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Cognition and Learning

 The Cognition and Learning team including the Multi-Ethnic Achievement Service are a team of dedicated and experienced teachers and learning support assistants who work as part of the Learner Support Service at RCT.

The Cognition and Learning team offer advice and guidance in either Welsh or English to primary and secondary schools across three key areas:

  • Specific and General Learning Difficulties
  • Complex Learning Needs
  • Minority Ethnic Achievement Service (MEAS)

The Cognition and Learning team can offer schools support for individual pupils, groups of pupils or whole school. Schools access the support through a referral process. New referrals for Specific and General Learning difficulties and Complex Learning Needs are discussed in a weekly meeting, new MEAS referrals are discussed in a monthly meeting.

 

Children with literacy difficulties including dyslexia

Although, children learn at different rates some pupils have a particular problem with reading and spelling which is sometimes known as a Specific Literacy Difficulty or Dyslexia. RCT have adopted a multi definition, encompassing the British Psychological Society (BPS) working definition of dyslexia and taking into account the findings of the Rose Report (2009)

The BPS definition of dyslexia (1999):

  • “Dyslexia is evident when accurate and fluent word reading and/or spelling develops very incompletely or with great difficulty. This focuses on literacy learning at the ‘word level’ and implies that the problem is persistent and severe despite appropriate learning opportunities. It provides the basis of a staged process of assessment through teaching.”

The Rose Report (2009) states:

  • “Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory, and verbal processing speed;
  • dyslexia occurs across the range of intellectual abilities;
  • co-occurring difficulties may be seen in aspects of language, motor coordination, mental calculation, concentration, and personal organisation, but these are not, by themselves, markers of dyslexia and
  • a good indication of the severity and persistence of dyslexic difficulties can be gained by examining how the individual responds, or has responded to, well-founded intervention.”

Not all children who struggle learn to read and spell will have a Specific Literacy Difficulty, but we know that much of the advice that is recommended for pupils with Specific Literacy Difficulties is appropriate for those pupils with more general learning difficulties.

 

How to help at home

If a child has dyslexia, they may be more tired than other children at the end of the day. It is difficult coping with a curriculum that makes high demands on their weakest areas of learning; they may also work hard at suppressing negative feelings about their abilities, including embarrassment and frustration. Thus, anger and tears can occur at homework times; making activities fun and motivating is the best way forward.

If certain homework tasks are too difficult for your child, or take most of an evening to do, you should discuss this with the teacher who issued it. It might then be agreed to:

  • alter the level, volume, or method of recording of homework tasks;
  • allow for longer homework ‘hand-in’ dates;
  • include more multi-sensory tasks.

If there are problems with your child copying down or remembering homework tasks, again this should be discussed with their teacher and an effective communication system put in place, e.g. home-school book.

These general tips might help to make homework less stressful at home:

 

Establish a routine

  • identify a regular time (daily if possible) and place to do homework. A quiet area will be the best;
  • using a visual timetable and setting a time limit with your child might help;
  • collect useful materials like paper, pens, pencils, calculator, high frequency words etc. and keep them together in a homework box.

 

Level of assistance

  • discuss the homework before starting, making sure your child understands what they have to do;
  • encourage them to discuss their ideas, perhaps make a plan, checklist, or mind map; make a list of key words;
  • break tasks into small steps. You may need to help them organise what they need, or how they will set out their work;
  • discuss and identify how they will present their work. This could be through you scribing for them, using a computer, Dictaphone, drawings, or mind-mapping;
  • if it helps you could record on the homework sheet or home-school book how long the task took and/or how easy/hard your child found it. You might also want to comment on how much support they required;
  • encourage your child to check their work against their homework instructions or plan, and check their answers;
  • encourage your child to re-read written work.

Do not get worried about the number of spelling errors, the content of the work is more important.

 

Ideas for encouraging reading

  • make time for reading for pleasure, some children may like to access comics or audio books;
  • find time to read to your child even after they can effectively read for themselves;
  • share the reading of a book brought home: s/he may read a page/paragraph/sentence and then you can read the next page/paragraph/sentence. Or you could read the story first and ask your child to read it afterwards, so there is less pressure as s/he has a chance to read it first;
  • the best way to learn to read is to be able to recognise the alphabet letters or letter combinations as written pictures of the sounds in words (not the letter names at first) and then to blend them together into a word. You can help by playing simple games such as ‘I spy.’

