By adjusting the environment to suit the needs of the child and appropriate resources and facilities are provided it allows the child to be confident also people who are working with the children should focus on what the child can do and not on what they cant do. When we had a child in school that had a hearing impairment we provided visual aids and a member of staff was trained using the makaton system to enable him to feel positive and confident about making progress. Don’t think of children, as special needs think of them as children with specific or additional needs. In my setting we aim to give all children the same opportunities and children are not singled out because they have different needs for example all though some children require 1:1 support we don’t remove them from their peers the child will still work in his or her group but they will get extra support. Low expectations about the potential of a disabled child, or being over protective can limit what they achieve. Its important practitioners have positive attitudes about what requirements they provide so children can have opportunities for making developmental progress.
C/ social models and medical models of disability
By labelling a child because of their disability can prevent us from seeing the child as a whole person like their gender, culture and social background the medical models is a traditional view of disability and that through medical intervention the person can be cured where in fact in most cases there is no cure. They expect disabled people to change to fit into society.
The social model of disability looks at ways to address issues to enable people to achieve their potential, by looking at ways to adapt the environment so the child can feel included this is very important. The social model has been constructed by disabled people and by listening to what disabled people want and to remove any barriers, which may be in their way. By removing barriers and adapting the environment you are allowing children and young people chances to achieve and learn which promotes confidence and self-esteem.
My setting has removed potential barriers by providing wheelchair ramps around the school and having hygiene suites built. We also have height adjustable chair for a child to be included in different activities at different height levels. We also use visual symbols around the school, IEPS are reviewed three times a year and are set according to the needs of the child we involve staff and different agencies if required and the class teacher and hold meetings to work together for the child’s targets. The children are aware of their targets and in reception class we would use pictures for them to use to see what their targets are when planning is being done it will be done so certain activities will be adapted for example a lower ability child would need to sequence the pictures and write the first sound of a word where as the higher ability group would need to sequence and write a whole sentence. We have a child in class one who has her phonics adapted due to her disability and she will take part at the same time as the whole class but will require 1:1 support and the activity is different to suit her needs and ability.
D/ different types of support available are - Speech and language therapy- they will usually work in partnership with parents, teachers and support staff and anyone else who has regular contact with the child and provide training and coaching sessions and provide them with ideas and strategies to put into place to help promote the child’s speech. I myself have sat in on a session with a child in school when the speech therapist came to have a meeting with a child and she gave me advice sheets on how best to help the child with his speech including picture cards with words on with either two, three and even four syllables and the child was encouraged to clap the amount of syllables while saying the word.
- Support from health professionals additional learning support- a child who has a disability like down syndrome may need extra support in the classroom to help them learn in my setting we have a child who comes in every Tuesday for social skills and he has his own teaching assistant to support him with his needs. A child with epilepsy is likely to require regular monitoring from health professionals and medication, which needs to be adjusted appropriately.
- Assistive technology- these would be anything which will help someone for example wheelchairs, hearing aids, walking frames in my setting we use large computer key boards for some children and for a child who is blind you could use software which reads text from a screen there are many different aids available for children and adults to help them with everyday tasks.
- Specialised services - in my setting we have a special educational needs coordinator and
we use other services such as physio therapist, speech therapists, school nurse, social services we use these services in order to provide the right care for the child.
i have just had this unit signed off hope this helps x
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Every Child Matters -
summary - positive outcomes and life chances
Level three handbook guidance