Working with babies and children who have additional support needs (ASN) is specialist and demanding work. To do so effectively, it is important that practitioners have the knowledge and understanding that will give them confidence to plan for the care and education of children with additional needs and to work with their families. For this reason, the Scottish Government has funded the production of a free online course, ‘Identifying and responding to additional support needs in ELC’, which offers early learning and childcare practitioners an opportunity to develop their knowledge in this important area.
The course takes 12 hours to complete and runs over six weeks. It is designed to assist learners to reflect on their own biases around disability and what is meant by ‘additional needs’. The content guides learners through practice scenarios where they need to consider how to talk with parents about sensitive issues.
So far, more than 3,000 learners have enrolled, including early years teacher Katie Adirangga, who says, ‘I learned a wealth of knowledge and experience about identifying children with ASN, and through case studies, personal stories and experiences, I have learned how to support ASN children and their families. I found it very beneficial to explore the elements of a child’s planning meeting and how to identify the National Care Standards associated with the ASN need.’
FROM EXPERIENCE
The course draws on the expertise of academics, parents and early years and playwork practitioners who have direct experience of supporting children with additional needs. It includes a webinar with speech and language therapist Joanne Gibson, who speaks about how practitioners can support the development of speech and language using what we would regard as good practice.
Some of the advice offered can challenge practitioners to rethink the way they work. For example, parent Pamela Anderson advises, ‘Sometimes I think it would help to start with a blank piece of paper instead of sharing so much information about what they can and cannot do. Just get to know the child and you’ll learn what they like to do.’
While the course helps learners understand the range of other professionals they are likely to be working with, the emphasis is on getting to know children and building positive relationships, rather than to see the child through a series of different labels.
In this way, it encourages practitioners to build on their strengths and seek out knowledge when they need it, rather than feeling anxious about what they don’t know about a child’s diagnosis.
Course contributor Dr Elizabeth Henderson, experienced in supporting young children with additional needs, advises practitioners to value themselves and to focus on their relationships with children. She emphasises the value of being ‘warm and inviting and able to greet and make space’.
She argues that, ‘If you really work with a child respectfully and warmly and out of experience and knowledge, you will, in fact, meet all the guidelines and policies because your practice is rich. If you head for the policies and the guidelines and you try to make your experience with the child match that, I think you’re doing it back to front, and you fail sometimes, I think, to see the child.’
CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
The course is set in the Scottish context, encouraging learners to consider and apply principles from the ‘Getting it right for every child’ guidance which underpins many local authority approaches, as well as to become familiar with National Care Standards. The emphasis is on recognising how such guidance and standards urge practitioners to uphold children’s rights and consider the child’s perspective in everything.
This might range from thinking about how to suggest to parents that a child has their vision checked, to thinking about catering for dietary needs in an inclusive way.
Katie feels motivated from undertaking the course and has already implemented and shared her new knowledge with her colleagues. She aims to keep three questions from Elizabeth Henderson in mind when working with a child:
- Who are you?
- What gifts have you brought with you into the world?
- How can I help you to be the best that you can be?
Undertaking this training can only benefit children who require additional support and, let’s face it, that can be all children at some point, especially with what they have been through with the pandemic over the past couple of years.
FURTHER INFORMATION
- ‘Identifying and responding to additional support needs in ELC’ is hosted by the free educational training platform OpenLearn Create: https://bit.ly/3fBExuG
Dr Jackie Musgrave is programme lead for Early Childhood at The Open University and is co-author of the course along with Sarah Burton, associate lecturer at the Open University and a practitioner working in an early years setting in Edinburgh, and Joanne Gibson, early years speech and language therapist and guest presenter on the course.
