Teacher’s role in children with SEN

A Special Education Needs (SEN) teacher usually works with pupils who have learning difficulties, behavioral problems or physical or sensory disabilities.

The qualifications for a SEN teacher depend on the particular needs of the pupils they wish to teach.

To become a SEN teacher it’s important to remember that he or she must: have the commitment to work with pupils with special educational needs, have the ability to build up good relationships with a range of people - pupils, parents, careers, teachers, teaching assistants, educational psychologists and social workers, be able to get on well with pupils from different backgrounds with different abilities, be very well organized, be able to manage classes and deal with challenging behavior, be able to communicate well in the most appropriate ways for the pupils.

SEN pupils have varying needs. Teachers can choose whether to assist pupils with specific disabilities or a range of needs. Typically, SEN teacher’s work with pupils with dyslexia or dyscalculia, autism, severe epilepsy, moderate, severe or profound learning difficulties, visual or hearing impairments, mobility problems, behavioral challenges or psychiatric problems.

What does a Special Education Needs (SEN) teacher do?

The tasks which a SEN teacher carries out can include:

•          Preparing materials, equipment and lessons
•          Assessing the individual learning needs of pupils
•          Evaluating and reporting pupils’ progress to teachers, careers, healthcare    professionals and anybody else who helps them
•         Assisting with the personal care needs of pupils
•         Coping with challenging behavior and dealing with difficult situations
•         Liaising with parents, careers and other professionals who work with the pupil
•         Supervising activities such as trips locally or abroad.

It is important to have in mind that Very few careers provide the opportunity to help and support those who need it the most. SEN teachers play a vital part in helping to shape the future of a child’s life and the satisfaction of this work is unlikely to be found in many other jobs.

Being a SEN teacher requires a lot of patience, the ability to cope with stress and work well under pressure. Working with children in general can be unpredictable and challenging at times, and this is certainly the case with children with special needs.

The majority of people think that to be a teacher is an easy work, and it is wrong, because work with children, covering all their needs and providing help for them is a very hard work, but, it is not a problem for teachers because they work very hard every day because they love their works and they try to give support not only children, but families too. This is the reason why teacher are so important in society.

Source: http://www.eteach.com/CMS/1/SENcontent.aspx

Interactive visual supports for children with autism

             

Kanner first described autism in after noticing the shared symptom of a general lack of interest in other people in a group of children who had previously been referenced with various other labels, including simply mental retardation.

Since Kanner’s recognition of ‘‘Early Infantile Autism,’’ the scientific and medical communities’ views of autism have changed dramatically, broadening to include other related disorders. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a set of five conditions that begin early in life and often affect daily functioning throughout the lifetime.

Visual supports can be the kinds of things that we see in everyday life to support communication, such as body language or natural cues within the environment. They can also be tools explicitly created to support individuals who may have trouble interpreting naturally occurring visual cues. These constructed artifacts sometimes use images or tangible objects to represent simple everyday needs and elements of basic communication. In these cases, visual supports are used to augment communication, in much the same way that sign language can be a visual representation of language for someone with a hearing impairment. High-tech devices for augmentative and alternative communication can also help children with special needs build language skills over time.

Visual supports have been shown to reduce the symptoms associated with ASD. Despite their impressive benefits, use of visual supports continues to be difficult for many teachers, parents, and other caregivers.

Ubicomp technologies are particularly promising for the development of advanced visual supports that address these myriad challenges.

Methods

We have taken a mixed method approach to understanding visual supports for children with ASD. We made use of previous research led by the first author, including a multiyear ethnographic study of caregivers of children with autism, focus groups centered on children with autism spectrum disorder and their caregivers, and an in situ study of the deployment of a new ubiquitous computing technology for classrooms behavior management of children with special needs. Building on these results, we then undertook a qualitative field study to understand the needs of students and teachers in special education classrooms with a specific focus on visual communications and education tools.

Results

Through fieldwork, interviews, participatory design sessions, and focus group discussions, we designed, developed, and evaluated three novel ubicomp visual supports. In this section, we describe the results of these efforts, both in terms of their evaluation of our interventions and in terms of design implications for the creation of ubicomp technologies in support of children with ASD. We place particular emphasis here on the results of the focus group evaluation.

As a little conclusion, for children with SEN, however, many of whom are unable to communicate via traditional verbal language, visual supports offer them a way to become a part of their own culture and to learn. To use Vygotsky’s notions of cultural tools, visual supports are symbolic and technological tools that aid in communication 

Source: http://www.gillianhayes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/J6_PUC_Autism2010.pdf

Internet, an example of how ICT can be used to explore.

The Internet offers an example, among others, of how ICT can be used to explore. The opportunities to do so are limitless, since information can be sent and explored in many mediums (text, pictures or sound). Banes and Walter (2002:25) offer useul guidelines for using the Internet as an exploratory environment for pupils with SEN in schools.

