CHALLENGING BEHAVIOR IN SCHOOLS FOR PUPILS WITH SEVERE LEARNING-DIFFICULTIES

A postal survey concerning the prevalence of challenging behaviour in day schools for pupils with severe learning difficulties, covering one in six schools in England and Wales, is reported. Definitions of part icular challenging behaviours were operationalised and an overall rati ng of management difficulty was shown to be reasonably consistently ap plied across schools. There were unexplained differences in the report ed prevalence of challenging behaviour across schools but the 'average ' school of 60 pupils would be expected to identify around five more d ifficult pupils and a further nine pupils who showed less difficult ch allenging behaviour. Differences between Independently mobile (IM), an d non-independently mobile (NIM), pupils in abilities and the pattern of challenging behaviour emerged. Data are discussed in the context of possible training needs of schools.