It may be easier to imagine you are the mother of the first and think of what others may think or treat your child or family:
A. 3 year old child with downs syndrome
Do adults speak openly with the parent as they take their child to a pre-school setting or do they avoid as they 'don't want to get involved?'
How do the children in the setting treat that child?
Practitoners should treat all children equally and with respect and explain to the children we are all the same but different, by talking or reading a story. have positive images of children with Downs syndrome in books, etc. Some children may be afraid as SEN children have no idea of facial expressions, they are often very tactile and have no understanding of personal space, stay close to the sen child until thye are familiar with everyone and routines as it is understandable if you are not on hand and a SEN child nearly throttles another child - the other child is frightened and you have the child ( and then a parent) to see to. It is wise to help all children to elp themselves by explaining the new child may be tall, but they are still 'small' and learning and if they go too near or go to touch them they must hold their hand up and say NO! firmly. This allows a child to be in control of what may happen to them - even though the setting should always ensure this doesn't happen - better to be safe making sure you have all children's safety at heart.
Is the setting confident and trained to help this child to progress? Some settings may not be willing to accept this child. Their experience, outside support and training will help the child to progress, if not the child may not progress. They should all have an equality and inclusion policy, but if they are not trained or feel overwhelmed by what is expected of them, is this good for the child?
Are they welcoming to the child and their family? How can you do this?
Have they help from outside agencies? How do you go about getting this? - Early years or your advisory teacher or Area senco a good start.
Are they keeping the parents fully involved and informed? Do you have daily informal chats to the parents and regular meetings?
How do you support them to overcome barriers to learning?
Talking to the parents, asking them and other agencies a child with Downs syndrome may have the area senco, health visitor, the portage worker, the speech therapist etc and implementing and IEP
Observing, recording and monitoring and providing them with learning opportunities to include their interests.
By showing patience and kindness, but being firm at the same time, very often with a SEN child can not read facial expressions, so you have to make yourself understoodvisually as well as verbal, get down to their level; they need to know when you mean no- they can easily put themselves in danger - they very often have more advanced physical than cognitive skills. They think nothing of climbing a frame and not worry of falling off. You must watch them, but you must also allow them to experiment and explore to progress.
By regular meetings with all concerned in that child's learning will help them to progress.
Try and imagine you are either the parents or that child in the other two and use the above as an example and adapt. I hope this gets you started.
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