Lessons using the Internet should:

-Be incorporated into the total communication policy at the school. This includes the use of speech, signing, rebus symbols, written words and voice output communication aids.

-Be rooted in the concrete experiences of pupils.

-Enable pupils access to other individuals and groups through e-mail and special interest groups.

-Promote individual educational aims in cross-curricula areas.

-Promote access to English (speaking and listening, writing, reading) within the curriculum.


-Support the application of the National Curriculum with pupils n various curriculum areas.

-Promote communication with individuals and groups outside school.

-Develop writing and communication skills, by following a process of plan-draft-revise-proof read- present and by making judgements about tone,style, format and choice of vocabulary as appropriate to the intended audience.


Valoration:internet has an important role in SEN. It can be useful to work with children in class but for those children we have to take into account several measure when using it that are explain above.

Source: https://books.google.es/books?hl=es&lr=&id=BY7lAAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=ICT+tools+in+specific+educational+needs&ots=PUT3NgEmgr&sig=ZMqarVnecaxwzupkX1xqmOP58V4#v=onepage&q=ICT%20tools%20in%20specific%20educational%20needs&f=false 

The potential of ICT for meeting SEN

Technology can ser for many people with disabilities as a kind cognitive prosthesis to overcome or compensate for differences among learners. This idea has important implications for learners with disabilities and special educational needs because it suggests that technology can help create the conditions for equal opportunity to learn and equal access to the curriculum for all.

The appeal of technology as an equalizer for learners with special educational needs is borne out in the many materials that have been developed to address special educational needs. Professional magazines and trade shows offer a dazzling array of devices and programs covering all areas of the curriculum and all types of learning difficulties. For example, the offical magazine of the UK's National Association for special Educational Needs contains an ICT guide as a regular feature. This feature explores a range of issues from reviews of programs to the skills that teaching assistants need to support learners. It covers all types of learning with tehnology for all kinds of learners. Similarly, the American Journal of Special Education Technology reports on research on the use of technology in the field of special educational needs. 

The plethora of available information and the range of topics covered under the heading information and comunications technology and SEN can be daunting. In the pressurized world of teaching, there is little opportunity to think critically about what is available or how it should be used. In a review of the instructional effectiveness of technology for pupils with SEN, Woodward et al. (2001) examined the research on software curriculum designed specifically for pupils with such needs. They identified a number of design variables thought to affect academic outcomes for pupils with SEN, such as the quantity and type of feedback, practice, strategy instruction, assessment and motivation. Woodward et al. found that there are no simple answers to the question of effectiveness: 'simply because a program or approach has been validated by research does not necessarily mean it will be used as intended in practice'.

Means (1994) argues that the application of ICT, the ways in which teachers use it, must start with the teacher and the kind of learning they want to foster. She categorizes ICT by the ways in which it is used in teaching. From her perspective, ICT can be used to tutor or to explore; it can be applied as a tool and it can be used to communicate. In the field of special education, ICT is also used for assessment and management purposes.

Valoration: technology is a useful tool for those people who have learning disabilities. It provides different types of materials to better develop those special educational needs.  


Source: https://books.google.es/books?hl=es&lr=&id=BY7lAAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=ICT+tools+in+specific+educational+needs&ots=PUT3NgEmgr&sig=ZMqarVnecaxwzupkX1xqmOP58V4#v=onepage&q=ICT%20tools%20in%20specific%20educational%20needs&f=false 

The role of technology in supporting SEN

The situation in which children with SEN are at schools are:

Young people with SEN did less well than their peers at school and college and were more likely to be out of education, training and employment at 18. Too many families had to battle to find out what support was available and in getting the help they needed from education, health and social care services; and when a young person left school for further education, they entered a very different system which did not carry forward the rights and protections that exist in the SEN system in schools.​

Children with Sen have the support of TECHNOLOGIES that provides:

-Information on specialist websites for children and young people with SEN (e.g. dyslexia, autism etc.)

- Support for parents

- Professional support and support systems

What Parents as Partners Means?

 All settings should develop effective partnerships with parents in order to enhance the learning and development of the children with whom they work.

Parents are very interested in their children’s progress from baby to child and beyond.

Support for parents

A support group for parents and families of children who are Severely/Profoundly disabled. Parents can find support for different disabilities including Cerebral Palsy Developmental Delays, Failure to Thrive, Feeding Tubes, Mentally Impaired, special needs, Spina Bifida, Seizures, Brain Injured, Scoliosis, CMV, Microcephaly, and many others as well.

One of the hardest things for me to learn as a special needs parents was how to ask for the help and support I needed.

Following this phases they can help their children:

- Talk about your kids' personalities, not their accomplishments. 

