Sensory and/or physical needs

Deafness

Supportive Strategies:

General classroom advice:

Be mindful of the reasonable adjustments that may be required for the children and young people who are deaf
Liaise with Qualified Teacher of the Deaf (QToD) from Sensory Service
Use appropriate communication approach – Spoken language, visual timetables and symbols, Makaton, Total Communication (Sign support if attending a SEND Sensory Service ARP)
Reduce background noise to improve acoustic environment for deaf children, this will include good classroom management
Face the children/ young people who are deaf when speaking to them and stand still when talking to them. Get their attention before speaking
Ensure correct seating position, ensuring the child/young person feels their position is maximising their learning.
Provide sub-titles for all audio-visual materials, give deaf child/young person copies of transcript if appropriate
Always start with visual material and have this available for the students
Adapt resources and learning materials to meet individual learning and sensory needs.
Offer pre and post tutoring opportunities for reinforcement of key concepts and vocabulary. Ensure new vocabulary is available at the beginning of each topic or lesson for the deaf child/young person
Repeat answers given in class by the other children/young people
Remember that deaf children and young people are not able to listen and look at the teacher at the same time. Adapt tasks and teaching methods accordingly
Allow for extra processing time in all teaching and learning activities
Build in listening breaks as children/young people will experience listening fatigue
Listen to child/young person voice regarding their deafness and the impact it has on them
Explain instructions clearly to deaf children/young people. This includes PE and school trips, as there may be health and safety implications
Ensure deaf children/young people have knowledge of fire evacuation procedure in setting. Install visual alarms if required
Facilitate peer support for deaf children/young people with social interactions i.e., in noisy dinner or play situations or when explaining the rules of a game in the yard

SEND Sensory Service:

Will allocate a QToD for the children and young people who are deaf and have audiological equipment issued from the hospital
Offer training, modelling and advice on teaching strategies to be used in the classroom which will make learning accessible, and which take into account the impact of a hearing loss on learning
Provide training and advice on effective use of specialist equipment, such as radio aids, and babble guards
Provide and manage specialist equipment which enables deaf children/young people to access language and learning
Provide advice on how to develop the listening and language skills of children and young people who are deaf.
Provide an annual student profile and a report
Provide advice on exam access arrangements relating to the child/young person’s deafness
May carry out specialist assessments which are used to track progress and inform next steps for those areas known to be impacted by deafness i.e., listening skills, language development, vocabulary development, social and emotional well-being and auditory memory
Please provide a quiet environment for the qualified teacher of the deaf to work in with the deaf children/young people in your school. Ideally this would be allocated in advance to maximise time in the session.

Vision Impairment

Supportive Strategies:

Staff understand the nature of the visual impairment (VI) and its impact on the individual as outlined in the pupil profile provided by SEND Sensory Service
Listen to child/young person’s voice regarding how they access learning
Be understanding of the need for children/young people with VI to develop self-advocacy skills, an understanding of their vison impairment and peer awareness

General Classroom Advice:

Curriculum Framework for VI*
Adapted mainstream curriculum Vision Impairment
Uncluttered and well-organised learning environment with good lighting with consideration given to potential glare from windows, etc.
Consider child/young person’s seating position for all teaching, assemblies, and PE
All teaching materials including PowerPoints, interactive board work and worksheets should be uncluttered and with good contrast. Avoid using yellow/pale colours
Consider an environmental audit carried out by a Habilitation Specialist.
Allow more time to process what children/young people are seeing
Appropriate font size for modified and enlarged texts and resources with good contrast this may mean allocating a member of staff to support in practical lessons and to modify and adapt resources where necessary. Enlarging to A3 is often not appropriate

*Curriculum Framework for VI: Launched in 2022 the CFVI supports CHILD/YOUNG PERSON with a vision impairment to access appropriate and equitable education. It consists of 11 teaching areas that CHILD/YOUNG PERSON with VI may need support with. The use of the framework would be led by the QTVI.

