This document discusses strategies for supporting students with special educational needs (SEN) in the classroom. It emphasizes that all children learn differently and schools should develop the ability to respond effectively to each child's individual needs. By implementing techniques like differentiated instruction, multisensory teaching, assessing learning in various ways, and providing support for issues like working memory, teachers can help ensure all children reach their potential regardless of their specific challenges. The goal is an inclusive education system that meets the diverse learning needs of all students.

1. Special Educational Needs
Saturday 21 February 2015

2. What we learn from SEN
Cognition

3. All children in a class are - the same / different?
Batch production

4. 1,000’s of different occupations

5. What do we want our education system to do?

6. Each individual child
By developing the ability of schools and school teachers to
respond effectively to the SEN needs of children we
create an education system that enables all children to
learn and reach their potential.
The aim (and the impact measure) is that all children reach
their potential
Diversity and Inclusion

7. What do we
need to unlearn
in order to
flourish?

11. Specific Learning Difference
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• A difference / difficulty people have with
particular aspects of classroom learning.
• These are all Neurodiverse conditions because
they are to do with the different ways that
different people process information

12. My perfect………
p

13. The most common SpLDs are:
• Dyslexia
• Dyspraxia
• Attention deficit disorder
(ADD)
• Attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder
• Dyscalculia
• Dysgraphia

14. Neurodiversity
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How do we distinguish?
• We focus on the child
• They are all syndromes – and so we look at the
signs/symptoms, behaviours, history and classroom
performance for distinguishing characteristics
• Support and interventions without a ‘label’ as such
• Many specific learning differences overlap – and so
‘naming’ may not be the most important thing
• Prioritise the most important
• There are things a teacher can do in the classroom
which will help ALL the children

16. Writing tends to be on or across
the centre line of the body
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Dysgraphia
Visual-spatial difficulties: trouble processing what the eye sees
Language processing difficulty: trouble processing and making sense of what
the ear hears

17. AchieveAbility Interventions Framework: by David Crabtree
‘In terms of specialised functions there is an important difference between the
left and right halves of the brain’
Neuropsychological Treatment of Dyslexia D.J. Bakker
Left brain hemisphere
• Language
• Facts
• Analysis
• Time orientation
• Sequencing
• Structure
• Mathematics
• Listening
This is true for the majority of people.
Right brain hemisphere
• Pictures
• Feelings
• Humour
• Artistic
• Musical
• 3-D visual/spatial
• Patterns
• ‘Whole picture’

18. There are things a teacher can do in the classroom which
will help ALL the children
Two skill sets

19. Diverse learning needs
Take account of the learning needs
to plan differentiated approaches
that enables all learners
to participate
and learn

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Working memory
– Working memory acts as a kind of “holding area”
– for temporary recall of the information which is being processed at
any point in time e.g. classroom activity
– Working memory holds a small amount of information (typically
around 7 items or even less) in mind in an active, readily-available
state for a short period of time (typically from 10 to 15 seconds, or
sometimes up to a minute).
– Working memory links into a “hook” in long term memory to help
“place” the new memory in with other memories and be stored
– Working memory has been shown to be important for successful
classroom learning.

21. Poor working memory
understand well, but forgets quickly
I really don’t
remember
what we did
last lesson.
How come everyone else
seems to remember it all –
bet the teacher thinks I’m
stupid. Ok, so that’s how
I’ll behave!
I thought I’d
done that piece
of coursework.
But I can’t find it
– so I guess I
didn’t. I’m in
trouble again!!
What’s that word
I need? OR
What’s that word
mean that he
just said?

22. Why is this important?
The nature of classroom learning
And the case study of 2
metaphysics: of or relating to things that are
thought to exist but that cannot be seen

23. Long-term
memory
What we now know
1. The brain “loses” information from short term memory
2. Between short term and long term memory there is a preparatory
stage

24. Long-term
memory
Memory – short term and long term
Working memory
All these are brain impulses
This is a physical part of
the brain (synapses on
neural pathways)

25. ONE CRITICAL
INTERVENTION
Reduce ’catastrophic’ loss
Assess for working memory
Put into place whole class
strategies to support working
memory
Would help neurodiverse
learners
Would benefit all learners
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26. Small working memory can give
an advantage – in the real world

27. T.G. West In the Mind’s Eye:
‘When people are known for their gifts, their
difficulties remain unknown’
‘When people are known for their difficulties,
their gifts remain unknown’

28. Differentiation
• Some small changes to practice or
• Scheme of Work
• can make a BIG difference to many pupils

29. Resource implications
• Do we know where
we are now?
• Access to advice
and support
• Training
• Exemplars
• Other professionals
• Specialist facilities
• a proper assessment about
meeting the child’s needs
• an iterative process
• how do we measure
success?

30. Multisensory

31. Accessibility
Ensure
that all accessibility and access needs
have been met

32. Assess
Assess for learning throughout
• Observing
• Listening
• Questioning
• Evaluating

33. Top tips
• Ensure the lesson is
accessible for all
• Be clear and remove
clutter
• Use multisensory
approaches
• Differentiate
• Assess for learning
• Link to existing
knowledge
• Learner focus