The role of “augmented mothering” in teacher education in special needs

Abstract

The article describes the use of “augmented mothering”, a transactional approach to working with people who have profound and complex learning difficulties. First year students in the School of Education at Hatfield Polytechnic, following an initial teacher education course in “The Education of Children with Special Needs”, were involved in using the approach within experimental workshops in a hospital school setting. The students' evaluation of the workshops suggests they may have a useful contribution to make in the training of staff involved in working with people with such learning difficulties.