When working with a child with SEN, knowledge-sharing and keeping lines of communication open helps you to support the child in the most effective way, building on previous successes, and responding to changes.

Your SENCo should provide you with detailed information regarding the child’s area of need and agreed outcomes, and copies of any reports and recommendations from other specialists and professionals who may be involved with the child.

Information and observations shared between colleagues are vital in producing a rounded view of the child’s needs and progress. Prior to working with the individual, you should seek information from previous teachers and teaching assistants, both to learn what has been effective and to ensure continuity of approach (for some children with ASD or anxiety disorders, this continuity – especially at times of transition – is extremely important.)

Creating and maintaining open and honest lines of communication with parents of children with SEN will also help you to develop a more holistic understanding of the child, their strengths, and their difficulties. There is also a statutory duty to communicate with parents of children with SEN at intervals to report on progress, and to discuss future outcomes and targets. 

However, some of the most valuable communication comes in more regular, less formal contact. A home-school contact book or diary can be a simple method of establishing a two-way routine of information sharing with parents. 

The most important source of information that should be consulted continuously is the child or young person themselves. It is a statutory requirement that the views and wishes of the young person are taken into account when decisions are made regarding SEN provision, and that they are involved in the decision-making process as much as possible.

They can often tell you where their perceived difficulties are, and evaluate how effective the measures put in place to support them are. For example, it is counter-productive to give a fiddle toy to a child with ADHD if they personally feel singled out by it and perceive this as negative – this will not help to promote focus or reduce anxiety, so it’s important to know how they feel about it. 

Using a child’s personal interests can also be a powerful tool to foster engagement and is particularly recommended in the case of children on the autistic spectrum. These special interests can be incorporated into learning activities or help you to create personalised reward systems.

Collaboration with colleagues and parents is vital in producing a rounded view of the child’s needs and progress.

I give as simple instructions as possible. I divide the activities into small steps.

I usually have visual materials such as images, mind maps, films.

My lessons contain various kinds of materials: images, films, animations, puzzles, text, mind maps, presentations. 

I make my lessons on Livresq platform (online interactive lessons) and I make them, visually, as simple as possible. I try not to place very many things on the same page so that the students do not have something to be distracted by. 

I place in the front of the classroom the students who have problems with concentration and tend to do something else during classes.

I put the SEN students to work with good students who are willing to help them. 

I keep a very close communication with the students` parents and the students who get help at home, get better results at school.

I collaborate with the school counsellor because she can give me information about each student's special needs. 

I will give an example about one of my students. I have a student with visual impairment. I give her big (A3) copies of all the materials we use in classes. She also gets the written tests on A3 paper. At the beginning of the school year, she didn't agree to do this because she was afraid the other students would laugh at her. She couldn't keep pace with the others and got poor grades. At the beginning of the second semester, I talk to her again and she realized that her needs were more important than the others` opinions and she saw that the other students didn`t treat her differently and she accepted to get A3 materials, and her grades improved considerably.

-        Collaborative tasks in which students with SEN work with students with very good skills or content commandment;

-        Individual work with tasks designed to improve each student’s skills and I assist students with SEN that they better understand the tasks or I offer them clues to discover the right path to follow in order to solve a specific exercise;

-        Projects that bring together students with different levels of skills mastery and, within the group work, I guide my students to share tasks in a way in which all members of the team have something to do.