main content Identification and assessment of special educational needs - pre-school children

If your child is having difficulties with learning, your early education provider, such as a nursery or playgroup, will be able to offer extra support to meet their needs.

Identification and Assessment

The 1996 Education Act and the revised Code of Practice provide guidelines for the identification and assessment of a child who may have special educational needs.

The pre-school setting will:

• monitor the child’s progress through the foundation stage;
• adopt a graduated response which provides specific help to individual children;
• provide evidence of frequent and careful monitoring;
• provide carefully differentiated learning opportunities to help children progress.

Early Years Action

The Early Years Action programme offers extra support if the pre-school setting finds that a child:

• continues to demonstrate significant delays, despite receiving appropriate early educational experiences;
• continues to demonstrate significant delays even when teaching is targeted to improve the child’s areas of weakness;
• continues to work at levels significantly below those expected for children of a similar age in certain areas;
• has persistent emotional and/or behavioural difficulties;
• has sensory or physical problems and continues to make little or no progress despite the provision of personal aids and equipment;
• has communication or interaction difficulties and requires specific individual help in order to understand and learn.

Help under Early Years Action could be a different way of teaching certain things, or some help from an extra adult. An Individual Education Plan (IEP) may be written.

Early Years Action Plus

If your child does not make enough progress under the School Action plan, their teacher at the pre-school setting or SEN co-ordinator (SENCO) may talk to you about asking for advice from other people outside the setting. This kind of extra help is called School Action Plus.

External support services can:

• help early education settings with advice on new IEPs and targets;
• provide more specialist assessment;
• give advice on the use of new or specialist strategies or materials.

Statutory Assessment

If a child continues to make slow progress after support through the Early Years Action Plus programme, consideration will be given to whether a ‘statutory assessment’ is appropriate. This is a detailed investigation to find out what your child's special educational needs are and what special help your child needs.

Next Steps

If you have concerns about your child's learning, arrange a meeting with your child's pre-school teacher or the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO).

Contact

For advice from Bromley's Educational Psychology Service:

Address:  Educational Psychology Service, Bromley Civic Centre, Stockwell Close, Bromley BR1 3UH

Telephone:  020 8313 4141
Fax:  020 8313 4145
E-mail:  eps.admin@bromley.gov.uk

More information on identification and assessment of special educational needs can be found on the government’s website – Directgov.