Does your pre-school child have special needs?

You may have concerns about your child's sensory development (sight, hearing, speech and language); physical, social, emotional development or behaviour or the way in which they play, learn and interact with others and their environment. 

You do not have to wait until a child starts school to get help and support.

The importance of early intervention

It's recognised that early intervention can make a big difference so if you think your child needs extra support to develop and learn, speak to your health visitor, family GP or pre-school. They will either allay your fears that it is quite normal for little Lawrie not to be able to recite War and Peace by the age of 2 (whatever other mothers at nursery say), or, if professionals share your concerns, they may want to look more closely at your child's needs and possibly involve staff based at one of the child development centres. In addition, you may be able to get extra help through the Portage service, a pre-school home visiting educational service for children with additional support needs.

A young child identified as having SEN may be put on Early Years Action or Early Years Action Plus to enable them to learn and develop. When pre-school and other support services can't provide all the help needed they may request a statutory assessment of the child's needs, which can lead to a statement of special educational needs. Parents, too, can request a statutory assessment. The decision whether to carry out an assessment rests with the LA.

At whatever age, or whatever the nature of the difficulty or worry, if you think your child has special educational needs, then seek help, advice and support from all quarters. Your child isn't alone and you shouldn't be either.

See also

The Good Schools Guide - Special Educational Needs The comprehensive, highly readable guide to special needs, education, schooling and schools is a must-read for any parent new to the world of SEN.

'It is written by parents and has a parent-friendly attitude.' Times Educational Supplement SEN Extra.

Want to help your child with early reading? Step by Step Reading from Galore Park is an acclaimed synthetic phonics programme. Synthetic phonics is a method of teaching reading which intensively teaches first the letter sounds and then builds up to blending the letter sounds together to achieve full pronunciation of the printed word.  The 2006 Rose Report, commissioned by The Secretary of State to examine current evidence about practices for teaching children to read, concluded that 'synthetic phonics offers the vast majority of young children the best and most direct route to becoming skilled readers and writers' (synthetic phonics may not be ideal for all children - some because of their special needs, will continue to learn best from visual clues and whole word systems, or a mix of methods). Step by Step is a simple ...