Practical Strategies To Support Pupils Awaiting SEND Assessment
Rachel Berry and Cate Marsden
Four effective techniques to support pupils with SEND in a mainstream classroom.
The wait for an autism diagnosis, dyslexia screening, or education, health and care plan (EHCP) can seem like a slow-motion movie for children, their parents and schools.
As part of a specialist SEND team within Woodbridge Academy Trust, we work with nurseries, schools and other settings across the North West to support the inclusion of children, young people and adults with additional needs in mainstream education.
We’re the first in the country to have been recognised as a Trauma Informed UK education service. Our team of 30 SEND specialists, teachers and TAs have a deep understanding of the strategies that work – and those that don’t – to help children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other neurodiversity thrive in education and beyond.
Relationship building is the foundation of a successful inclusion strategy, so we typically get involved early to provide the support schools need. We offer staff guidance and practical techniques they can start to use straight away to help their pupils learn and develop.
In what can be a lengthy process to accurately assess pupils’ needs, it’s what we refer to as enabling children to ‘wait well’. This early intervention can sometimes make such a difference that a child no longer needs an EHCP.
Four strategies for inclusive schools
The work we do with schools will often include these four key strategies, which help them to address challenges, promote inclusivity, and safeguard their pupils’ wellbeing.
- A tailored plan for each child
Broad-brush approaches to support for students with SEND rarely help. A teacher might have one pupil with ASD who benefits from a structured routine and another who finds it overwhelming – in the same classroom.
Close observation can help teachers better understand how each child experiences the world and how interventions can be tailored to meet their specific needs. But it’s almost impossible to observe one child effectively in a class of 30 pupils.
Regular conversation with parents or carers and other staff in contact with the child can help teachers get a clearer idea of the individual support they might need. This can help them make progress with their learning and support their wellbeing while they wait for a formal assessment or support plan to be put in place.
- Uncover and address masking
Children with communication or social and emotional needs often develop sophisticated masking techniques, such as staying quiet or mimicking others, from a young age to cope with challenging classroom or social situations.
Masking behaviours can also manifest as challenging behaviour or disengagement from learning, particularly if the child struggles with sensory overload, which can be triggered by a busy, noisy classroom.
Schools need to uncover what’s really going on for each child to help them develop healthy coping strategies and create inclusive classrooms where pupils with SEND can engage in and enjoy learning.
It can be helpful to view challenging behaviour as a form of communication. For example, what was the child trying to tell you when they threw the pencil? What happened just before that might have triggered the change in behaviour.
Having one teacher or TA as a consistent contact for the child can make it easier to identify masking and better understand the root cause of disruptive or withdrawing behaviour.
- Help children regulate emotions
Children with SEND can find it difficult to regulate strong emotions such as anger and frustration in school. In situations where emotions are running high, a toolbox of strategies may be needed.
We often use Sensory Circuits and visual aids, as outlined below, to help children regulate their emotions.
Sensory Circuits
There are three separate stages to the Sensory Circuits technique and it’s important to do these in the right order.
- Alerting – High energy activities such as jumping or bouncing on a trampoline to increase pupils’ energy levels if they feel sluggish or release built-up tension.
- Organising – These are focused activities – ask the child to stand on one leg while clipping clothes pegs to their uniform or set a trail activity where they climb over a log, swing on a rope and walk across a bridge in order. This requires concentration, which encourages calm and helps restore emotional balance.
- Calming – Lastly, any activity that relaxes the pupil, such as blowing bubbles, using a weighted blanket, or being in nature will help them feel calm.
The Sensory Circuits can help pupils reset their emotions and return to the classroom ready to learn.
Visual prompts and symbols
It can be particularly difficult for pupils with communication delays or those who are non-speaking to regulate their emotions. Without the appropriate language, they are unable to identify and express how they are feeling. Visual images and prompts to represent emotions such as ‘happy’, ‘sad’ or ‘frightened’ can help make feelings more tangible for these children.
We incorporate visual symbols from Widgit, such as emotion cards, which include facial expressions children can point at to help them identify and express their emotions when they are unable to verbalise them.
Symbols can also be used to personalise techniques such as Zones of Regulation, where emotions are grouped into four coloured zones. Blue represents low energy, tiredness, or sadness, green is calm and focused, yellow signals heightened emotions like anxiety or excitement, and red is for extreme feelings like anger or panic. The aim is to use colour to help children express themselves and learn how to return to a more regulated state.
However, set colour coding doesn’t always resonate with every child. For example, a book might describe yellow as ‘happy’, but if a pupil associates yellow with stress, the use of colour won’t have the intended effect and the impact is lost.
Symbols can be personalised to make them more meaningful for each child. A pupil might describe a good day as a ‘Disney Day’, for example. In this case, the symbol for a magic wand might be a good representation for them. If a bad day is a ‘Year 7 Disco Day’, a glitter ball might be an appropriate image.
- Restorative justice
Some pupils with additional needs benefit from time and support to process difficult situations and experiences – such as an argument with a friend – and understand the consequences.
Activities that mirror the principles of restorative justice can help build self-awareness, empathy and responsibility. In the example of a fall-out with a friend, this might be a guided conversation using questions such as, ‘what happened?’, ‘who was affected?’ and ‘what needs to happen next to put it right?’.
The pupil can be encouraged to share how they are feeling about it and what they might do differently next time too, helping them to process challenging social situations and develop emotional literacy in a supportive way.
Practical support for all
Many effective strategies for supporting children with SEND don’t require an official diagnosis to make a difference.
What’s more, they can easily be woven into everyday practice to benefit all children and create inclusive, supportive spaces where everyone can learn and grow, regardless of their needs, age or background.
