Section Ten: Children ‘At Risk’ of Special Educational Needs.
Two years into the project, the DfES commissioned the EPPE team to conduct an investigation
into children who might be ‘at risk’ of special educational needs (SEN). It was recognised that
definitions and criteria for SEN are contested concepts, particularly for very young children.
While very few children in pre-school have been formally assessed as having SEN, many may
exhibit behaviours that give cause for concern amongst the adults who care for them. It should
be noted that children whose disability or medical condition require specialist assistance are
likely to attend a specialised centre and were therefore unlikely to be enrolled in the six types of
provision included in the research and be part of the EPPE sample.
The Early Years Transition and Special Educational Needs (EYTSEN) project was therefore a
sub-study within EPPE. EYTSEN focussed on children from age 3 to age 6 years (from pre-
school to the end of Year 1 in primary school). The study used a range of information to identify
children ‘at risk’ of developing SEN in terms of either cognitive or social/behavioural development
and investigated the links with a variety of child, parent and family characteristics. It also
described variations in the policies and provision offered by different pre-school settings and
primary schools designed to support children with special educational needs. The study was
innovatory in using different sources of data including individual assessments of different aspects
of children’s cognitive attainment, pre-school workers’ and teachers’ assessments of their social
behaviour, parent interview and questionnaire data, and information about pre-school centres.
The inclusion of ‘home’ children who had not attended a pre-school setting (or had minimal
experience of pre-school) enables the study to explore whether children without pre-school are at
greater ‘risk’ of SEN. The findings of this sub-study are reported in detail in a series of three
EYTSEN Technical Papers (see Appendix D) as well as in a DfES Research Report (RRX15-03)
and Research Brief (RBX15-03) both available at www.dfes.gov.uk/research.
Children may be perceived differently by parents, pre-school workers and teachers (Hay et al.,
1999; Heiser et al., 2000). At some stages particular children may be identified as giving cause
for concern but not at others. Likewise different adults’ concepts of SEN can vary. Young
children develop differently, so changes in status in terms of ‘showing’ some form of ‘need’ may
be expected to take place between the ages of 3 and 6 years (for further discussion of the issues
surrounding the identification of special educational needs of young children see Scott and
Carran, 1989; Roffey, 1999). As SEN is such a contentious issue the research chose to adopt a
means of identification highlighting those children ‘at risk’ of developing SEN given their
characteristics during pre-school. This ‘at risk’ status is a more appropriate for very young
children than diagnosed SEN, which rarely occurs for children during pre-school.
Aims
The aims of the EYTSEN study were to:
1 Examine the impact of pre-school settings on the progress and development of children
who may be seen as vulnerable or ‘at risk’ of developing SEN over the pre-school period and in
transition to school until the end of Year 1.
2 Identify the characteristics of those children who are identified as ‘at risk’ for different
measures of cognitive or social/behavioural development.
3 Analyse the distribution of the ‘at risk’ groups of children across different types of pre-
school provider.
4 Analyse patterns of progress and changes in cognitive and social/behavioural
development of the various ‘at risk’ groups across the pre-school period and into KS1, including
the extent to which ‘at risk’ groups are identified as having SEN at primary school.
5 Identify pre-school centres’ policies and practice in relation to the early identification of
SEN as reported by centre managers.
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