reflect the association between life events and disadvantage and the greater disadvantage of the
‘at risk’ group. It should be noted that some children had experienced a number of ‘life events’
i.e. may have had family conflict and moved home. Having experienced a number of life events
when very young, may be cumulative and may make a child more ‘at risk’ of developing SEN.
Support for children whose parents reported they had special educational needs
The most commonly reported type of help given during the pre-school and school period for
children with any kind of need (medical, physical, learning and behavioural) was speech therapy,
which was provided off-site. Other help provided consisted of one-to-one tuition and general
additional educational support 14 with some emotional and behavioural support.
Children were more likely to receive the help of a learning support assistant15 if they had a
learning difficulty as opposed to a medical or physical condition. Children with behavioural
difficulties were most likely to receive on-site support during their time at pre-school by a
combination of emotional and behavioural support, extra educational support and feedback and
advice. The majority of parents were generally satisfied (65%) with the help their children
received. Around 18% were quite or very dissatisfied. More parents of children who had
attended a pre-school centre were satisfied with the help they were given than the ‘home’ group’
parents.
Summary and policy implications
The EYTSEN study developed a simple but robust definition to identify children who may be
seen as ‘at risk’ of SEN for cognitive and social/behavioural measures. For cognitive outcomes,
children with multiple disadvantage (in terms of child, family and home environment
characteristics) were much more likely to be identified as ‘at risk’. Background characteristics
showed weaker links with social/behavioural development. The quality of the home learning
environment (related to parents’ reported activities with their pre-school child) showed a strong
relationship with ‘at risk’ status. A more stimulating home learning environment benefits both
cognitive and social/behavioural development. The home learning environment was only
moderately related to parents’ education and SES.
A third of the sample showed low cognitive attainment at entry to pre-school and were classified
as ‘at risk’ of SEN in relation to national norms. By entry to primary school this figure had
dropped to a fifth, suggesting that pre-school has a positive impact on young children’s cognitive
development (in both language and non-verbal skills). This positive impact on cognitive
attainment remains evident at the end of Year 1 in both better reading and mathematical skills.
Those children in the sample who had had no pre-school experience were more likely to be 'at
risk' of SEN in terms of their cognitive development, even taking into account this group's higher
levels of multiple disadvantage. The findings thus suggest that pre-school may be an effective
intervention for the reduction of SEN, especially for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable
groups of young children.
Integrated/combined centres, local authority day nurseries and playgroups are most likely to
have children ‘at risk’ of SEN on their roll. This may reflect the higher numbers of disadvantaged
groups in the areas served by these centres. Understanding of SEN varies and poor cognitive
development often is not recognised as a need in pre-schools.
Certain forms of provision were of particular benefit to children who are ‘at risk’ of SEN for
different reasons. For those ‘at risk’ of SEN in terms of poor cognitive development, integrated
centres and nursery schools, were seen to be particularly beneficial, and for those ‘at risk’ of
SEN in terms of poor social behaviour, integrated centres, nursery classes and playgroups were
particularly beneficial. Generally those centres with better quality provision produced the most
14 General extra educational support usually meant curriculum differentiation or one-to-one tuition.
15 Learning support assistants were most likely to be found in the types of pre-school settings that are able
to make available additional resourcing to employ a dedicated learning support (or teaching) assistant. In
general, this type of provision would be more likely to be seen in nursery schools, nursery classes attached
to primary schools and fully integrated centres rather than in private day nurseries, Local authority day
nurseries or playgroups.
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