- Insist on helping. 

- Stop with the maxims.

- Extend some grace. 

- Stop complaining about your kids.

- Pamper your child. 

- See your child.

- Support the cause. 

Information on specialist websites for children and young people with SEN and professional support and support systems

 It is widely accepted that effective support for children with SEN should begin as early as possible, epitomized by the phrase ‘early intervention’. As noted by the British Institute of Learning Disabilities, ‘research and practice have proven that Early Intervention produces immediate and long-term benefits for children with disabilities, their family and society’.

Early intervention is defined by EADSNE as ‘a range of all necessary interventions (social, medical, psychological and educational) targeted towards children and their families, to meet the special needs of children who show or risk some degree of delay in development’.

Other Support Services

Other than the provision of resources to schools, EDB also provides the following professional support services:

-Advisory Visit by Special Education Support O­fficer

-Outsourced Education Psychology Service for Primary Schools

-School-based and Centre-based Adjustment Unit Service

-Teacher Professional Development and Support Services

Finally, as a little summary, it is important to have in mind that there are a lot of factors or elements that help to overcome this situation. Elements as parents that can be with children helping them and giving affection and normality to children, Moreover, technological resources and supports are elementary for them. Giving all these terms to children they wouldn’t treat SEN as a problem, they would treat it as something normal that can finish with this type of help.

Sources

-       http://www.bettshow.com/files/sonia_blandford.pdf

-       http://www.keap.org.uk/documents/eyfs_eff_prac_parent_partner.pdf

-       http://www.childrensdisabilities.info/parenting/groups-childrensdisabilities.html

-       http://www.huffingtonpost.com/m-lin/special-needs-parents_b_1338169.html

-       http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/edu-system/special/support/wsa/public-edu/ie_e.pdf

-       http://europa.eu/epic/studies-reports/docs/eaf_policy_brief_-_support_for_sen_children_final_version.pdf

What can early years settings, schools and colleges do to help?

Early years settings, schools and colleges place great importance on identifying special educational needs (SEN) early so that they can help children and young people as quickly as possible. Once it has been decided that your child has SEN, staff working with your child should take account of the guidance in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Code of Practice (2015). The Code describes how help for children and young people with special educational needs in early years settings, schools and colleges should be made through a step-by-step or graduated approach.

The graduated approach recognises that children and young people learn in different ways and can have different kinds or levels of SEN. So increasingly, step-by-step, specialist expertise can be brought in to help the early years setting, school or college with the difficulties that a child or young person may have.

The approach may include:

-an individually-designed learning programme
-extra help from a teacher/tutor or learning support assistant
-being taught individually or in a small group for regular short periods
-drawing up a personal plan, including setting targets for improvement, regular review of progress before setting new targets.

The early years setting, school or college must tell you when they first start giving extra or different help because your child has special educational needs. This is called SEN Support.

If your child does not make enough progress, the teacher/tutor or the Special Educational Needs Co-ordeinador (SENCo)  should then talk to you about asking for advice from other people outside the early years setting, school or college, for example, a specialist teacher adviser, an educational psychologist, a speech and language therapist or other health professionals.

Within this framework your child’s progress will be carefully recorded, monitored and reviewed.

The early years setting, school or college should try to include you in any discussions, and should consider your views in making any decisions about how best to help your child. They should keep you informed about your child’s progress.

After this step-by-step approach there should be a clear written record about what the early years setting, school or college has done to assess and provide for your child's needs. The content of this record will be discussed with you. There will be a personal plan for your child with clearly recorded reviews and outcomes, and reference to the involvement of other professionals, where relevant. In this way the level of help will be carefully matched to your child's needs.

Valoration: early identification is so important to do an early intervention. Teachers have to identify those students with special educational needs as soon as possible to intervene.

Source: http://www3.hants.gov.uk/childrens-services/specialneeds/sen-home/sen-education.htm 

What does an SEN Co-ordinator (SENCo) do?

The SEN Co-ordinator (SENCo), in collaboration with the headteacher/principal and governing body plays a key role in determining the strategic development of the SEN policy and provision in the early years setting, school or college in order to raise the achievement of children and young people with SEN.

The SENCo takes day-to-day responsibility for the provision made for individual children with SEN, working closely with staff, parents and carers, and other agencies.

The SENCo also provides related professional guidance to colleagues with the aim of securing high quality teaching for children and young people with SEN.

In mainstream education settings the key responsibilities of the SENCo may include:

-Overseeing the day-to-day operation of the SEN policy.

-Liaising with and advising fellow teachers.

-Managing the SEN team of teachers (if employed) and learning support assistants/teaching assistants.

-Co-ordinating provision for pupils with special educational needs.

-Overseeing the records on all pupils with special educational needs.

-Liaising with parents/carers of pupils with special educational needs.

-Contributing to the in-service training of staff.

-Liaising with external agencies including the local authority’s support and educational psychology services, health and social care and voluntary bodies.

Valoration: the SENCo (coordinator of special educational needs) has several responsibilities to do in education that are very important to carry on.

Source: http://www3.hants.gov.uk/childrens-services/specialneeds/sen-home/childrens-services-sen-senco.htm 

Support for children with SEN

What educational support is available?

-Before your child starts school or early education

Your child’s early years are a very important time for their physical, emotional, intellectual and social development. When your health visitor or doctor makes a routine check, they may suggest there could be a problem or you may have worries of your own. You can talk to your doctor or health visitor who will be able to give you advice about the next steps to take and who can help.

If your child’s needs are severe or complex, your health visitor or doctor may approach the Children's Services Department on your behalf. You can also contact them directly.

-If your child is at an early years setting or school

If you have any concerns about your child’s progress you should first talk to your child’s class teacher/tutor. In schools (or early years settings) there is a SEN Co-ordinator (SENCo), who is responsible for co-ordinating help for children with special educational needs. You will be able to talk over your concerns with the teacher/tutor and/or SENCo and find out what the school thinks. The SENCo will be able to explain what happens next.

Working together with your child’s teachers will often help to sort out worries and problems. The closer you work with your child’s teachers, the more successful any help can be.


Valoration: there are many support available to children and parents. It will depends on each child and if he or she is in school or he/she has not yet entered. This support is very important because it helps us how to act. 

Source: http://www3.hants.gov.uk/childrens-services/specialneeds/sen-home/sen-intro.htm 

Engagement with School in Students with Special Educational Needs

Student’ engagement with school is a strong predictor of both positive and negative academic trajectories indicators. 

As a consequence, it is been acknowledged in recent years as a phenomenon of great importance for the understanding of academic trajectories. Low school engagement is a strong risk factor for maladaptive outcomes, from poor academic performance and school dropout, to disruptive and anti-social behaviors.

School engagement refers to the students’ level of involvement, connectedness bonding and commitment to school as well as motivation to learn and to achieve. 

It is an indicator of the quality of effort devoted by students to educationally purposeful activities in order to achieve desired outcomes.

School engagement is a multidimensional construct including contextual, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive components, but a consensus about the number and the type of dimensions is still to be achieved. However, a common feature of the several frameworks to students’ engagement is the notion that engagement is a psychosocial process, resulting from the interaction between individual and contextual factors.
Students’ engagement with school is an interactive process, with interactionist perspectives conceptualizing engagement as a result of the degree to which school meet students psychological needs. In order to reach their full potential, students need that context offer the necessary conditions so that their psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness and competence are met. As it is posit by several frameworks, individual characteristics interact with contextual dimensions in the shaping of psychological states, such as subjective experiences towards school.

Students with SEN can experience negative developmental outcomes on several domains, including motor and cognitive dimensions, language and communication, difficulties on behavior and emotional control and social skills or learning disabilities.

These characteristics constraint learning processes, they influence several types of outcomes, and therefore exert a substantial influence on trajectories of school engagement, and ultimately they lead to developmental paths associated to dropout. 

School context imposes demands and challenges in: 

- Behavior (e.g. to follow rules; to wait for its turn) 

- Academic tasks (e.g. understanding new concepts, problem solving)

- Social interactions (e.g. group entry and belonging and conflicts)

They require emotional and behavior self-regulation. 

SEN frequently have additional difficulties on these dimensions which place them at increased risk for poor school outcomes. Students with disabilities experience restrictions to participation in school activities, and experience lower levels of wellbeing. Namely, students with SEN who receive educational services in inclusive classrooms are more likely to show chronic disengagement, specifically in tasks requiring independent work. This is due to difficulties such as diverse cognitive abilities, multiple and varied instructional needs, academic performance bellow (or above, if gifted) their same-age peer group, cooperation, assertion and self-control levels above the national normative levels, in contrast with high scores for externalizing behavior problems, hyperactivity and inattention, combined with the provision of largely undifferentiated instruction.

______________________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __________________________________

Although there are several frameworks to students’ engagement with school, there is a consensus that engagement encompasses two basic features: individual and contextual characteristics. Therefore, we adopted the framework of Appleton, Christenson, Kim, & Reschly (2006) for describing school engagement in students with and without SEN. These authors developed the Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) which captures to major dimensions: Cognitive and Psychological engagement.

This study will contribute to an integrative understanding of students engagement with school, allowing for direct comparisons between groups of students.

To describe the cognitive and contextual dimensions of school engagement in students with and without Special Educational Needs. In this study we tested the hypotheses that students with and without SEN needs would differ in terms of individual and contextual dimensions of engagement with school.

Source: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=56041784004