Behavioural, emotional and social difficulties (BESD)

What are behavioural, emotional and social difficulties?

Behavioural, emotional and social difficulties - BESD - is an umbrella term to describe a range of complex and chronic difficulties experienced by many children and young people. Also known as SEBD or EBD, recent English government figures suggest that around 150,000 children in mainstream and special school suffer from BESD.

Characteristics of BESD

The SEN Code of Practice describes BESD as a learning difficulty where children and young people demonstrate features of emotional and behavioural difficulties such as:

being withdrawn or isolated
disruptive and disturbing
being hyperactive and lacking concentration
having immature social skills
or presenting challenging behaviours arising from other complex special needs

The term behavioural, emotional and social difficulties (BESD) covers a wide range of special educational needs. It includes children and young people with:

emotional disorders
conduct disorders/hyperkinetic disorders (including attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADD/ADHD])

Children and young people whose behavioural difficulties may be less obvious, for example:

those with anxiety
who self-harm
have school phobia or depression
those whose behaviour or emotional wellbeing are seen to be deteriorating

Whether a child or young person is considered to have BESD depends on a range of factors, including the:

nature
frequency
persistence
severity and
abnormality

of the difficulties and their cumulative effect on the child or young person's behaviour and/or emotional wellbeing compared with what might generally be expected for a particular age.

Characteristics of a young person affected by BESD therefore depend on the severity and nature of the difficulties the young person is experiencing.

Some young people will appear withdrawn, passive and depressive while others may be extroverted, excitable or aggressive. Some will seek ways to lessen their emotional turmoil and may turn to other destructive coping mechanisms, such as self-harm or substance misuse.

The young person's behaviour may challenge parents, carers, teachers and authority figures outside of acceptable social bounds.

There are different ways people with BESD may express themselves.

Personal: they may have low self-esteem, are depressed or withdrawn
Verbal: they behave in a threatening manner, arguing with peers and carers and swear excessively
Non-verbal: they will not observe rules, skip school, be disruptive, be aggressive or be violent
Work skills: they will be unable or unwilling to work without direct supervision, they struggle to concentrate or complete and follow through on tasks and instructions

BESD and learning difficulties

Children who suffer from BESD struggle to overcome trust issues which makes forming relationships with peers and adults incredibly hard.
The nature of BESD means that those who suffer from it face barriers in their educational and social development, and as such, in legislative terms, are classed as having 'learning difficulties'.

Learning difficulties can arise for children and young people with BESD because their difficulties can affect their ability to cope with school routines and relationships.
Pupils with BESD cover the full range of ability; however their difficulties are likely to be a barrier to learning. Learning difficulties and behaviour difficulties are often in a two-way relationship with each other.

For some pupils, behaviour difficulties may frustrate access to the curriculum, for example if aggressive behaviour leads to exclusion from some classroom activities or from the school. For others, a learning difficulty may lead to or worsen behavioural and emotional difficulties, for example, a child who has difficulty in grasping the basics of literacy or numeracy may withdraw from lessons or try to divert attention away from the learning difficulty by disruptive behaviour.

What causes BESD?

Underlying reasons for BESD can encompass both 'within child' factors and external factors. There is not an automatic link between BESD and a specific social factor, however there is evidence that prevalence varies according to sex, age, health and income. Incidence of BESD is higher in socially deprived inner city areas and affects more boys than girls. Children who have other learning or development difficulties, such as speech and language problems are also more at risk.

Early childhood experiences can have a major impact on later development, with the lack of a positive attachment to an adult being seen as particularly detrimental to some children. Parents are the biggest influence on a child's development.
Social circumstances can also impact on development. Children who experience family difficulties, including parental conflict, separation, neglect, indifference or erratic discipline, are more likely to develop BESD.

Many children and young people with BESD are also covered by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA). There is a broad definition of disability in the DDA: someone has a disability if they have 'a mental or physical impairment that has a long-term and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities'.

How Priory Education Services can help

Priory Education Services operates a network of schools and colleges throughout the country. It is the UK's leading specialist provider of education and care for children and young people aged four to 35 with a wide range of complex learning difficulties and disabilities. These include asperger's syndrome, autistic spectrum disorders, behavioural, emotional and social difficulties and specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia and dyscalculia.

Almost all students admitted have a Statement of Special Educational Needs and will have experienced difficulties within mainstream and local authority special schools. Many will have been excluded from school or had problems at home because of their complex and challenging needs and behaviours.

Please click here for further information on the relevant schools and colleges that can help with this condition.

Contact us to find out if we can help. Telephone 0845 2 774679 or email education@priorygroup.com Lines are open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and between 10am and 8pm at the weekends.

For further help

For parents:

Young Minds Parent Information Service
www.youngminds.org.uk
0800 018 2138

For professionals:

SEBDA
www.sebda.org
0161 240 2418