Resources to support practitioners working with children with special educational needs
General
The Council for Disabled Children has a huge range of resources to support parents and practitioners, as well as signposts to other organisations.
The Early Support website offers a range of resources for practitioners working in the early years.
The Early Support Developmental Journal can help to plan goals appropriate to needs.
Early Support: Developmental Journal for Children with Multiple Needs offers specific support for children who have Profound and Multiple Learning Needs.
The SEND Gateway is an online portal developed by Nasen, offering education professionals free, easy access to high quality information, resources and training for meeting the needs of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The Autism Education Trust has a range of free-to-download resources as part of their modular training programme for professionals in all early years settings. This includes an Autism progression framework linked to the EYFS as well as a set of standards to enable setting to evaluate their own provision.
Autism Transitions: This website is a collaboration between The University of Southampton and Aviary Nursery, Eastleigh, funded by the Froebel Trust.
Inclusion Development Programme: Supporting children on the autism spectrum: Guidance for practitioners in the Early Years Foundation Stage
The Makaton website offers free resources in the Makaton Library. You need to create a free account to access the Library. Topics covered by the free downloads include:
- Vocabulary
- Songs and stories
- Activities and games
- Reports and guides
- the opportunity to sign up for sign of the week.
The National Deaf Children’s Society provides a range of resources for all education professionals working in the early years on deaf friendly teaching and supporting deaf children in the early years. This includes guidance on recognising the signs of hearing loss and helping families of deaf children and those that support them to observe, monitor and record the progress their child makes. Practitioners can also find advice on simple steps that can be taken to improve the listening environment in nurseries, schools, and other education settings.
The Downs Syndrome Association provides information about children with Downs syndrome for practitioners in early years settings as well as signposting to help with Education Health and Care Plans and Legal issues.
I CAN is the children’s communication charity. Their website offers free downloads that provide information and advice to support any speech, language and communication needs. This includes guidance written by speech and language therapists about what to look for at different stages of language development.
Local resources
Look out for resources on your Local Offer website; here you should be able to find information to support for parents but also services and resources for practitioners in general and SENCOs. Many websites enable you to navigate to a lot of local resources in one place, such as:
Surrey Local Offer A combination of information for parents about processes (such as Education Health and Care Plans) and where to access help at different stages of these processes.
Children’s Health Surrey, another local website that brings together helpful advice sheets, therapy resources and information linked to Speech and language therapy, Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy.
Bristol City Council: Differentiated Early Years Outcomes is a resource developed to allow practitioners to show progress within EYFS for children who have additional needs and disabilities.
Resources on gender
- LGBTQIA+ magazine
- Getting Started: Celebrating difference and challenging gender stereotypes in the Early Years Foundation Stage, Stonewall
- Unlimited potential: final report of the Commission on Gender Stereotypes in Early Childhood
- Just like a child: respect gender equality in the early years, Zero Tolerance
- Eight ways to challenge stereotypes in early years settings, Let Toys Be Toys
- Lesson plans, No Outsiders
- Toolbox for gender-conscious and equitable early childhood centres, Gender Loops
- Gender equal play in early learning and childcare, Care Inspectorate and Zero Tolerance
- The MITEY UK and Other Methods: How to Get More Men to Join the EYFS, Interview with Shaddai Tembo
- DCSF (2007) Confident, capable and creative: supporting boys’ achievements, National Strategy document
Resources on race
- Racism resources for caregivers, Mattel/Play Room
- Winkler, E.N. (2009) Children are Not Colorblind, PACE Vol. 3-No. 3 |
- The Anti-racist Glossary (website)
- Tembo, S. (2018) Talking about race in the early years, Critical Early Years website
- DCSF (2009) Building futures: Believing in children, A focus on provision for Black children in the Early Years Foundation Stage, National Strategies Early Years document
- DCSF (2009) Building Futures: Developing trust. A focus on provision for children from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller backgrounds in the Early Years Foundation Stage, National Strategies Early Years document
Blogs
- Bradbury-Coffey, A. and Coffey, G. (2021) LQBTQIA representation in the early years, Famly blog
- Pemberton, L. and Bradbury-Coffey, A. (2020) Early years inclusion revolution, Famly blog
- Bradbury-Coffey, A. (2020) Creating a partnership with parents and carers who identify as LGBT in the early years, Early Years Reviews
- Grimmer, T. (nd) Understanding terminology, LGBTQIA+ Early Years blog
- Coffey, G. (2020) Tips for creating inclusive environments for children with SEND, Kinderly blog