Applying Attunement Principles in a Special Primary School for Children with Behavioural, Emotional and Social Difficulties

This thesis reviewed interventions carried out to support children attending alternative education provisions as they have been categorised as having behavioural, emotional and social difficulties (BESD).

The review identified that, whatever the types of intervention, two factors appear to be pivotal to the degree of effectiveness of the intervention:

• staff engagement and ownership
• the quality of the relationship between the children and the adults

The empirical paper reports a study that explored both these factors. The influence of relationships is evaluated in terms of attunement principles; the degree the relationship between two people is harmonious and responsive.

Staff engagement and ownership are considered through employing a training approach where staff use a reflective framework to consider their own strengths and plan their own areas for development.

The study employed a quasi-experimental design to compare change in levels of teacher attunement before and after the training intervention in one primary school for children with BESD. These were also compared with a similar primary school who did not receive the intervention.

To evaluate potential benefits for the children of increased attunement measures were collected before and after about their sense of belonging to their school and teacher perceptions of the degree of behavioural, emotional and social difficulties the child was demonstrating and experiencing.

To gain an insight into teachers' perceptions of the training process semi-structured interviews were carried out after the intervention and analysed through thematic analysis.

The study found that there were greater improvements in attunement, sense of belonging and the degree of BESD in the intervention school, but these were not significantly greater than in the comparison school.

It concludes that for this type of intervention to be effective it needs to be longer term to embed the attunement principles and reflective approach into teacher practices.