 

Ideas for encouraging spelling

  • Make it multi-sensory, practice using magnetic letters, playdough, use chalk on black paper,
  • ‘Tricky words’ on a card for easy reference can be reassuring;
  • to learn 2-3 words a week properly is better than 10 which are not remembered;
  • help your child to learn to use a dictionary and a spellchecker on the computer.

 

Ideas for encouraging writing:

  • Allow extra time;
  • write out a tricky spelling word;
  • encourage use of good, more extensive language, even if spelling is uncertain;
  • encourage use of laptop/PC/notepad;
  • voice to text software may suit older students;
  • a sloping desk (or lever arch file) may make writing (and reading) easier;
  • specially designed pens with varied grips may make writing easier.

 

Difficulties with Maths including Dyscalculia

Children learn number skills at different rates. Some children will have a particular difficulty with learning number skills, concepts, and facts. Sometimes this is called Dyscalculia.

Dyscalculia is a specific and persistent difficulty in understanding numbers which can lead to a diverse range of difficulties with mathematics. It will be unexpected in relation to age, level of education and experience and occurs across all ages and abilities.

Mathematics difficulties are best thought of as a continuum, not a distinct category, and they have many causal factors. Dyscalculia falls at one end of the spectrum and will be distinguishable from other maths issues due to the severity of difficulties with number sense, including subitising, symbolic and non-symbolic magnitude comparison, and ordering. It can occur singly but often co-occurs with other specific learning difficulties, mathematics anxiety and medical conditions. (BDA, 2019)

Children may have problems with:

  • following sequences
  • space organisation
  • pattern recognition
  • visualisation
  • estimation

They might:

  • struggle to ‘see’ that four objects are 4 without counting
  • struggle to move beyond counting on in ones
  • depend on using their fingers/blocks
  • find subtraction difficult because it requires counting backwards and they can lose track
  • have low self-esteem
  • they may have anxiety related to maths and will avoid maths wherever possible.

 

How will the school help?                         

  • Children with problems with maths need to be explicitly taught numerical skills.
  • Tasks need to be learner-centred, using multi-sensory resources and be completed at the child’s own pace.

 

How to help at home.

  • Be positive about maths- try not to say things like I can’t do maths, or I hated maths at school
  • Point out the maths in everyday life; include your child in activities involving numbers and measuring such as shopping, cooking, and travelling. For older children include reading train timetables/bus timetables, talk about distances, times of favourite television programmes
  • Teach time
  • Talk about money- let them estimate costs.
  • Praise your child for their effort


Children with Complex Learning Needs

  • Children with Complex Needs are likely to have significant difficulties with basic literacy and numeracy skills, understanding new learning, listening and attention skills and applying what they know to other situations. It is likely to affect how they learn throughout their life and will therefore require individualised education planning.
  • They will have significant long-term learning difficulties across severalareas that cannot be attributed to gaps in their experiences i.e., expressive language, receptive language, executive function, attention, and social understanding.
  • Some Children and young people may also have complex medical needs that require NHS care plan
  • The child/ young person may require long-term support with intimate care needs.
  • On referral to the service, a pupil's needs are discussed with school and suitable recommendations and advice is given by the Specialist Teacher. There may be further consultation support and advice dependent on the complexity of pupils needs.
  • They will advise that class work is differentiated appropriately so that the child/ young person is able to learn and complete tasks at their own pace.
  • The Specialist Teacher may recommend that the child or young person be supported in different ways according to their needs within the classroom. They might recommend a programme for the learner to follow, sometimes in small groups or one-to-one for part of the day. 
  • The Specialist teacher may advise a school to undertake specific training to support a child.

 

How to help at home

Routine & structure: We know that having routine and structure in place helps children to understand what is going on around them and to feel safe. Giving them a visual timeline or ‘Now and Next board’ can help with this.

Communication: Try using signs, pictures, or symbols to support them to understand what is expected of them and/or to communicate their needs to others.

  • Say the child’s name to get their attention before giving an instruction. 
  • Give time for the child to process your instructions and to respond.
  • Simplify your language, use short clear sentences.
  • Speak in a positive form (e.g. say, “walk” instead of “don’t run”).
  • When you speak use signs (e.g. Makaton – see further support links at the bottom of the page), symbols (e.g. simple representations of the word), and other visual representations (e.g. photos) to support your speech.
  • Encourage the child to use any resources and systems which have been recommended (e.g. pictures, symbols, signs, communication aids).
  • Provide structure to activities and the day and communicate this to the child, especially changes to routine.
  • Provide opportunities for the child to use language, offer choices and do not anticipate their needs. Change the order of the choices you offerto be sure they are asking for their actual choice.

