EARLY YEARS SENCO NEWS Issue38

Early Years SENCO News

Issue 38 February 2018

The aim of this publication is to share information, advice and guidance around SEND issues with early years practitioners.

IN THIS ISSUE:

• Transition Pinterest board • Supporting preschool

children with a hearing impairment – support available

• Sticky notes in One Planning • What is a Section 23

notification? • The Centre’s Facebook

group for settings working towards the GB Award

• Talking Clipboard opportunity

• Childminder SEND enquiry mailbox

• Talking to parents about speech, language and communication

• Upcoming events and awareness days

• Inspiration station – sensory bottles

Transition Pinterest board

Some ideas shared on the board so far are:

• School role play area • Uniform dressing up • Colour in your uniform • Photo book of the school • Transition passport.

We would like to invite your setting to contribute to the new board by sending photos of any transition strategies you have tried to EarlyYearsSENCO.News@essex.gov.uk

Please include as much information as possible about the strategy but avoid including any children in photos or capturing any private information, such as children’s names or ages etc.

Sensory bottles from Toad Hall Day Nursery in Rayleigh

We have recently created a ‘Transition in the early years’ board to our Pinterest page.

The board is for photos and ideas to support children with SEND into the setting and into school.

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Supporting preschool children with a hearing impairment

Support available In Essex, the Specialist Teaching and Preschool Service includes a team of qualified Teachers of the Deaf who provide specialist educational and audiology advice and support for children and young people with a hearing impairment and their families from the point of diagnosis. For babies and preschool children support is offered both in the home and in preschool settings. The Hearing Impairment team works closely with families of children and young people with a hearing impairment, and with staff in preschools, schools and post-school education settings as well as with other professionals (eg audiologists and speech and language therapists) and voluntary organisations. Home visits to families of preschool children with a hearing impairment enable staff to provide support, advice about strategies and monitoring and assessment of the development of listening, language, learning and interaction skills. Role of the Teacher of the deaf A teacher of the deaf is a qualified teacher who has undertaken a further teaching Postgraduate/Masters course studying the development of deaf children. The team provides settings with advice, training and specialist equipment, such as radio aids and the training and support required to use them effectively. You may want to read A day in the life of a Teacher of the Deaf.

1.5 in every thousand live births have a congenital, permanent hearing impairment (rising to 1 in a hundred for neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) babies) Also 80% of children experience glue ear. ‘When infants with significant hearing loss are identified in the first few months of life and provided with appropriate intervention services, 80% develop age-appropriate language and intelligible speech within the first five years of life.’

(Efficacy of Early Identification and Early Intervention, 1995) As a follow up to our article about the types of hearing impairment in the last Early Years SENCO News, this month we are looking at the support available for children, parents and settings.

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Role of the Family Support Keyworker Family Support keyworkers offer additional support to families of preschool deaf children where specific areas for further development have been identified by a teacher of the deaf. This support includes:

• Home visits Helping to come to terms Problems with access Hearing Aids Post-cochlear implantation habilitation

• Visits to Audiology Play Audiometry Support to parents

• Visits and support to settings

CHIPS (Children with Hearing Impairment Play and Stay) CHIPS are local communication groups for preschool deaf children, staffed by a teacher of the deaf and a Family Support keyworker. These groups provide structured opportunities for small groups of deaf children to support the development of listening, language and interaction skills alongside other relevant activities (eg audiological assessments, family liaison, etc). Sign Language Instruction Deaf children who need to develop signing skills will be taught British Sign Language (BSL) in their education setting, or at home prior to starting school.

Parents, family members, or friends may also need opportunities to learn and develop their signing skills in order to communicate effectively with deaf children. Sometimes this can happen alongside the child’s own learning, for example at CHIPS sessions. The local authority provides locally-based BSL courses, at all levels, through its network of Adult Community Learning Centres.

Information about support around British Sign Language can be found here. Case Studies The following case studies illustrate how the Specialist Teaching and Preschool Service supports children and young people with hearing impairment in Essex.

Zara

Zara was diagnosed with moderate to severe hearing loss at 3 years of age and issued with hearing aids. The Teacher of the Deaf has supported her since diagnosis as she has progressed through nursery, infants and junior school.

Marcos

Marcos came to the UK with German Sign Language as his method of communication. The Sign Language Instructor has supported him in the 2 years since his arrival to develop his vocabulary and signing skills in a new language (BSL) within his mainstream primary school in Essex.

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Kasey

Kasey is a preschool child with multiple needs including mild to moderate hearing loss. The Teacher of the Deaf has supported Kasey’s family to understand the importance of persisting to use hearing aids, and recommended ways to overcome Kasey’s resistance.

