancement for staff members can be viewed as a 'whole school' issue and tackled on that basis. Dennis Lawrence has organised a series of work-shops on self-esteem for teachers, principally in Australia.
