The emotional wellbeing of students with profound intellectual disabilities and those who work with them: a relational reading

Interest in the mental health landscape of young people is widespread. This paper focuses in on the emotional wellbeing of students with profound intellectual disabilities and those who work with them in special schools. A relational reading of the situation illustrates some relationships between the two and vulnerabilities of both. The authors engage with theory: the double (and triple) empathy problem and empathy more widely, and with the concepts of affect attunement, holding and ethics of care. They interweave brief reflections on their own experiences working and researching in special schools and argue that these relationally constituted spaces present challenges for the emotional wellbeing of students and staff. The paper concludes by calling for recognition of the emotional labour involved in interacting across different ways of being and of knowing the world and for greater attention to empathising in embodied, perceptual ways to aid mutual understanding and support wellbeing.