Beatrice

As a baby, Beatrice was diagnosed with a profound, bi-lateral hearing loss, and was notified to the Teacher of the Deaf as required by the NHS Newborn Hearing Screening protocol. From those early days, the Teacher of the Deaf has supported Beatrice and her family through a range of new experiences which will lead to the goal of Beatrice attending her local mainstream school.

Referral to the service

The service uses the NatSIP eligibility criteria to guide decision-making over support allocation for individual children and young people with hearing impairment (HI) through systematic consideration of a wide range of relevant factors. Other services Regional and national services that provide support for children with hearing impairment and their families include the National Deaf Childrens Society (NDCS) and Royal Association for Deaf People (RAD). Local services can be found on the Essex Local Offer website.

Sticky notes in One Planning The Grove Preschool in Stanway have shared a strategy they use to ensure all staff in their setting know about children’s outcomes, the support they need and what success looks like.

The pack away setting uses sticky notes to share all of the key information about children with SEND. All staff write down any observations including ‘what’s working’ or ‘what’s not working’ and post them in the document wallet next to it for the SENCO and keyworker to monitor.

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We like that you can easily update sections without starting from scratch, you can just add new sticky notes.

If your setting uses a unique strategy to record and share information about children with SEND, please let us know by emailing EarlyYearsSENCO.News@essex.gov.uk. Please note: Photos must be anonymised. Please do not send us any personal sensitive information.

What is a Section 23 notification? Health professionals have a duty to bring to the attention of the local authority any child under school age who they believe has, or is likely to have, special educational needs or a disability (SEND). This process is a Section 23 notification which involves the sharing of information about a specific child with the local authority. Sometimes information from a preschool setting will form part of the information that is shared with the local authority. A Section 23 notification is typically made by a Paediatrician or designated medical officers, who must in the first instance:

• Inform parents that they believe their child has (or is likely to have) SEND • Arrange for parents to discuss this opinion with appropriate health professionals • Inform parents that they have a duty to notify their child to the local authority • Advise parents of organisations that may be able to support them in relation to their child’s SEND

(essexlocaloffer.org.uk). Local authorities become responsible for a child/young person in their area when they become aware that the child/young person has or may have SEN. The local authority has a duty (under Part 3 of the Children and Families Act, 2014) to identify and assess the special educational needs of children and young people for whom they are responsible. For preschool children, this process is usually undertaken by the setting which is providing the early education offer, but may sometimes involve external professionals where children’s needs are particularly complex. In Essex, the local authority Preschool Allocations Panel processes all Section 23 notifications, to ensure that those children receive a level of support which will help them “achieve the best possible educational and other outcomes”. For further information about how the Preschool Allocations Panel responds to the Section 23 notification, please see the Essex Local Offer website. There are benefits for children, families and education settings when a Section 23 notification is made, so please be proactive and liaise with health professionals in your area to ensure children with SEND are made known to the local authority at the earliest opportunity. Note: Prior to the implementation of the Children and Families Act, 2014, this same duty was Section 332 of the Education Act 1996.

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The Centre’s Facebook group for settings working towards the GB Award

The Centre Preschool in Basildon was one of the first Essex settings to achieve the Good Beginnings Early Years Autism Friendly Setting Level 2: Silver Award. The setting’s SENCO is looking to create a closed Facebook group to support other settings and encourage networking.

Stage 1, Outcome 1 of the Level 1 Bronze criteria is: Evidence networking with colleagues from other settings and exchanging resources and information about autism

Nikki Firth, SENCO at The Centre Preschool in Basildon says:

We have achieved our Bronze and Silver Awards and are now working towards Gold. One of the difficulties we have faced during our journey has been networking with other settings and practitioners to share best practice and ideas.

I would like to set up a closed Facebook page for anyone who is striving to improve their practice and raise awareness of autism in the early years. The page would be a closed group where we could share ideas and ask questions and generally support one another.

If you would be interested in joining the Facebook page, please let me know and I will send you the information.

Looking forward to getting to know some of you online!

If you are interested in joining the Facebook group please email Nikki sencotcp@gmail.com .

Talking Clipboard opportunity

This month we are offering some Talking Clipboards to our readers!

Talking Clipboards are a favourite with practitioners supporting children with SEND because they can be used as a tool to combine visuals with audio; making it easier for children with speech, language and communication needs to understand sequences or instructions.

The 40-second record function is both adult-and child-friendly. Practitioners can record simple statements or directions using the voice recorder and then attach visuals, helping the child to follow an instruction independently.

You could use the clipboard to demonstrate ‘first and then’, for example clip two images to the clipboard, such as a coat and the garden and then record “First coat, then garden”.

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You could also try using the clipboard for ‘treasure hunts’ attach an image of what you want the child to find and then record the name of it, for example “Find the doll”.

