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Cognition and Learning: Unique Child

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Children

Unique Child

  • Delayed in developing milestones e.g., sitting, standing, talking.
  • Delayed play skills.
  • Difficulty pronouncing words and sentences or learning unfamiliar words.
  • Has difficulty generalising learning.
  • Needs lots of support and repetition to develop new skills.
  • Developmental assessment is not as expected e.g., delayed, splintered, patchy or shows regression.
  • Observed skills relating to characteristics of effective learning and teaching are not as expected.

Practitioners need to have a robust knowledge of child development to enable them to understand children’s developmental needs and identify when children are experiencing delays or differences in their development. Developmental needs are often initially identified through day-to-day interactions and observations, and subsequently assessments procedures such as the two-year-old check. Assessment tools can effectively supplement this when a practitioner has a good understanding of development.

For all children:

May be useful for children whom you have developmental concerns, or identified SEND:

  • Cambridgeshire Practitioner Developmental Journal (available on the SEND Knowledge Hub).

These tools may be useful for professional development for staff when working with children with more complex or identified needs but will only be used as an assessment record tool in a minority of situations in discussion with another professional such as a specialist teacher. The developmental journal for children with multiple needs has some useful ideas for children in early developmental stages building on the child’s current skill level and could be used by practitioners to give ideas.