Staff at the Derbyshire high school where she helped develop an "internal inclusion centre" for children with behaviour difficulties hardly gave the project a unanimous welcome.
The centre was established in 1996 following an Ofsted inspection that required the comprehensive to "minimise the adverse effects of the behaviour difficulties of a minority of pupils" and to improve provision for pupils with special educational needs.
"If this practice were widespread, it could further serve to disadvantage vulnerable children, who by virtue of their impoverished social circumstances are already at increased risk of language impairment, behaviour difficulties, and slow academic progress," the latest study says.
We made a point of picking him up on the small behaviour difficulties, saying out loud: "I've noticed you're swinging on your chair," or "I wonder why you've started swearing?" He realised we would notice everything he did, and he realised that we were thinking about what his behaviour communicated.
Past research has reported on correlates of child behaviour difficulties.
Interventions aimed at reducing behaviour difficulties need to consider the impact of multiple risk variables.
Research has identified multiple risk factors for the development of behaviour difficulties.
The relationship between risk and behaviour difficulties was non-linear, with exposure to increasing risk having a disproportionate and detrimental impact on behaviour difficulties in child and adolescent models.
Nonetheless, with respect to the specific target group of students in prevocational programmes with learning and behaviour difficulties, this result should be perceived as positive.
There was evidence of a cumulative risk effect, suggesting that exposure to higher numbers of risk factors, regardless of their exact nature, resulted in increased behaviour difficulties.
Risk factors associated with increases in behaviour difficulties over an 18-month period were summed to create a cumulative risk score, with this explanatory variable being added into a multi-level model.
