Leaving Special School: Post-16 outcomes for young adults with Specific Language Impairment by Catherine Carroll Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2011 Institute of Education University of London 1 Abstract Investigations of the post-16 outcomes for young people with a specific language impairment (SLI) are limited in scope. This thesis contributes to this body of knowledge by examining the academic, employment, independence and social outcomes of a cohort of pupils who attended a residential special school for pupils with SLI and the explanations provided by the young people for these outcomes and experiences. Sixty participants ranging between seventeen and twenty-two years of age completed a telephone survey to investigate their transition outcomes. Survey data are complemented by in-depth, face to face, interviews taken two years later with nineteen of the original cohort to explore their views on what had facilitated and hindered their transition experience. As a cohort, the young people were generally adapting well to the demands of life as a young adult. Almost all had continued into further education, with over half going on to increase their level of qualifications and some had entered university. Those young people who had started their working career were predominantly employed in the retail, administrative and skilled trade sectors and most of them enjoyed their work. The majority lived at home but reported a growing sense of independence and confidence. The transition back to their home communities, for the most part, had been positive with new friendships and a range of social activities engaged in. However, factors relating to gender and very low levels of qualifications were associated with more vulnerable transitions. The thesis uses the interplay of agency and structure to examine the transition accounts of the young people within the context of Bronfenbrenner's ecological model of human development. The findings have implications concerning the 14-19 curriculum provision for young people with SLI and for how their role in the transition process should be strengthened. Key words: Transition; Specific Language Impairment; Post-16; Special School; Special Educational Needs; Bounded Agency 2 Declaration and Word Count I hereby declare that, except where explicit attribution is made, the work presented in this thesis is entirely my own. Word count: 72,030 3 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Declaration and Word Count 3 Table of Contents 4 List of Tables 10 List of Figures 12 Acknowledgements 14 Chapter 1 Transition from school in the 21st century 15 1.2. Transitions: Conceptual and theoretical frameworks 16 1.2.1. The different ages of post-16 transition 16 1.2.2. Dimensions of transition 17 1.2.3. Describing the transition experience 18 1.2.4. Transition within a theoretical context 20 1.3. Current education and transition policy context 27 1.3.1. Policy responses 27 1.3.2. Policy responses and young people with SEN 32 1.4. Transition outcomes for young people post-16 34 1.4.1. An extended road to adulthood 36 1.4.2. A complex road to adulthood 38 1.4.3. Blurring of boundaries between youth and adulthood 38 1.4.4. Polarisation of young people within the transition process 39 1.4.5. Post-16 outcomes for young people with SEN 41 1.5. Conclusion 42 Chapter 2 Specific Language Impairment 43 2.1. Introduction 43 2.2. The development of the language system 43 2.3. Impact of SLI on functioning 44 2.4. Prevalence of SLI 45 4 2.5. SLI and co-occurring difficulties 47 2.6. Identification of SLI 48 2.6.1. Identification of SLI: Diagnostic approaches 48 2.6.2. Identification of SLI: Diagnostic dilemmas 50 2.6.3. Changing approaches to identifying SLI 56 2.7. Conclusion 57 Chapter 3 Transition outcomes for young people with a history of SLI 58 3.1. Introduction 58 3.2. Academic outcomes 59 3.2.1. Examination outcomes at sixteen for young people with SLI 59 3.2.2. First destinations after compulsory schooling 60 3.2.3. Level of qualifications post-16 61 3.2.4. Outcomes for emotional and social development 63 3.2.5. SLI and a potential link with affective disorders 63 3.2.6. SLI and self-esteem and peer relationships 66 3.2.7. Summary of findings 67 3.3. The Research Questions 68 3.3.1. Research Aims 68 3.3.2. Research Questions 69 3.4. Conclusion 69 Chapter 4 Methodology: Research design and methods 71 4.1. Introduction 71 4.2. A Mixed Methods Sequential Explanatory Research Design 71 4.2.1. Rationale for a mixed methods study 71 4.2.2. Sequential Explanatory Design (SED) 73 4.3. The Participants 76 4.3.1. School Setting 76 4.3.2. Sequential Purposive Sampling 76 5 4.3.3. The survey participants 