learning difficulties.  The causes and effects of EBD are discussed in more detail in the Circular: 'The Education of Children with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties', where the concept of a continuum of difficulty is developed.

3:66. Emotional and behavioural difficulties may become apparent in a wide variety of forms including withdrawn, depressive or suicidal attitudes; obsessional preoccupation with eating habits; school phobia; substance misuse; disruptive, anti-social and uncooperative behaviour; and frustration, anger and threat of or actual violence.

3:67. Teachers should always carefully record instances of behavioural disturbance, even when no apparent cause is evident.  Advice on observation and recording is also given in the
Circular:  'The Education of Children with Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties'.

The child's learning difficulty

3:68. The LEA should seek clear, recorded evidence of both the child's academic attainment and the nature of his or her emotional and behavioural difficulties, asking, for example, whether:

i. there is a significant discrepancy between, on the one hand, the child's cognitive ability and expectations of the child as assessed by his or her teachers, parents and others directly concerned, supported, as appropriate, by appropriately administered standardised tests and, on the other hand, the child's academic attainment as measured by National Curriculum assessments and teachers' own recorded assessments of the child's classroom work, including any portfolio of the child's work compiled to illustrate his or her progress

ii. the child is unusually withdrawn, lacks confidence and is unable to form purposeful and lasting relationships with peers and adults: the LEA will look for clear, detailed evidence from the school and external specialists based on close observation of the child


   iii. there is evidence of severely impaired social interaction or communication, or a significantly restricted repertoire of activities, interests and imaginative development

iv. the child attends school irregularly: the LEA will wish to establish whether there is any pattern to or cause of the child's non-attendance

v.  there is clear, recorded evidence of any obsessional eating habits

vi.   there is clear, recorded evidence of any substance or alcohol misuse

vii.  the child displays unpredictable, bizarre, obsessive, violent or severely disruptive behaviour. The LEA will wish to establish whether there is any pattern to such behaviour, for example whether it is confined to a particular class, teacher, task or given set of circumstances, and will seek clear examples in the form of specific, recorded instances over a period of time, usually not less than a term

iii.   the child has participated in or has been subject to bullying at school; has been subject to  neglect and/or abuse at home; and/or has faced major difficulties at home: again, the LEA will seek clear, recorded evidence

ix. there is any suggestion that the child may have a significant mental or physical health
       problem: the LEA should be alert to any sudden unpredictable changes in the child's