There are guidelines outlined in the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice for how schools should assess and meet special educational needs (SEN) to ensure that your child gets the right support. The guidelines apply to places that are provided by the state (state-funded), including nurseries, playgroups and schools.
The GOV.UK website has more information about children with SEN. For information about the SEN Code of Practice, see the Department for Education website.
Providing the right support for children at school depends on their needs. All children with a learning disability will have special educational needs.
Identifying special educational needs
Some learning disabilities are diagnosed at birth, others later on. Most are evident by the age of three.
Every child's special educational needs are different, depending on what kind of difficulties they have and how serious these are. If you're worried about your child's progress or development at school or nursery, talk to their teacher or the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO).
The SENCO can spend some time with your child to work out what kind of extra support they might need. For example, this may be a different way of teaching, or having another adult in the classroom.
If your child doesn't progress with this extra support, the SENCO can organise help from outside the nursery or school, such as speech and language therapy.
If your child is younger than four and doesn't go to nursery, you can contact your local council's special educational needs department. Find contact details for your local authority. You can also talk to your doctor or health visitor if you have concerns.
Communicate with your child's teachers
Getting involved with your child's school will help them get the support they need. Let the school know what's going on at home. Tell them what your priorities are for your child and how he or she is doing at home so that the school can build on this.
Help your child learn
There are things you can do at home to help your child. Being very clear in your communication, getting face-to-face with your child and giving one-stage rather than two-stage instructions all help.
A one-stage instruction would be telling your child, ''Put on your coat'' rather than "Put on your coat and do up the buttons so we can go".
You can also help by reducing the clutter in your child's life. Give them two or three toys to play with at a time rather than 13.
Find out more about helping your child learn.
Getting a statement
If a mainstream school isn't meeting your child's needs, you or the school can ask the local authority for a formal assessment of your child's special educational needs.
If the authority agrees to this and decides that your child needs more support than a mainstream school can provide, it will produce a statement of special educational needs (often just called a statement).
Find out more about asking for an assessment.
Help for parents and carers
Below are some sources of information and help:
- other parents who have children with learning disabilities – parents can be a valuable source of information, from recommending children's centres and counselling services, to helpful individuals at the local authority: Contact a Family can help put you in touch
- Family Information Service (FIS) – every local authority has an FIS, which must provide information about local services for all families with children (up to the age of 18 if the child has a disability)
- Parent Partnership Services (PPS) – every local authority has a PPS, which provides parents of children with special educational needs with information, advice and guidance on finding the right school and support
