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- SEND Report
SENCO – Kate Williams
SEN Support
When a student is not making progress despite the Academy’s differentiated curriculum, they need additional intervention. This is known as SEN Support; the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (Mrs K Williams) will advise staff of the type of need and the most effective way to support the student. The type of interventions may include different learning materials, specialist equipment, group or individual support. If a student is still not making progress after SEN Support intervention, the Special Educational Needs Coordinator may request help from outside agencies. They will provide more specialist assessments and offer advice on appropriate targets and effective strategies.
EHCP
If intervention through SEN Support fails to help the student, the Special Educational Needs Coordinator in collaboration with parents may consider asking the LA for additional support which may lead to a statutory assessment. The LA will consider factors such as medical history, attainments in all subjects especially literacy and numeracy, any involvement from other agencies and the views of the parents and the student. When all of these factors have been considered the LA may decide to issue an ECHP. This will advise the Academy of further interventions to put in place for the student and support the Academy to fund the appropriate resources. The EHCP will be reviewed annually until it is felt that the students’ needs have been met fully.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD or ADD)
ADHD is a cognitive and behavioural disorder that is exhibited through hyperactive, impulsive and inattentive behaviour. It is thought that up to 1% of children in the UK are affected and boys are three to four times more likely to be affected than girls. There is a strong genetic element to the development of ADHD therefore other family members may have similar attention problems.
Some Characteristics:
Inattention
- Does not pay attention to detail
- Finds it hard to stay focussed, avoids tasks that require concentration and is distracted easily
- Does not appear to be listening when spoken to directly
- Does not follow instructions
- Struggles to be organised
- Fidgets, interrupts and gets easily bored
- Has difficulties taking turns
- Says or does things without considering the consequences, takes unnecessary risks.
Other
- Sleep or appetite problems
- Impatient
- Inflexible personality
- Misreads social cues.
Contacts:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/adhd.cfm
Attention Deficit Disorder Information and Support Service Tel: 020 8906 9068
Autism
Autistic people have impairments in three areas: social interaction, communication, and development of imagination. Autism can create a hyper or hypo sensitivity in the senses. Hypersensivity means magnified sensations; soft sounds can be painfully loud to autistic people or some autistic people ignore loud noises as if they are deaf.
Some Characteristics:
Communication
- Language delay.
- Repetitive language and imitating phrases
- Difficulty in interpreting eye contact, facial expression and body language
- Overly literal interpretation of language and text
- Inability to hold a conversation.
Social
- Inability to make friends.
- Inappropriate touching, aggression, and odd greetings.
- Difficulty understanding the feelings of others
- Misinterpreting social situations and people.
Other
- Fixations with certain objects or particular foods.
- Hand flapping, rocking, walking on tip toes.
- Self-injury
- Erratic sleeping patterns
- Desire to keep objects in a specific pattern.
Further information
Family Support
For further details on the Autism Spectrum Education Team Parent Support Groups, please click here
Contacts:
National Autistic Society Tel: 0808 800 4104
Guide to Improving Gastrointestinal Symptoms among Children with Autism Spectrum
www.delimmune.com/research/improvements-in-gastrointestinal-symptoms-among-children-with-autism/
A Guide to Keeping Your Children with Autism Safe
http://safesoundfamily.com/p/autism-safety/
An article relating to gut bacteria and autism:
www.redorbit.com/news/health/1113021746/autism-and-gut-bacteria-120613/
The difference between autism & social anxiety
(http://www.icare4autism.org/news/2012/01/difference-between-autism-and-social-anxiety/)
Drugs, your child, & autism (http://www.autism-help.org/family-drugs-autism.htm)
MyAutismTeam – Share experiences with others close to autism
(http://www.myautismteam.com/)
Dyslexia
Dyslexia translates to “difficulty with words”. It applies to children who have significant and persistent difficulties with spelling, reading or writing. They may also have problems with time, short-term memory, sequencing and motor skills. A dyslexic learner may become frustrated about their failures which can lead to low self-esteem and behaviour problems.
Some Characteristics:
General
- Discrepancy between apparent intelligence and school progress
- Slow processing of written and spoken language
- Poor concentration and organisation
- Confusion over left and right.
Reading
- Struggles with sounds
- Reverses or confuses letters or words
- Omits words or syllables
- Alters word order of sentences
- Has difficulty keeping place on a line or finding next line
- Slow reading speed, does not comprehend meaning of stories and reads monotonously with little inflection.
Spelling
- Reverses or inverses letters
- Transposes letters e.g. “metl” for “melt”
- Copies inaccurately
- Omits or adds letters, syllables and words.
Writing
- Written work may not match oral ability letters and numbers are reversed or badly formed
- Confused by similar letters e.g. “b” and “d”
- Difficulty writing on a line and sticking to a margin, uneven letter size and problems spacing words.
Contacts:
The British Dyslexia Association Tel: 0333 405 4555
Dyslexia Institute Tel: 01482 329416
Dyscalculia
Dyscalculia causes people to have problems with arithmetic and mathematical concepts. One of the factors of dyscalculia is a weakness in visual processing; students have difficulties visualising numbers and mentally mix them up causing “silly mistakes”. Students also struggle to sequence numbers or information which causes problems remembering specific facts and formulas needed to complete mathematical calculations.
Some Characteristics:
- Difficulties with time; may be unable to keep track of time or often be late. Struggles with concepts such as days, weeks, months and seasons
- Inability to recall timetables or sequences of events
- Difficulties following steps in maths operations
- Lack of understanding of number lines, place value, positive and negative values
- Struggles to “carry” or “borrow” in multiplication and division
- Difficulty with fractions
- Finds handling money a challenge
Dyspraxia
Dyspraxia is a specific neurological disorder that prevents messages being sent to and from the brain efficiently. A dyspraxic person has decreased ability to make a controlled or coordinated physical response in a given situation. A child may be capable of performing a task one day but fails the next as the “process” for the task has become lost in the brain. Some processes that have been lost can sometimes be recalled, however they are often completely lost forcing the child to relearn the skill.
Some characteristics:
Social
- Immaturity in comparison to peers
- Difficulties forming friendships; may be loners
- Over emotional; easily upset
- Difficulty to adjusting to new situations
- Poor hand-eye coordination
- Prone to accidents.
Academic
- Speech and language difficulties
- Easily distracted and poor concentration
- Poor handwriting skills and immature drawing
- Difficulty following sequential instructions.
Other
- Awkward walking, running and climbing
- Takes longer than peers to learn skills like skipping or riding a bike
- Difficulty using scissors, knives and forks
- Slow to dress, unable to tie shoes, do up buttons etc
- Poor organisational skills
- Poor recognition of dangerous situations.
Contacts:
Dyspraxic Foundation Tel: 01462 454 986
www.dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk
