I need some advice please

[klc106]

Hi all

 

We have a little girl at pre-school who is 3yrs old but on average is working between the level of an 8-20/16-26 month old in all areas, except physical- moving and handling

For all of our children we have a next steps sheet which we choose 14 next steps for each child from development matters and plan for the these for one half term.

 

Now I feel that in order to support this little girl in the best way possible this is not the best way to plan for her as her next steps are at a significantly lower level than the other. I would rather plan for her interests such as sensory activities. Does anyone else do this for children in their setting?

 

Also, she seems to be making little progress in terms of development matters. She does repeat things that she has already done, such as playing with small world toys, using musical toys etc. How do I show her progress?

 

 

Hope this makes sense and I look forward to your advice :1b

[Rafa]

Hi Kic

Sounds like she needs an IEP where you can set tiny steps towards progress. Certainly just three targets at most. If your not sure how to go about this then maybe seek some advice from the Early years specialist teaching service. If you are all ready doing this and she is not achieving the targets eg sits for 1minute at circle time or takes turns in rolling a ball with an adult etc then i would also definately get outside support.

[klc106]

She has been referred to SEN inclusion team and the educational pyschologist is getting ivolved as well as SALT. We've got her IEP but that isn't really enough to plan activities for and show that we are planning for her next steps. Her targets are more like sitting for story which obviously we can't plan for except at story time if you get me?

[finleysmaid]

humm i'm a bit confused...what sort of next steps do you have for your other children? 14 sounds like a huge amount! ours have 1 every 2 weeks!! (so thats 3 per half term). They are all 'smart' targetted.

Why can't you plan for her to sit for story? the sort of thing i might have on her plan is to say ....sit with support for 1 minute...then sit unsupported for 1 minute etc etc but to be honest this probably isn't a priority!!

if her salt therapist has targets can you not include these in your plans?? so say if comprehension was an issue could her plan not be something like put 2 correct toys away in the correct boxes (these examples are a bit random!...if you give me more details i might be able to come up with somthing better!!)

[klc106]

I agree that 14 next steps is too many! Our improvement advisor has told us we have to complete a next steps sheet for all the children with 2 next steps for each area and plan for these over 1 half term!

I do plan for this little one regarding sitting for a story etc. but I feel we are asking too much of her when looking at the development matters for next steps like our improvement advisor has said. For example she can say no words and only babbles occasionally. so in terms of mathematics, she is not able to count etc. as she has no language.

 

Sorry I'm probably not explaining myself very well. It just that we don't seem to be observing any 'new' achievements and this is reflected in her learning journey and makes it look like she isn't doing anything! When in fact she is exploring her senses etc. but we have been told not to put things in learning journey's that has already been observed!

We are expecting a visit from her SENCO so will ask her advise too.

 

I'm so confused!!

[finleysmaid]

i think i would only be planning for the prime areas for her at present and only in tiny steps...would this work for you and her? I would go throught the development matters statements and see which ones she is able to do and try to plan something for some of the others...like tuning into sounds? or responding to noises maybe.could she point to a duck if there was a quacking sound or find the sheep if you asked her to (i would link this to her interests if possible. Could you hide a number of animals in the ublick and ask her for a specific one?

I think it's fine to have lots of evidence on one section of development matters...she will take much longer to assimilate the information and may scaffold very slowly.

[klc106]

Thank-You finleysmaid. You confirmed what I thought. i also think it good to have lots of evidence on one section of development matters but my improvement advisor thinks differently. I will stick to my way though!