Some kids have problems fitting in from day one, writes Kathryn Holmquist, but parents and children have too often been blamed when, in reality, the child's inability to cope with school is a problem for the entire education system

Some children break their parents' hearts. Like Bart Simpson, they are in trouble from the day they start school. They can not fit in, so they start to disrupt the rest of the class. Some act the clown, while others may be dangerously aggressive. For those with insight, it's obvious that these children are having their hearts broken too.

One Dublin mother says that her "normal, happy" son changed the day he entered school because he could not cope with the demands and boundaries of the school environment. "Homework is a nightmare (and) he has never had a happy day at school. My child has had a miserable childhood," says the mother. Diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed medication, which was unsuitable, the child was placed in a special school, but he was eventually excluded. The boy "gets in trouble everywhere he goes", says this mother.

Researcher Anne Gallagher and educationalist Margaret Maher, of the Task Group for Young People exhibiting Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties in Clondalkin, Dublin, were "deeply moved" by such parents' stories in their research for "In Trouble from Day One: Children in Clondalkin with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties" by Ted Fleming and Anne Gallagher of NUI Maynooth, which will be launched on Thursday. "Life is very stressful for these parents. Educational and behavioural difficulties (EBD) have whole families living on a knife-edge," says Gallagher.

Parents were at the "end of their tethers, hugely distressed but deeply committed," says Gallagher. The tragedy is not just for families, but also for society: A shocking one in 10 Irish children has EBD, according to the report. In most cases, they are not getting the comprehensive help that they need.

For parents, the message is stark: the prevalence of EBD - which is much higher than the average 10 per cent in some schools - combined with the education system's failure to deal with it, leads to children being excluded from school. Untreated EBD accounts for the bulk of the statistic that 18 per cent of young people leave school before doing the Leaving Cert, says Brian Fleming, principal of Collinstown Park Community College, Dublin.

Margaret Maher, who has 20 years experience as a teacher in Palmerstown, says that in every class of 30 children, three have EBD. In deprived areas, a class of 30 is likely to have five or more such children. "Five is the number that breaks the balance. I will never forget having five such children in a class. Then, in the front of the class would be the bright children trying hard and I could see them becoming more and more disillusioned," she says.

The 90 per cent of children who are unaffected by EBD are, nevertheless, harmed when the 10 per cent have EBD and are not effectively handled by the education system. So everyone suffers.

EBD encompasses a range of emotional and/or behavioural difficulties, as well as learning difficulties. The British Department of Education has defined EBD as including physical or mental illness, sensory or physical impairment, psychological trauma, and the results of abuse and neglect. Such children may become withdrawn, depressive or suicidal, they may be obsessed with eating habits, may develop school phobia, abuse alcohol and drugs, be disruptive and anti-social, and in some cases violent.

Ninety per cent of young people who become recidivist juvenile delinquents have had a conduct disorder at the age of seven. Conduct disorder - which involves bullying, aggression, temper tantrums, lying, stealing and so on - affects nearly 10 per cent of children in urban populations, and four per cent in rural ones.

Other studies have shown that 10 per cent of Irish nine and 10 year olds in Cork suffer "significant emotional disturbance" and 12 per cent in Dublin suffer marked levels of anxiety and depression.

"Children and parents caught in the nightmare of emotional and behavioural difficulties need, demand and deserve the very best care and expertise that this country can offer. How we treat the least well off is a barometer as to how we are as a nation. On the evidence so far, many communities, schools and parents are at a loss to know what to do about our most troubled children. The Clondalkin Partnership report is an attempt by this community to face this problem and see it as an opportunity to put in place support, structures, expertise and systems that will bring the best ideas and the best care for children who are very often 'in trouble from day one'," says Ted Fleming, who is acting director of the department of adult education in NUI Maynooth.

One mother described her son as unable to concentrate on anything, unless it was mechanical. She describes him as "extremely frustrated. He's started thinking he's stupid, constantly failing compared to others. he has realised if he messes about he will be sent out and won't have to face the failing."

The same boy is described as have "a lovely nature... the first to help and comfort a crying child, a high achiever in sports... will do anything practical you ask him to do". Such children cannot cope with large mainstream classes, where they are often blamed and labelled as disruptive, so they feel victimised.

How well a school handles such children depends entirely on the principal, says Maher. Yet even when a principal is enlightened, a lack of resources can make the job of providing an education for such children difficult. In some schools, staff-rooms and parts of classrooms are cordoned off for "resource teaching", and that's assuming that the school can get the resource teachers themselves.

When such children are excluded from school, they become isolated in a cycle of attention seeking, looking for connection yet unable to control their behaviour, which lessens their chances of connecting with others in ways that are not superficial and manipulative. They are extremely vulnerable to drugs because they don't think of the consequences of their actions.

The Clondalkin task group has looked at successful models of dealing with such children in Northern Ireland and elsewhere. Programmes that are effective keep children in mainstream school, but look at the whole child and therefore have many resources available that most Irish mainstream schools don't have. Such programmes are "holistic", putting great thought into every element of the school environment in order to support children and their parents. They use learning support, psychological services, the physical environment, the structure of the day and the involvement of several agencies in a teamwork approach.

"The first point of a new intervention needs to be focussed on the adults in the child's environment, rather than immediate intervention with the children," states the NUI report. Parents and children have too often been blamed, when in reality the children's inability to cope with school is the education system's problem, not the family's problem. An education system designed for 90 per cent of pupils, is leaving out an important 10 per cent.

Professional training for teachers, social workers, psychologists, parents and others is an essential component if the Irish system is to change, states the report. The Education (Welfare) Act 2000 has laid the groundwork for such a programme through the introduction of Education Welfare Officers, but we are still waiting to see this programme "rolled out", says Maher.

She and others involved in the task force are convinced that parents have an influence. Concerned parents are invited to attend the launch and discussion of the report at Red Cow Moran Hotel, Naas Road, Dublin 22 on Thursday at 9 a.m.