Please note, when using photographs as a cue for children to find something, please make sure the photo matches the object that they need to find. For some children, please be aware that if you show them a photo of a doll in a red dress but the one you want them to find is wearing a differently coloured dress, this could cause confusion.

Settings across Essex have shared with us how they use Talking Clipboards:

“These have been a great success at our nursery. We use them regularly with our children who find it difficult to follow another person’s agenda. We often clip our first and then board onto it too and the children go off to find the activity they need independently.”

“We have used the talking clipboards to re-enforce instructions when playing games out in the garden.

For example, we have taken photos of different objects, placed the photo on the clipboard and asked individual children to go and find the object.

Depending on the child the recorded instruction might tell them where to look or it might just re-affirm what they need to do ie “Find the blue car”. This has kept children focused and interested for much longer. The use of technology is a real incentive to take part.”

We have a limited supply of Talking Clipboards, but if you would like one for your setting (group and/or childminders) please email your name and address, with a brief statement about your intended use for the resource, to EarlyYearsSENCO.News@essex.gov.uk before 10 March 2018 with the subject “Talking Clipboard”.

Childminder SEND enquiry mailbox In a childminder survey we conducted in autumn 2017, 97% of Essex childminders said that email is the best way to share information about SEND.

In light of this, we have set up a dedicated childminder mailbox where childminders can contact our service with early years SEND enquiries.

Non-specific queries will be answered with an explanation and a link to further information or guidance.

Specific queries will be passed to the relevant quadrant manager who will organise a response.

When using the Childminder SEND enquiry mailbox please do not use children’s names or personal information and please let us know where you live in Essex so we can forward to the correct Preschool Manager if needed.

Queries will be monitored and any reoccurring themes will help us to identify any resources or CPD that needs to be developed.

Please email: EYSEND.ChildmindersEnquiries@essex.gov.uk.

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Talking to parents about speech, language and communication The Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice highlights the importance of parental and family involvement for children with SEND. Practitioners have a responsibility to identify where they notice that a child/young person’s speech, language and communication skills are not developing as expected for their age and parents should be central to the identification and assessment process.

The Communication Trust, in partnership with Afasic, has recently launched a new professional development video (26:12 mins) Talking to parents about their child’s speech, language and communication – to support practitioners working with children/young people in how to raise initial concerns with parents about a child/young person’s speech, language and communication development.

The video is made up of three main sections:

• Preparation (02:46 - 8:33) • During the conversation (08:34 - 18:56) • Next steps (18:57 - 26:12).

Accompanying materials for planning/reflection/discussion (for each section) are also included.

Checklist Reflection/discussion questions

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Upcoming awareness days and events We have created an ‘Upcoming awareness days and events’ section with useful links so that you can plan your activities. If you are planning to do something to raise awareness of any of these days, please let us know as we would love to hear from you.

March 2018

1 March 2018 – National bed month

National Bed Month in March which has been running since 1990. March is a month for considering the importance of sleep and how the lack of it can affect those who struggle to get a good night sleep in their day-to-day lives. Lack of sleep can affect all of us including children with SEND and their parents/carers.

• Essex Local Offer – Guide to improving your child’s sleeping

• Down’s syndrome Association – Guide to getting a good night’s sleep

• Essex Local Offer – Record sleep achievements.

21 March 2018 – World Down Syndrome day

#WhatIBringToMyCommunity is the theme of the World Down Syndrome day campaign this year. It is all about creating an equal society where people with Down syndrome are not prevented from contributing to society.

• Essex Down Syndrome Early Intervention Programme • Wear lots of socks to spread awareness

• Down syndrome association.

26 March 2018 – Autism Awareness Week

How is your setting going to raise awareness of autism for Autism Awareness Week? You may find some inspiration below

• Silly sock day • How Essex settings celebrated Autism Awareness Week - April 2017 and June 2017

• Autism Pinterest board.

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Inspiration station – Sensory bottles This month we have taken inspiration from Toad Hall Day Nursery in Rayleigh. The setting has created a selection of sensory bottles that include lots of different visuals and create lots of different sounds.

The tightly sealed bottles contain items such as cotton wool and glitter, coloured metallic beads, coloured water and toy fish, water, sequins and oil etc.

You may wish to make these in your setting and adapt them to children’s special interests or use a sensory checklist to find out what sort of sensory play they enjoy.

Please note: sensory bottles must only be used with adult supervision at all times.

To get further inspiration around sensory activities, visit our Pinterest board.

Issue 39 of the Early Years SENCO News will be available in March 2018.

If you would like to join the mailing list for this monthly newsletter, please email your name, setting and email address to EarlyYearsSENCO.News@essex.gov.uk with the subject “MAILING LIST”.

If you have just joined the mailing list and would like to see previous issues of the Early Years SENCO News, please visit our archive.

You can view our Pinterest boards for information and ideas on supporting preschool children with SEND.