their attainment potential. The Code of Practice (2001) stresses the benefits of early identification
of needs.
The EYTSEN project examined special educational needs within a framework of potential ‘risk’
during the pre-school period, rather than attempting to identify a fixed cognitive or
social/behavioural problem. Both cognitive and social/behavioural measures of young children’s
development were considered relevant. The project explored the relationships between the two
domains and acknowledges the need to look at multiple outcomes within the education and care
system and their association with different child, parent and family characteristics, particularly the
impact of multiple disadvantage and the home learning environment.
Developing a simple but robust definition of children who may be considered ‘at risk’ of some
form of SEN was an important component of the EYTSEN study. The EYTSEN study used
cognitive and social/behavioural assessments to identify those children in the EPPE sample who
were ‘at risk’ of SEN at three different time points. It should be noted that for social/behavioural
development two factors were considered in detail: Peer sociability and Anti-social/worried/upset
behaviour. For cognitive ‘risk’ children whose scores fell 1 standard deviation below the mean
for a national sample were classified as ‘at risk’ and those that were 1 standard deviation below
the mean for the EPPE sample were considered at ‘strong risk’. For social/behavioural risk
children who were worse than the mean by 1 standard deviation or more for the EPPE sample on
either peer sociability or anti-social/worried/upset were considered ‘at risk’.
Distribution of ‘at risk’ children across different types of pre-school providers
At the beginning of the study (3+ years) private day nurseries were less likely to serve children at
cognitive ‘risk’, reflecting differences in the communities they served. The majority of children in
integrated centres were identified as ‘at risk’ (58%). Fairly substantial proportions of children from
local authority day nurseries (42%) and playgroups (41%) were also identified as ‘at risk’ in
relation to national norms for cognitive attainment at age 3 years plus. For the more stringent
‘strong cognitive risk’ measure, 40% of the children in integrated centres were classified as ‘at
risk’ at entry to pre-school.
For social/behavioural measures more children in integrated centres were classified as ‘at risk’
for Peer sociability (26%), followed by nursery classes (20%) and playgroups (just under 20%).
Fewer children in private day nurseries (11%) or local authority day nurseries (14%) were
classified as ‘at risk’ for Peer sociability at entry to the study. For the Anti-social/worried/upset
measure significantly more children in local authority day nurseries were classified as ‘at risk’ at
entry to the study (29%) followed by integrated centres (22%). This is likely to be related to the
incidence of disadvantage amongst such groups and also their earlier start at pre-school. A
weak but significant link between an early start at pre-school and increased Anti
social/worried/upset behaviour was noted, although an earlier start was also associated with
significantly better cognitive attainment.
SEN status at school
Once children had entered school, information from class teachers on children’s SEN status was
obtained. Fewer than 30% of children were identified as having had or currently having SEN at
school (27%), with far more of the ‘home’ group being recognised as showing SEN (42.3%) than
children who had attended a pre-school centre (25.5%). This is further evidence that children
who miss out on pre-school are more likely to experience learning difficulties and are particularly
vulnerable for SEN at school.
Most children identified with SEN received extra help (e.g. small group or individual support)
within their primary school. However, a small number (under 1 in a 100) attended a special
class outside school. Proportionately more ‘home’ children attended a special class or were
taught by a special teacher for some of the time.
For cognitive development there was a significant overlap between those identified as being ‘at
risk’ and those formally identified as having SEN at primary school. Over two thirds (67%) of
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