Send Sensory Service:

QTVI –Qualified Teacher of Vision Impairment who works for Newcastle SEND Sensory Service. A QTVI will visit a child/young person and assess how the child/young person is using their vision within the setting. They will provide advice to enable the child/young person to access their learning.
Habilitation Specialist – part of the SEND Sensory service. Their role is to teach mobility (how to move around the environment safely), Orientation (how to navigate around the environment), and Independent Living Skills.
Assistive Technology: equipment that assists to complete a task. This can be low tech like paper and pencils, through to high tech electronic devices like computers or tablets. It can also include the support from a member of staff
- May include Low Vision Aids i.e., magnifiers, sloping board, individual iPads and laptops
- Provide bold and/or wide lined paper, this may be coloured but needs to be above 120gsm to allow double sided printed Vision Impairment
- Consider the use of black or dark blue pens or soft dark pencils, to allow learners to independently record their work and be able to read it back

Specific Pupil Advice

iPad and laptop- make sure the school desktop computers/laptops have accessibility features adjusted for the individual
Developing touch typing skills if advised by SEND Sensory Service
Provide, monitor and review exam access arrangements throughout the year following guidance from SEND Sensory Service.
Provide specialist equipment for practical subjects when needed e.g. P.E. equipment, science resources and measuring apparatus
Allow the opportunity to handle artefacts and get close to displays
Provide additional verbal descriptions and explanations
Introduce new equipment, vocabulary, concepts prior to the lesson

School Trips

Consider support needs when in an unfamiliar environment.

Dual Sensory Impairment

This refers to people who have both sight loss and hearing loss. It is sometimes referred to as ‘Deaf Blind’ but more recently has come under the umbrella of multi-sensory impairment (MSI). Children/young people with MSI often have additional needs. MSI has a multiple/complex impact on access to learning; vision or hearing may be the primary impairment but both losses together require greater understanding and more bespoke support or interventions.

Physical needs

Supportive Strategies:

Be mindful that children/young people with disabilities and sensory needs are often putting considerably more physical effort into every aspect of day than an able-bodied peer. They will get tired quickly. Some children/young people may also be on medications that could impact on their mood and behaviour
Remember eye movements are physical activities and for some children/young people they could be extremely tiring
Ensure that adequate time is given to completing recommended physical therapy activities. At times this may take precedence over curriculum activities. Physical needs
Consider the layout of the classroom. Can all children access all areas? If children can’t, is there any furniture you can move or alter to improve the learning environment to make it more accessible? Where are coat pegs? Drawers? Are they close and easy for children to access?
Try to spread physically demanding activities across the day/week being mindful that children with physical disabilities will tire towards the end of the day/week
Seating and positioning in class and whole school events e.g. assemblies should be considered to minimise any unnecessary extra physical movement and reduce sensory overload
Personalised approaches e.g. prepopulating date, title & objective in books so children can focus on the learning task can be beneficial.
Consider the use of assistive technology to reduce recording
Have resources close by the child to reduce the need to keep looking up and down to/from a whole class teaching board or resource

Resources:

Tools for eating and drinking
Therapy Balls
Lycra Tunnels & Socks
Wobble and movement cushions
Scooter Boards
Visual Tools
Pressure Vests
Ear defenders
Sensory kits
Vibrating tools
Tools for handwriting
Writing ramps
Dycem
Spring loaded scissors
Theraband
Stickers & stamps
Pencil grips
Stabilo Easy graph pencils
light up pressure pens.
Sensational Thinking Resources

Assistive Technology:

Link with Newcastle NHS medication physics department for adaptations that can be made to technology to enable successful access e.g., keyguards for chrome books.

Explore use of VOCAs, voice activated & eye gaze technology
Ensure devices are being used for inclusion (assistive technology)
Computer Programmes e.g., Clicker
Pen Readers e.g., C-Pen Reader 2 TM is an assistive reading tools designed to put even more control into the user’s hands. Whether studying or simply reading for pleasure, this new and improved reading pen features enhanced AI to improve accessibility, and boost reading confidence.

Microsoft

Learning accelerators provide real- time coaching and feedback Physical needs
Reading progress and coach (builds reading fluency-check inaccuracy, reading speed, etc) maths progress and coach
Reflect for well-being and progress and search coach, progress and speaker coach, education insights)
Accessibility in windows setting (e.g., change colour of background colour, size, immersive reader, voice typing, life captions, translation, narrator)
Apple
Accessibility tools in settings (e.g., background, size, gets rid of distractions, reads to the children, dictation)

Google

Google classroom for targeted resources and differentiation, course-like curriculum where there are premade videos for children to revisit, read and write (text help), settings for accessibility. Include Repository of Accessible Digital Tools (includeonline.eu) - is a signposting website that gives recommendations for free apps, settings and extensions for a range of needs across all devices. Explanation of what it is, how it can be used to support certain needs and video demonstration.