Early Years SEND toolkit - For all children with SEN
Activities, strategies and resources to support all children with SEN.
Assessment, planning and recording templates/examples
Early support developmental journals are designed to help families and practitioners observe and record a child’s development and progress. These include:
- The Oxfordshire Developmental Journal (ODJ) (docx format, 411Kb) will support settings and nursery classes in Oxfordshire to better understand, appreciate, and celebrate children’s attainment and plan for their future learning as part of the graduated response to meeting the needs of Early Years children with SEND.
- The developmental journal for children and young people with multiple needs
- The developmental journal for babies and children with Down Syndrome
SEN support
- Example of SEN Support for Billy (pdf format, 47Kb)
- Example of SEN Support Outcomes for Billy (pdf format, 57Kb)
- Example of SEN Support Review for Billy (pdf format, 46Kb)
- Example of SEND Support Plan for child with low level/emerging needs (pdf format, 185Kb)
- Example of SEND Support and Outcomes Plan for a child with more complex needs (pdf format, 47 KB)
Activities and strategies
These activities and strategies may be useful for any child with a special educational need. Some are written for parents but are equally relevant for use in settings.
Heuristic Play and Treasure baskets: Heuristic play was a term coined by a child psychologist Elinor Goldschmeid in the early 1980's. Heuristic play describes the activity of babies and children as they play with and explore the properties of 'objects'. These 'objects' are things from the real world -
Treasure Basket - This explorative play supports children in developing their own sensory exploration of natural items and can advance the child’s developing understanding of cause and effect - Treasure baskets
- Allowing the child to take the lead (pdf format, 42Kb)
- Descriptive commentary (pdf format, 32Kb)
- General sensory strategies (pdf format, 715Kb)
- Taking turns (pdf format, 32Kb)
- Copy box (pdf format, 167Kb)
- Using a visual timetable (pdf format, 162Kb)
- Treasure Trove (pdf format, 253Kb)
101 ideas for activities with a small group of children aged 3-5 years
Personal care
- Self-care skills- Sensory (pdf format, 128Kb)
- Eating and drinking: Steps and strategies (pdf format, 212Kb)
- Developing cutlery skills (pdf format, 177Kb)
Dressing
- Dressing skills: Steps and strategies (pdf format, 164Kb)
- Dressing skills: Buttons and zips (pdf format, 217Kb)
- Dressing skills: Sensory support (pdf format, 215Kb)
Toileting
- Potty and toilet training (pdf format, 219Kb)
- Toileting and Personal Care Guidance for Schools and Early Years Settings in Oxfordshire July 2021 (pdf format, 350Kb)
- ERIC - The children’s bowel and bladder charity
- Referral form for Children's Community Bladder and Bowel Service (pdf format, 162Kb)
- Toilet training and challenges
PromoCon offer advice and information on the whole range of childhood continence issues. They cover a range of issues for potty training a reluctant toddler to children with complex needs and bladder or bowel problems.
Resources
- What to expect in the Early Years Foundation Stage: A guide for parents (pdf format, 6Mb)
- Identifying children who are learning English as an additional language and who may also have learning difficulties and/or disabilities (pdf format, 456Kb)
- Promoting wellbeing in early years settings
Early support resources
Early support produce a variety of information resources covering a wide range of different conditions, disabilities and difficulties, developed in response to feedback from families.
SEN and Disability in the Early Years Toolkit
4Children and the Council for Disabled Children (CDC) have produced a toolkit for SEN and disability in the early years. Each section of the toolkit provides a briefing on a particular aspect of the SEN and disability reforms as they apply to early years providers. Each section is based on the statutory requirements and the guidance from the early years, the SEN and the disability frameworks, and draws on a range of relevant practice guidance and other materials to provide an accessible guide to SEN and disability in the early years. Towards the end of most of the sections of the toolkit is a useful tool, an activity or a reflective task to support practitioners in applying the particular topic to their own setting.
Individual Intervention Record (doc format, 62Kb) It’s important to keep a record of the interventions provided for children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (both at home and in their setting) alongside notes about the impact of the intervention. This form is designed to be used from the start i.e. as soon as the child’s needs have been identified so that the chronology of all the various interventions and how they have helped is collected in one place with costs included, if relevant.
Early Years Toolkit - Useful resources to help support early years settings.
Smooth Transition, to prepare for Transition, see the Early Years Foundation Stage Transition Pack and the Transition Action Plan for Children with SEN and disabilities (doc format, 127Kb)
Transition Checklist (pdf format, 100Kb)
School Readiness for Practitioners
School Readiness for Parents
Community around the setting (pdf format, 853Kb) a directory of services/agencies available to help settings
Questions to ask when you go to a doctor or hospital
Applying for an Education and Health Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA)
Examples of completed information that supports the EHCNA application -