benefit. Also longer duration of pre-school was beneficial with every extra month over two years
of age being associated with better cognitive development.
High quality pre-school centres may be seen as an effective intervention that can help improve
cognitive development and thus provide more vulnerable children with a better start at primary
school, particularly if children spend more months in the pre-school centre.
Due to variations in the use of ‘systems’ for identifying children with SEN across different types of
pre-school, some children ‘at risk’ of SEN may go unidentified and may, therefore, miss the
opportunity for early interventions in these forms of provision. However the majority of parents
were satisfied with the support their children were given for SEN, but where they were
dissatisfied, they wanted more learning support on an individual basis.
The findings suggest a number of implications for policy as follows:
• Programmes that increase the take-up of pre-school places by parents who would not
usually send their children to pre-school (usually found in geographical clusters or within
specific minority ethnic groups) are likely to provide these vulnerable groups of children
with a better start to school and therefore reduce their risk of developing SEN.
• Pre-school and school workers/teachers should be aware that boys may be at increased
‘risk’ of developing SEN for cognitive development and aspects of social development.
The development of programmes which seek to focus on the specific needs of boys, as
learners, linked with appropriate staff development may have long-term benefits and help
reduce the gender gap in SEN.
• Policies and practices that foster active parental engagement with children and
involvement in play activities that promote children's language, spatial skills and
creativity, in particular, are likely to benefit children's subsequent cognitive and social
development and attainment at school.
• Given the strong links between 'at risk' status on cognitive measures and multiple
disadvantage, ways of effectively targeting additional resources to pre-school settings
and primary schools that serve high proportions of young children from multiply
disadvantaged families should be explored.
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