Care standards Act 2000
The Care Standards Act 2000 relates to Health and Equal Opportunities and it gives the minimum guidance to the practitioners and professions who work with children with special educational needs
Code of practice 2001
This Act helps children whose needs may not require a statement or to contribute to the processing of statementing.
It is a staged system of assessment consisting of Action and Action Plus.
SEN and disability Act 2001
The Act is divided into two sections:-
- Part one – It helps the rights of the parents and children to get into mainstream Education.
- Part two – It extends the Disability Discrimation Act to Educational settings.
Assignment Criteria D4 – Describe Three (3) sources of information that can support children and their families
- Educational Psychologist service
Educational psychologists are trained to look at children’s development and the child’s learning. They assess and identify the children’ learning and developmental needs. They also provide advice and guidance to parents and the other professionals. Referrals to the Educational psychologist can usually be made directly by parents or by settings with parental consent.
Educational psychologist usually observes a child in the setting as well as talking to the parents and the child in order to build up a picture of how the child behaves and learns.
Following assessments, they will provide information and the SENCO with advice and may arrange to see the child again at a later date.
“A child is referred to an educational psychologist if there are concerns about the child’s cognitive or behavioural development. They psychologist makes an initial assessment of the child, talking to parents and early years workers before diagnosing the difficulties.” (Tassoni P p81)
- Social Services
Social services have a duty to provide services for children in need.
This means that most children who have needs are likely to have a social worker involved in their families.
Assessments will be done regularly to see how they can support the child and their family.
- Health visiting services
Health visitors are trained nurses. Their role is to promote health across all age groups. Health visitors who are involved with parents and their children carry out routine health checks and they also provide support by giving advice about child care and development.
Health visitors can refer children to further services and are usually good at giving advice.
“Health visitors advice and monitor all aspects of child’s development. They carry out routine assessments on babies and children. These include measuring child’s growth, hearing and vision as well as other areas of development – for example, language, cognitive and emotional development.” (Tassoni P p80)
Assessment criteria D5 – Describe how the practitioner can identify and plan to meet the individual needs of children.
It is really important that practitioners working with children recognises when a child may have an additional needs. Children may just need a little extra help from an adult, while other children may need professional help and advice e.g. speech and language therapy.
It is really important that a practitioner views each child as an individual. All children have different strengths and weaknesses. It is not good to assume that the same idea will work for all children.
There are lots of ways you can recognise that a child has an individual need.
By the child’s behaviour you can recognise if the child has an additional need. Ad the behaviour may not be appropriate for their age/stage development. If a child is extremely clingy and is showing signs of attention seeking it may be because of their development.
Having regular observations means you can build up a clear picture of the child. Observations help the practitioner see if the child is making progress and you can see the child’s skills and abilities for their milestones and sequences of development.
By talking to the child’s parent s they can tell you if they are not developing or if the need extra support when they are at home.
Another way to help a child would be planning. The SENCO would draw up an IEP (individual education plan) of action to look at the child’s current needs and ways of supporting the child. It helps everyone working with the children focus on the ways of helping them.
The observations will help to plan activities which will help the child how best to adapt what the practitioner does to help the child. By working together and sharing information parents and practitioners can help make children’s lives easier.
Assignment criteria D6 - Describe ways in which the practitioner can develop positive working relationships with parents and families.
Parents are the most important people in their children’s early lives. By working together parents and practitioners can enhance children’s learning and development.
Partnerships involve parents, families and practitioners working together to benefit children. Each recognises respects and valves what each other does and says. A partnership involves responsibility on both sides.
A partnership approach between people is very important, especially at times of change in children lives.
Good partnerships are build on trust and the practitioners need to respect the confidentially they receive about children, while understanding that confidentially cannot be guaranteed for example in child protection issues.
The benefits of parent and practitioners working together would be:-
- Parents feel valued and respected.
- They are more involved in their children’s learning and development.
- They can share information about their children.
The benefits for practitioners would be:-
- Understandings better the children and families in their settings and use this information to make learning more enjoyable and rewarding for all children.
Good communicating between parents and practitioners is key to promoting children’s learning and development is vital, so that their inputs benefits children as much as possible. When direct contact between practitioners and other professional is not possible parents can often act as a link and pass on information.
So when possible the practitioner must talk informally to parents on a regular basis as well as parent/ teacher meetings. So this encourages parent to talk about information about their children.
When listening to parents you have to show them you are trying to understand their viewpoint. By doing this you can show it through your body language that you care keen to listen. Takes the time to sit down with the parents, nod and make eye contact.
Partnerships with children’s parents are really important. The parents of the children know their children the best.
Assignment criteria D7 – Give examples of Two (2) different ways that the practitioner can plan to support and help children with additional needs to join in the activities and experiences of the setting.
- A child aged 5 years uses sign representations the practitioner point to a dog and says dog. The child then remembers the word and so eventually does not need the dog picture to be around to know what the word means.
For some children, sounds alone are not enough and they need to have there language supported by signs.
A common sign system is makaton. It helps children link the words to an action or an object and so it is easier for them to understand.
- A child aged 3 years needs to be shown by the practitioner a picture of her coat and at the same time the practitioner needs to get her coat. This is called picture representation.
Assignment criteria D8 – Describe why it is important to use specialist aid and equipment safely.
D2 – Why should settings have an inclusive policy?
Inclusion means looking for ways of helping children to join in who would be excluded from activities. Instead of expecting children to fit in with what you are doing, it means looking at what you are doing, it means looking at what you are doing, it means looking at what you are doing and checking that it meets with the children’s needs. You would have to adapt activities, change routines and sometimes even change the layout so the children can join in with everybody in the class.
Inclusion is very important because it is fair. It means-
- That all children have the same chance to play and learn.
- Those children do not have to be segregated from others just because that they are not ‘the same’.
- That groups of children learn that all people are different, all are special and yet that all have similar needs.
Benefits of inclusion for the children with disabilities
- There would be friendships
- Greater opportunities for interactions
- They feel part of the community/ class
Benefits of inclusion for the children without disabilities
- Respect for others
- Meaningful friendships
- Acceptance of differences
It is a legal requirement to have a policy which shows what the setting will do to create a fair environment for all children regardless of race, religion, gender or disability.
C1 – Discuss two (2) ways to communicate effectively with parents and their families
1. When talking and listening to parents you have to make eye contact. The practitioner has to try and not interrupt the parent and also try and encourage further conversation.
If the parents seem upset or want to discuss something in private, you have to find somewhere suitable to talk.
Make sure the limits of confidentiality is clear, you have to assure the parents that you will deal with any information shared professionally. You have to avoid using jargon as this is off putting and limits the effectiveness of your communication as the parents might not understand what you are talking about.
2. If the parents do not speak English you have to try and organise someone to interpret for them. All parents, not just those how speak English, will want to be consulted about their child’s progress. You can summarise the points that was made during and at the end of the discussion as this may be particularly helpful if the parents has come to discuss ways of dealing with a problem.