MESHGuides

We all have different sensory needs which help us to relax, interact with our surroundings or focus successfully. Some people need music to help them concentrate, others concentrate best in total silence. Doodling helps some of us focus while others like to chew on something (their nails, ends of pencils or gum). What helps you to relax? Do you exercise or lay in a bath? What comforts you? A hug, solitude, music? We tend not to pay much attention to our sensory needs because we are usually able to meet those needs without even thinking about it.

(See https://www.croydon.gov.uk/education/special-educational-needs/sen-education/croydon-senco-portal/croydon-senco-toolkit-0/identifying-pupils-with-send))

The guidance includes:

Resource 1: Flowchart to map process for identifying pupils who require SEN support in schools.

There is a growing body of evidence which supports the arts and art therapy as a complementary method of improving and maintaining both mental and physical health and wellbeing (BAAT, 2018).  Participating in arts programs can be a way of enabling resilience for those facing difficult and traumatic situations, particularly when it is difficult for people to put their experience into words (Dieterich-Hartwell and Koch, 2017).

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Earlier definitions of school readiness focused on a set of cognitive skills that a child should possess to be ready to start grade 1. This traditional construct of school readiness was criticized for its narrow focus (Ramey & Ramey, 1999). While misconceptions in plenty of places continue to distort ideas about school readiness, understanding of what “school readiness” means has increased greatly in recent years.

With thanks to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (https://www.nctsn.org)

This advice has been developed for children in the United States but is very similar to the advice from Syrian Refugees in the UK (Section 3.0). It is provided here as part of the support materials for people working with traumatised children.

Introduction taken from NCTSN, 2010, pp. 2-3

Detailed advice about what can be expected of children at different ages and stages is given in the following three documents.

The first, from UNICEF indicates different development stages of children in different regions.

Due to germs (bacteria, viruses and fungi) being invisible to the naked eye, it is hard for early years and primary age children to build links between microorganisms, poor hygiene practices and disease.

Children develop at different rates and providing detailed advice about development delays is beyond the scope of this Guide. However five specific resources are referenced below for those who want to explore these particular areas in more depth -

- Deafness and hearing impairment

The research indicating the importance of the different forms of play is referenced elsewhere in this guide (see Section 1). The advice which follows shows how a child can be helped to understand their world through play. Understanding the world is one of four specific areas of learning within the English Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework. ‘Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment’ (DfE, 2017).