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Sensory And/Or Physical Needs

Sensory and/or physical needs cover six key areas: general physical needs, visual impairment, hearing impairment, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and sensory needs. A child or young person may have needs that fall within just one area, or their needs could be across a few areas. Usually, additional support and adaptations are needed to ensure a child or young person can access learning and social opportunities other children and young people have. This could include adapting their work, learning environment, or support from staff members.

Identifying needs

what you might see in the classroom
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What do you need? written on a note pad

Assessment tools

you can use to assess children's strengths and needs in this area.
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The word assessment surrounded by numberous words involved in assessments

Top tips

for developing an Inclusive Learning Environment
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top tips written on a piece of paper sticking out of an envelope

Meeting Needs: Supporting Identified needs through a Graduated Approach

Strategies are organised under three headings using the Thrive Framework:

  • Getting Advice (Adjustments in the Classroom).

  • Getting Help (Targeted/ Group Interventions).

  • Getting More Help (Specialist or 1:1 Interventions).

Strategies are suggestions and not a tick list and it should be the case that some children just need the first section and others need the first two and others need all three.

Hyperlinks have been included to make it easy to locate information about suggested approaches and interventions. The intervention Overview page details information and costings for each intervention per Key Stage.

Additional Resources