Early years inclusive learning service - information for professionals

Children develop and progress at different rates. Part of the role of practitioners in early years settings is to assess and track each child’s progress. You can use your knowledge of child development to identify where a child may have additional needs. This might include

• Delays in their speech and language such as not making sounds/babbling or not using single words to tell you what they need.
• Delays in their physical development such as not sitting, walking or crawling when you expected them to.
• Delays in their social interaction such as not giving eye contact or not being interested in engaging with the children and adults around them.
• Difficulties with sleeping such as taking a long time to settle off to sleep despite having bedtime routines in place.
• Difficulties with behaviour such as banging their head when frustrated or hitting out at others.
• Delays in their self-help skills such as feeding themselves and toilet training.

What should I do if I think a child has SEND

The SEND Code of Practice sets out the requirements for supporting children with SEND. A key principle is giving the right support at the right time, also known as the ‘graduated response’. You will need to follow the Assess-Plan-Do-Review process. You can find the SEND Code of Practice here: SEND code of practise: 0-25 years, GOV.UK.

The Stoke-on-Trent Graduated Approach Document has lots of useful information about the different levels of support that Early Years settings can provide for children with SEND.

Build a picture of the child’s skills in the three Prime Areas. We recommend that you use the Stoke Speaks Out Child Development Tool to do this – download a free copy here: resources and dowloads | Stoke speaks out.This will give you clear developmental levels so that you can accurately measure the child’s progress over the time.

Partnership with parents

You should always talk to the parents about your concerns before putting any extra support in place for a child. A face-to-face meeting to discuss how the child is at home and any concerns that the parents might have is an important part of building a complete picture of the child’s needs.

Alongside parents, you should set some targets for the child to work towards. These will form the child’s SEN Support Plan or IEP. These targets should be SMART and should be reviewed around every 6 weeks.

Referrals to other services

Once you have completed a cycle of Assess-plan-do review, you can look at whether the child would benefit from a referral to a more targeted service for additional support. Settings can refer to Speech and Language Therapy and the Early Years Forum. Again, you must discuss this with Parents before any referrals are made.