Specialist Sen Nursery Planning - I Need Help

[Guest]

Hello,

 

I run a specialist nursery for children aged 2 to 5 years. All of the children that attend have special needs which vary from mild learning difficulties and sensory impairments to Profound and multiple learning difficulties. I am really struggling in arranging my planning so that all the ages of the children, and their ability levels are catered for using one format.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Guest]

Just thought I would say hello Mollie and welcome to the site. Thanks for your first post.

You have a massive task on your hands catering for such a wide age range and with such varying abilities. I admire anybody who takes on such a role. I have to be honest and say that I cannot help you here but I'm sure somebody will be able to give you some ideas.

Linda

[Susan]

Hi Mollie, my immediate reaction to this is like Linda but then I thought in the classroom we have IEPs for our special needs children to allow for differentiation etc.

If you have IEPs can you not plan activities to meet curriculum intentions/objectives for the whole group and differentiate them accordingly? The individuals' needs are then met through the IEPs?

 

There are some others out there who might have a different perspective or more specific ideas or help, so keep checking in.

 

Susan

[Guest]

Hi Mollie

I teach in a special school where all the children have special needs with a vast range of ability, need and function. (funnily enough I am just this minute applying for a job to work with pre school special needs children)

Anyway...In my planning I plan as I would for any 'normal' (if there is such a thing) class, by topic and subject so that I have an outline of activities and areas that I want to cover. It is then in my daily or short term lesson planning that I cater for the individual needs for each child working alongside statements and IEPs. So basically I differentiate within each area for each child as and when they need it. Some tasks are more easy to do this for than others and it does take ages to begin with, but you will find your own way of planning and doing things as you get used to it.

 

Some activities can be differentiated by outcome so the task is a blanket delivery, but the results are very different

[Guest]

Molly I work in a nursery with some speech and language as a special need, I agree with the other contributions and add that your differentiation would depend on the task as well as outcome it could be the level of support you give individuals to complete a task. In my planning I include a selection of strategies i.e. scaffolding, modelling, facilitating, differentiating. I cut and paste this onto each planning sheet but would specify individual needs on the child's individual IEP.