77 4.3.4. The interview participants 78 4.4. Data collection 82 4.4.1. Telephone Survey 82 4.4.2. Rationale for Telephone Survey 82 4.5. Phase 2: Semi-structured Interview 85 4.5.1. The semi-structured interview: Question content 86 4.5.2 Procedure for Semi-structured Interview 86 4.6. Analysis procedures 87 4.6.1. Coding framework for semi-structured interview 89 4.7. Data and inference quality — issues of reliability and validity 90 4.7.1. Integrative Framework for Inference Quality 91 4.7.2. Researching young adults with a history of SLI 94 4.8. Ethical considerations 98 4.9. Conclusion 100 Chapter 5 Results I: Outcomes, facilitators and inhibitors of transition for education and work 103 5.1. Introduction 103 5.2. Education outcomes 107 5.2.1. Facilitators of education 115 5.2.2. Inhibitors of education 119 5.2.3. The role of agency and structure in the educational experiences of the young people 122 5.2.4. From special school to university: Joseph, Sandeep and Simon 124 5.3. Employment outcomes 132 5.3.1. Facilitators of employment 136 5.3.2. Inhibitors of employment 139 5.3.3. The role of agency and structure in the employment experiences of the young people 141 6 5.3.4. Mark's transition to employment 144 5.3.5 David's transition to employment 146 5.4 Young people not in education, employment or training 151 5.4 Inhibitors of employment for young people not in education, employment or training and the role of agency and structure 154 5.4.1. Lawrence's experience of transition and unemployment 156 5.5. Conclusion 161 Chapter 6 Results II: Outcomes, facilitators and inhibitors of transition for independence, social and leisure activities. 163 6.1. Introduction 163 6.2. Social and leisure experiences of the young people 163 6.3. Facilitators of social and leisure lives 171 6.4. Inhibitors of social and leisure lives 173 6.5 Role of agency and structure in the social and leisure experiences of the young people 176 6.6. Developing Independence 178 6.7. Facilitators of Independence 181 6.8. Inhibitors of independence 184 6.9. Role of agency and structure in the development of independence 187 6.10. Conclusion 189 Chapter 7 Transition of the young people - bringing it all together 190 7.1. Introduction 190 7.2. Identifying common transition experiences at the time of survey 190 7.3. Identifying common transition experiences at the time of survey 191 7.4. The role of structure and agency in the transition of the young people (Interview N = 19) 193 7.5. Bronfenbrenner's Model of Human Development 197 7.6 Conclusion 202 Chapter 8 Discussion 203 7 8.1. Introduction 203 8.2. Implications of the findings within the current transition context for all young people 203 8.2.1. Evidence of extended transition 204 8.2.2. Evidence of complex transitions 205 8.2.3. Transition and the polarisation of some groups of young people 205 8.3. Transition outcomes of participants compared with the findings from other SLI, SEN and national cohort studies 208 8.3.1. Comparison of academic outcomes with SLI, SEN and national cohort studies 208 8.3.2. Comparison of employment activities 213 8.3.3. Comparison of leisure and social outcomes 216 8.4. Factors that support transition 221 8.4.1 Factors that supported and inhibited transition 222 8.4.2. Characteristics of the young person as facilitators of transition 222 8.4.3. Family as supporter of transition 223 8.4.4. The experience of special school and transition 224 8.4.5. Transition and SLI 226 8.5. Facilitators and inhibitors of transition within a theoretical context 227 8.5.1. Evidence of structure and agency in the lives of the young people 227 8.5.2. When agency and structure combine: bounded agency 230 8.5.3. Bronfenbrenner's model of human development and transition 232 8.6. Recommendations for further research and policy development 233 8.7. Reflections on the role as researcher and limitations of the study 235 8.8. Contribution of the study to the field of post-16 transition for young people with a history of SLI 238 8.9. Conclusion 240 References 242 APPENDICES 257 8 APPENDIX I: Longitudinal SLI studies 259 APPENDIX II: Pen portraits of interview participants 262 APPENDIX III: Summary of results from pilot survey 269 APPENDIX IV: Interview Topics 276 APPENDIX V: Survey Schedule 277 APPENDIX VI: Semi-structured Interview Pilot Study 304 APPENDIX VII: Semi-structured Interview Schedule 321 APPENDIX VIII: Semi-structured Interview Coding Framework 330 9 List of Tables Table 1.1 Transition outcomes for 16 year olds in the UK in 2006 35 Table 1.2 Post-16 education participation rates in the UK (°/0) 37 Table 1.3 Comparison of activities for 18 year olds in the UK (%) 41 Table 3.1 Post-16 destinations for