Children Beyond Labels: Understanding Standardised Assessment and Managing Additional Learning Needs in Primary School

Children Beyond Labels is an accessible guide to understanding standardised assessment and managing high incidence additional learning needs in the primary school. It offers jargon-free insight into the results of formal assessments which are often used within professional reports and cuts to the core of how primary education professionals and parents can identify, understand and best meet children’s needs.

Offering a range of practical and manageable strategies, the book provides clear explanations of commonly used labels which reflect three of the four areas described within the SEND Code of Practice (2015): Cognition and Learning; Communication and Interaction; and Social, Emotional and Mental Health. These categories are illustrated by 18 detailed case studies of children from the author’s own case work, each with their unique profiles of strengths, weaknesses and traits that can sometimes transcend category boundaries. Examples of these traits include:

• Dyslexia
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Specific Language Impairment
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Developmental Co-ordination Difficulties
• Anxiety.

This is an invaluable guide to the range of different types of additional learning or special needs of children who are likely to be found in mainstream primary schools. It will be of interest to primary teachers, trainee teachers, teaching assistants, SENCOs, parents and anyone working to support the needs of young children.

Rhian Spence is a freelance education consultant who specialises in supporting children with additional needs. She became interested in barriers to learning after qualifying as a primary school teacher and went on to study for a Master’s degree. Rhian has since worked as a SENCO, Inclusion Manager and peripatetic Specialist Teacher. She is interested in the use of assessment to establish children’s learning profiles and tailor programmes of intervention.