Special Educational Needs

Saturday 21 February 2015

What we learn from SENCognition

All children in a class are - the same / different?

Batch production

1,000’s of different occupations

What do we want our education system to do?

Each individual child

By developing the ability of schools and school teachers to respond effectively to the SEN needs of children we create an education system that enables all children to learn and reach their potential.

The aim (and the impact measure) is that all children reach their potential

Diversity and Inclusion

What do we need to unlearn in order to flourish?

Specific Learning Difference

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• A difference / difficulty people have with particular aspects of classroom learning.

• These are all Neurodiverse conditions because they are to do with the different ways that different people process information

My perfect………

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The most common SpLDs are:

• Dyslexia • Dyspraxia• Attention deficit disorder

(ADD)• Attention deficit hyperactivity

disorder• Dyscalculia • Dysgraphia

Neurodiversity

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How do we distinguish?

• We focus on the child • They are all syndromes – and so we look at the

signs/symptoms, behaviours, history and classroom performance for distinguishing characteristics

• Support and interventions without a ‘label’ as such • Many specific learning differences overlap – and so

‘naming’ may not be the most important thing• Prioritise the most important • There are things a teacher can do in the classroom

which will help ALL the children

Writing tends to be on or across the centre line of the body

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Dysgraphia Visual-spatial difficulties: trouble processing what the eye seesLanguage processing difficulty: trouble processing and making sense of what the ear hears

AchieveAbility Interventions Framework: by David Crabtree

‘In terms of specialised functions there is an important difference between the left and right halves of the brain’

Neuropsychological Treatment of Dyslexia D.J. Bakker

Left brain hemisphere• Language• Facts• Analysis• Time orientation• Sequencing• Structure• Mathematics• Listening

This is true for the majority of people.

Right brain hemisphere• Pictures• Feelings• Humour• Artistic• Musical• 3-D visual/spatial• Patterns• ‘Whole picture’

There are things a teacher can do in the classroom which will help ALL the children

Two skill sets

Diverse learning needs

Take account of the learning needsto plan differentiated approaches

that enables all learnersto participate and learn

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Working memory– Working memory acts as a kind of “holding area”

– for temporary recall of the information which is being processed at any point in time e.g. classroom activity

– Working memory holds a small amount of information (typically around 7 items or even less) in mind in an active, readily-available state for a short period of time (typically from 10 to 15 seconds, or sometimes up to a minute).

– Working memory links into a “hook” in long term memory to help “place” the new memory in with other memories and be stored

– Working memory has been shown to be important for successful classroom learning.

Poor working memoryunderstand well, but forgets quickly

I really don’t remember

what we did last lesson.

How come everyone else seems to remember it all – bet the teacher thinks I’m stupid. Ok, so that’s how

I’ll behave!

I thought I’d done that piece of coursework.

But I can’t find it – so I guess I didn’t. I’m in

trouble again!!

What’s that word I need? OR

What’s that word mean that he

just said?

Why is this important?

The nature of classroom learning

And the case study of 2

metaphysics: of or relating to things that are thought to exist but that cannot be seen

Long-term memory

What we now know

1. The brain “loses” information from short term memory2. Between short term and long term memory there is a preparatory

stage

Long-term memory

Memory – short term and long term

Working memory

All these are brain impulsesThis is a physical part of the brain (synapses on neural pathways)

ONE CRITICAL INTERVENTION

Reduce ’catastrophic’ lossAssess for working memoryPut into place whole class strategies to support working memory Would help neurodiverse learners Would benefit all learners

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Small working memory can give an advantage – in the real world

T.G. West In the Mind’s Eye:‘When people are known for their gifts, their

difficulties remain unknown’

‘When people are known for their difficulties, their gifts remain unknown’

Differentiation

• Some small changes to practice or • Scheme of Work • can make a BIG difference to many pupils

Resource implications• Do we know where we

are now?

• Access to advice and support

• Training

• Exemplars

• Other professionals

• Specialist facilities

• a proper assessment about meeting the child’s needs

• an iterative process

• how do we measure success?

Multisensory

Accessibility

Ensure that all accessibility and access needs have been met

AssessAssess for learning throughout

• Observing• Listening• Questioning• Evaluating

Top tips

• Ensure the lesson is accessible for all

• Be clear and remove clutter

• Use multisensory approaches

• Differentiate• Assess for learning• Link to existing

knowledge• Learner focus