PMLD

The relationship between mental health and special educational needs is both complex and misunderstood. In this article, Richard Rose, Professor of Special and Inclusive Education, Marie Howley, Senior Lecturer, Ann Fergusson, Senior Lecturer, and Johnson Jament, a PhD student, all from the Centre for Special Needs Education and Research directed by Richard Rose at the University of Northampton, discuss findings from a national research project which explored the perceptions of pupil mental health needs by staff working in residential special schools. Teachers and other professional colleagues often feel ill-prepared to address mental health difficulties experienced by their pupils. This is, at times, exacerbated by a wider confusion when atypical behaviours are attributed to a diagnosed learning difficulty rather than being recognised as symptomatic of a mental health problem. The article suggests a need for clarification of the relationship between complex special educational needs and mental health and for increases in training opportunities and the development of resources for teaching about and supporting mental health and emotional well-being.

After considerable searching I have found a draft copy of my Masters dissertation from 2006. The is the original work that informed the papers on dance and children encountering PMLD. Reading through it now I have clearly developed a lot as a researcher, but many of the questions and concerns of the research are still important.
I would be interested in revisiting these issues and themes - if anyone would be interested in collaborating on them, please contact me.

Background: Profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) are a complex range of disabilities that affect the general health and well-being of the individual and their capacity to interact and learn. Method: We developed a new methodology to capture the non-symbolic signalling behaviours of children with PMLD within the context of a face-to-face interaction with a caregiver to provide analysis at a micro-level of descriptive detail incorporating the use of the ELAN digital video software. Conclusion: The signalling behaviours of participants in a natural, everyday interaction can be better understood with the use of this innovation in methodology, which is predicated on the ecology of communication. Recognition of the developmental ability of the participants is an integral factor within that ecology. The method presented establishes an advanced account of the modalities through which a child affected by PMLD is able to communicate.

The CBSO’s Music & Ability Project partnered with three Special Educational Needs schools within Birmingham, Solihull and Worcestershire over a five-term period between 2017-2018. Funded by Youth Music, with the support of an additional thirteen funders, the project aimed to develop positive relationships with these schools in supporting the musical development of their PMLD (profound and multiple learning difficulties) cohorts of pupils, whilst simultaneously increasing the workforce and delivery skills of CBSO musicians in working with children and young people with profound and multiple learning disabilities in special educational needs school settings.

In this paper we show how developmental definitions of ‘PMLD’ in the academic literature can reduce children with PMLD to the status of ‘non-persons’. We highlight some of the innovative dimensions of our work which challenge this status quo. These include the application of new theory and research methodology, and our studies of the social interaction of children with PMLD. We argue that these aspects of our research help reinstate the value of children with PMLD in the academic literature and arguably have important practice implications. However, we conclude that much more work is needed in our fight against the exclusion and degradation that some children with PMLD face.

People with learning difficulties are subject to “troubling discourse” in relation to their sexuality (Winges-Yanez, 2014). This paper explores the way support workers have the potential to help remove disabling barriers that people with “severe” or “profound” learning difficulties face in expressing their sexuality. People who do not use verbal language to communicate rely heavily on support workers to interpret their communication (e.g. through gestures or eye gaze). This research is based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews of a small sample of support workers in the UK, which were qualitatively analysed using a phenomenological approach. This paper shows that the ubiquitous “person-centred” approach (Kaehne and Beyer, 2014) sites disabled people’s difficulties within their person, rather than in social disabling barriers such as taboos around sexuality, preventing support workers from recognising and addressing potential barriers. In addition, because of the construction of people with learning difficulties as “vulnerable”, support workers see their role as balancing clients’ freedom of choice with safeguarding them from harm. These two concerns are seen as opposing forces, rather than part of one continuum (Hollomotz, 2011). Finally, this paper shows that even when support workers are willing to support their clients’ sexual expression, their time is taken up with three types of activities: supporting basic needs (such as eating and personal care), administrative tasks, and pre-decided, limited activities, leaving little room for spontaneity, including people with learning difficulties choosing to be alone and to explore their sexuality. This inflexibility can be seen as part of a neo-liberal concern that disabled people live lives that are as “normal” as possible. Thus approaches to supporting non-verbal people are generally reactive, not proactive, and do not do enough to seek the desires of “service users”, rather than simply respond to so-called “challenging behaviour” which is put down to the person’s learning difficulty (Goodley, 2005).

In this paper we show how developmental definitions of ‘PMLD’ in the academic literature can reduce children with PMLD to the status of ‘non-persons’. We highlight some of the innovative dimensions of our work which challenge this status quo. These include the application of new theory and research methodology, and our studies of the social interaction of children with PMLD. We argue that these aspects of our research help reinstate the value of children with PMLD in the academic literature and arguably have important practice implications. However, we conclude that much more work is needed in our fight against the exclusion and degradation that some children with PMLD face.