TDA 3. 19 Support disabled children and young people and those with specialeducationneeds. 3. Be able to support the inclusion of disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs. 3. 1 Obtain information about the individual needs, capabilities and interests of disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs with whom they work. It is important to me that I get to know pupils and find out their capabilities and interests as soon as possible, this will help me to best support them through the curriculum in extra ways.
As I didn’t work with them from the beginning of their St. Felix schooling I didn’t visit them at home to speak to their parents about their needs, but I did obtain the information that I needed from their class teachers when we went through the children’s files and targets to discuss the next steps. Not long into the school term the SENCO also set up a meeting with the parents and outside agencies, (in the cases of the children that I work with, this included social worker, speech and language therapist and visual impairment adviser).
In some cases the child themselves would be included but with the children I work with it is felt that this is not suitable, but I do work with them previous to the meeting to discuss what they enjoy, find difficult, would like to change etc. In these meeting we discuss the children’s individual plans and targets for the year and how we can work together to get the best results and experience for the child. At St. Felix we feel that partnerships with parents are crucial to the process of working with pupils who have special educational needs.
I work 1 to 1 with 3 different children although I was able to obtain lots ofacademicinformation about the children form colleagues that had already worked with the children, including the speech therapist, visual impairment advisor, occupationalhealthand more recently the Autism advisors, I have found it just as important to get to know them on a more informal level by getting to know their interests so I can support them through a greater awareness of theirpersonality.
TDA 3. 19 Support disabled children and young people and those with special education needs. 3. Be able to support the inclusion of disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs 3. 2 Identify barriers to participation for disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs with whom they work. All pupils, whatever their needs and abilities have an equal right to educational and learning without barriers.
This should also include access and provision and to facilities outside the school settings. Schools and other organisations which offer educational provision must by law ensure that all pupils have access to a broad and balanced curriculum. Physical barriers There should be no reason that a child or young person who has a disability or special educational need should not be able to gain access to an educational institution or to its facilities.
As I support children that have additional needs, I make it myresponsibilityto make sure that all staff are aware of the provision which needs to be made to ensure that they are able to participate. One little girl that I support needs to have all her written resources blown up to A3, and I ensure that all staff know that she needs to be sat at the front to learn from the interactive board and where possible she has her own book to follow when the class are on the carpet being read to by a member of staff.
She has light blue paper to write on as she finds it easier to see writing on this and also uses a pen instead of a pencil, again because it is easier for her to see. Although we use a lot of visual resources with all the children in year 1 and 2 especially in numeracy, for this little girl we make sure she has her own set rather than sharing because of her Autism this allows her to keep routine and aids her to organise and become more independent in her learning. In P.
E and playtimes her main disability is her sight and although she is very confident with moving around the school, staff and children are reminded to keep areas clear and she needs a slightly larger personal area in P. E as due to her poor gross motor skills her physical actions require lots of room! If she is to fall especially onto reflex areas such as her knees she usually falls into a fit, although I am her 1 to 1 all staff know about her condition and also know how to deal with it if they were with her when it happens.
If we didn’t share with other colleagues the needs of this child and the immediate staff that work with her were absent due to illness or on a course etc, she would not be able to be doing what all her classmates are doing through the day. This is not acceptable and also would be very difficult for her as she needs to keep her routine as much as possible due to her Autism. I also work with twin boys that have Dyspraxia, and again all staff are advised on what they need in the classroom to make sure the are able to access the curriculum with as little amount of disruption as possible.
The boys find it hard to sit on the carpet and concentrate on input without fidgeting, one finds it helpful to sit on a blown up wedge on his chair, it seems to help keep his posture and allow him to concentrate as without it he finds it hard to control his core and is nearly rolling around the carpet! His brother struggles more academically as well so if necessary especially with numeracy he will sit with me and we will do the same as the other children but what they are learning from theteacherand the interactive board, we will do the same on a wipe board, this way I am also able to take it back a step if its too difficult for him.
The boys also use pens rather than pencils this helps with their writing because of their poor fine motor skills, they have other small resources that allows to keep up with the pace of their peers such as pots to put things in that they have cut out as they struggle with organisation, they also use pincer type scissors as they are unable to cut accurately with normal scissors. In P.
E they will join in with the rest of the class but I will just observe them more than others to give them help if needed but I also observe to see the areas they need more help with and then when the rest of the class have finished we stay on and play different gamed that will work on particular skills. Organisational barriers At St. Felix we have an up to date equal opportunities policy which sets out our priorities for developing inclusion. It also ensures that all staff who are working with pupils who have additional needs are fully trained and able to do so with the full support of the school.
We are encouraged to source out courses that will be beneficial to us and our children. For the children I work with I have been on a lot of speech and language courses including Elklan, which for the boys, as they have poor speech allows me to give them extra time giving them therapy under the advise of the therapist and for the little girl it has given me knowledge of using different strategies when her poor language understanding has given a barrier to her understanding the work.
In the near future I am learning how to teach them to touch type as we feel especially when they are older that they will find it much easier to keep up with the curriculum to type their work rather than write. Barriers in the attitudes of the school community This barrier can sometimes be more challenging to overcome and we did have some problems with parents in the past in relation to the little girls sight condition and autism that lead to her sometimes being aggressive to other children.
To get over this we worked with her parents who wrote a piece on her explaining her needs and conditions, they included pictures of her in different activities and also paper clippings as thefamilyhad recently been interviewed by the Daily Mail about their fight to get a diagnosis. This was given out to the parents in the same class and it encouraged them to speak to mum in the playground if they had any questions.
The feedback we got was very positive, it stopped them from focusing on the negative things and allowed them to see her as a happy 6 year old that was interested and loved the same things as their 6 year old but found it difficult and sometimes needed support and understanding. It is important to remember that the needs of the child or young person come first and I will always stand up for the rights of the children I support.