 

Demands: Make sure that that the things we are asking a child to do meets their individual needs. They will be more stressed if they are overwhelmed by a task, or indeed if they are under-stimulated by certain activities.

Physical Environment: Sometimes young people with LD are more sensitive to the physical environment than other children, this might mean thinking about noise levels, lights, sounds or smells.

Sleep, pain, health: as many young people with LD struggle to communicate to others about their needs, they may have difficulties that have not been picked up on before such as being tired, in pain or uncomfortable in some way. Check in with them regularly and think about discomfort.

 

Minority Ethnic Achievement Service

A pupil is EAL because they were born in a different country or because their parents speak a different language at home. So, English becomes their second (third, fourth, fifth or sixth) language. It is an additional language. RCT Minority Ethnic Achievement Service supports schools with all aspects of English as an additional language (EAL)) and provides training, support, and advice to ensure that schools support and raise the achievement of ethnic minority pupils with EAL.

The service provides quick responses to requests for assessment and support for a newly arrived pupil with EAL. Pupil wellbeing is also part of the support work carried in schools.
The team of Learning Support Assistants set language targets alongside staff in schools and work closely with schools to track pupil's progress and ensure that ethnic minority pupils identified as underperforming are supported as much as possible. MEAS staff also advise on exam concessions, pupils with home language exam preparation, social use of language, mentoring and language support or academic support, especially prior to exams.

In addition, RCT can support the translation of information relating to school for pupils and parents and advises schools on interpretation via WITS the Wales interpretation and Translation Service and Language Line.

If a pupil is bilingual (speaking two languages) or multilingual (speaking many languages), this usually has a positive effect on their performance in school.
The more languages spoken the more pathways and links there are between languages in the brain.

Pupils who are new to English or at the early stages of learning the language will be supported by a variety of strategies in mainstream classes.

These may include the following:

  • A buddy to support them socially.
  • Talk partners in class to help with language and communication.
  • Opportunities to develop their language in class through playing languages games and listening to others speak in English.
  • Being pre-taught new words.
  • Use of dictionaries, electronic dictionaries, i-pads with translation tools to support translation and offer visual images of key vocabulary taught.
  • Being paired with other children who speak the same language where it is possible for work.
  • Dual language books and e books
  • Reading partners to help with reading and comprehension activities.

 

How EAL pupils learn English

 Children learn basic social language first. This is their Basic Interpersonal Communication skills or BICS and it can take around two years to learn this. E.g. Good morning, how are you today? My name is…, I am having sandwiches today, I don’t understand, could you show me the way? May I go to the toilet please etc. It takes longer to learn the academic language needed in the classroom. It takes more time for EAL pupils to catch up with their mostly monolingual peers (classmates who speak one language). It can take from seven up to ten years to learn all they need to know.

This may need to be explicitly taught through the creation of key vocabulary lists or activities to help teach the topic or subject specific language required in class.
Children may create their own dictionaries so they can rehearse at home. They may need reading partners to help them understand the meaning behind the words they read in a book

How long will it take for my child to learn English as an additional language?

The rate at which children learn English or Welsh as a new language will vary and depends on different things including:

  • Previous literacy in first language and ability to communicate in the first or home language
  • Previous education
  • Family support
  • Cognitive ability
  • Age at the time of starting to learn the second language

How will my child's school help?

Schools will help your child by ensuring the following:

  • That school is a safe, welcoming environment.
  • Ensuring that all pupils feel included.
  • Encouraging home languages spoken in school and at home
  • Staff speaking clearly and at a normal pace
  • Staff avoiding idioms and colloquialisms which can be confusing in a second language or in the early stages of acquisition.
  • Making learning fun, visual and multi-sensory, especially when a child is new to English
  • Reinforcing language –repeating and modelling language, spoken and written.
  • Planning collaborative learning activities, where children learn from each other, and good models of English.
  • Blended learning approaches where necessary, some online and class learning programmes.
  • By seeking advice and support if required from the Minority Ethnic Achievement Service, other services in Inclusion if the child has additional learning needs (ALN) or requires an additional learning provision (ALP).