Julia Lumb is a SEND Specialist Co-ordinator for Early Years and Portage and Specialist Inclusion Teams Manager at Calderdale Council
Looking back over the last two years of Early Years Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) practice, it would be easy to think that when the pandemic hit, the support for our neurodiverse children and their families ground to a near halt, or even that their progress and inclusion suffered. However, that was not the case for all children.
Naturally, there were children whose needs were significantly impacted by the changes. There were families whose childcare choices were affected. There were those who chose to keep their children at home, or those who chose not to engage with services while they focused on keeping their family safe. Calderdale Council did all it could to provide support through the tough times. But there were also some who gained from the changes that took place in their settings and the services supporting them.
My core Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and SEND beliefs, and the “Assess, Plan, Do, Review” cycle, invited me to look closely and recognise how the little, everyday things we do – the reasonable adjustments we make and the endless creativity of the Early Years workforce – enable us to facilitate small but highly significant steps in progress with our neurodiverse children. Interestingly, during the pandemic, these things appeared to have a greater positive impact, particularly on some of our neurodiverse / autistic children.
No-one needs reminding how, in March 2020, our seemingly “best practice” model of EYFS life was flipped upside down without warning. New requirements for COVID-safe working touched every aspect of our day-to-day lives and, as always, Early Years services worked tirelessly to keep things as normal as possible.
As the whole country focused on keeping everyone safe, our environments became devoid of their usual hustle and bustle, our provisions adapted to the new “bubble” arrangements and the attendance levels reflected the “stay at home” messages.
The usual comings and goings were replaced by more formal arrangements and new routines. Our planning for learning and the freedoms of open-ended, child-led play were replaced by more organised approaches, in addition to the removal of soft furnishings and continuous provision in favour of simplified, easy-to-clean surfaces and spaces to help keep people as safe as possible.
While all of this was potentially distressing to adults and children alike, we found that these restrictions offered a little bit of respite to many of our neurodiverse children. Indeed, for some children on the autistic spectrum and those with sensory integration needs, their pre-COVID environments could be quite challenging and dysregulating.
How did many neurodiverse children and their families benefit from the impact of the pandemic?
Life became simpler in many ways. Less noisy, less cluttered and less full of the persistent drive towards targets and aspirations for the future.
Life paused, we were forced to live a bit more “in the moment” and we were given the perspective of uncertainty that is the lived experience of so many children with SEND.
In their bubbles, many Early Years SEND (EYSEND) children appeared to thrive. The greater consistency of their bubble increased the predictability of their day, helping to reduce the anxiety of demand that so often hinders the learning of neurodiverse children.
Key adults felt they had more time and greater capacity for co-regulation. They were able to implement child-specific strategies in an increased and consistent way, which aided the development of self-regulation, social communication and early language and interaction skills.
For children with Education Health and Care Plans (and those whose parents were keyworkers), the option to continue accessing their own Early Years provision, home learning or another provider was fully supported by the SEND professionals around them. Working in partnership with parents, providers and professionals, we ensured children had the help they needed to make the transitions to new routines, new expectations, and to new provisions. We delivered much of this remotely.
For those EYSEND children not accessing early years provision, their settings and specialist services provided support through a combination of online appointments and COVID-safe doorstep visits. Developmentally-appropriate home learning packs were dropped off and tutorial video calls enabled families to implement the strategies that work well for their child’s learning and development.
Extending the Portage model enabled explanations of the “what, how and why” of learning activities, developing stronger relationships between families and professionals. In fact, for many families this was their first opportunity to understand how specific strategies work for their child and to see the benefits of bespoke provision in action, and how small step adjustments to life enable their child’s progress. For everyone, it highlighted how those reasonable adjustments aren’t just reasonable, but essential.
As services and families embraced technology, attendance at multi-agency meetings was significantly improved, giving families faces to the names of those involved in their children’s lives, albeit virtually. Greater technology usage also enabled advice and support to be delivered to maintain swift identification and referrals through to our neurodiversity assessment pathways and other services, as we remained vigilant and responsive to emerging needs.
Many families reported that online meetings made them feel less daunting, more accessible and flexible to their family’s needs. With their confidence boosted, their voices, concerns and aspirations for their child’s learning and developmental needs became more clearly understood. These families reported finding the personalised approaches of EYSEND services to be particularly helpful.
What I am aiming to convey is, that while the lived experiences for some neurodiverse children, those on the autistic spectrum and their families, are accurately reflected in the abundance of evidence and research into the negative impact of COVID, it is also right and proper to ensure we learn from the pandemic and look for some of the positives.
It is important to acknowledge that within this unique situation, there was an opportunity to revisit a simplified approach and to consider some alternative solutions to meeting the needs of our EYSEND children and their families, and to meet them where they are.
Ironically, it was within a pandemic that we found even more diverse ways of providing the right support, at the right time, in the right places. In this unique space of Early Years and SEND, we have the ideal opportunity to set the bar for the success that being truly child-centred brings for inclusively meeting the individual needs of children and their families, both in the here and now and for their future.