At Cockton Hill Junior School, we have experience of supporting children and young people with a wide range of need. There are four broad areas of need. These are:
- Communication and Interaction
- Cognition and Learning
- Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) Difficulties
- Sensory and or/physical needs
Communication and Interaction
Children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) have difficulty in communicating with others. This may be because they have difficulty:
- saying what they want to
- understanding what is being said to them
- or they do not understand or use social rules of communication.
The profile for every child with SLCN is different and their needs may change over time. They may have difficulty with one, some or all of the different aspects of speech, language or social communication at different times of their lives.
Children and young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder are likely to have particular difficulties with social interaction. They may also experience difficulties with language, communication and imagination, which can impact on how they relate to others.
Support may include:
- Speech and Language Link assessments and programmes
- Personalised speech and language therapy programmes
- Social Stories
Cognition and Learning
Support for learning difficulties may be required when children and young people learn at a slower pace than their peers, even with appropriate differentiation. Learning difficulties cover a wide range of needs, including Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD), Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD), where children are likely to need support in all areas of the curriculum and associated difficulties with mobility and communication, through to profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD)
Specific learning difficulties (SpLD), affect one or more specific aspects of learning. This encompasses a range of conditions such as dyslexia, dyscalculia and dyspraxia.
Support may include:
- English intervention groups including Toe by Toe
- Maths intervention groups including Power of 2 and Numbers Count
- Working memory interventions
- Additional Sounds~Write phonics and spelling groups
- Gross and fine motor programmes
Social, Emotional and Mental Health
Children and young people may experience a wide range of social and emotional difficulties which manifest themselves in many ways. These may include becoming withdrawn or isolated, as well as displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour. These behaviours may reflect underlying mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, self-harming, substance misuse, eating disorders or physical symptoms that are medically unexplained. Other children and young people may have disorders such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyper-active disorder or attachment disorder.
Support may include:
- Social Stories
- Connecting with Children
- Lego Therapy
- Confidence building groups (developing self-esteem)
- Developing emotional intelligence
- Organised playground games (with adult and peer leaders)
Sensory and/or physical needs
Some children and young people require special educational provision because they have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of the educational facilities generally provided. These difficulties can be age related and may fluctuate over time. Many children and young people with vision impairment (VI), hearing impairment (HI) or a multi-sensory impairment (MSI) will require specialist support and/or equipment to access their learning, or rehabilitation support.
Support may include:
- Fully accessible school, classrooms and outdoor areas (ramps to raised areas)
- Fully equipped and accessible toilet and changing space
- Motor skills intervention
- Access to sensory diets
- Staff trained in the use of specialist equipment as and when required depending on individual needs
