SEN – Including Everyone

Mainstream schools are becoming more accessible for children with Special Educational Needs. Teachers will adapt their environment, their curriculum and their resources as necessary to include SEN children in their classroom.

Some children with special needs who come to mainstream schools are unable to access the same curriculum as the majority of the other children. It can be difficult to disguise the fact that they are constantly doing different work to their peers and this can sometimes cause social issues for children. With thanks to a colleague, I found this very clever trick to help disguise the fact that a child with SEN in my class was not accessing the same curriculum as her peers and it helped her to feel included, to feel ‘the same’.

We colour photocopied the front cover of all the Junior Infant text books and created a set of books which catered specifically to the needs and abilities of the SEN child. Whilst the child was not exposed to, for example, the content of the Junior Infants maths curriculum, she could still work in her ‘maths book’ at the same time as the rest of the class worked in theirs. It worked a treat; the rest of the class were oblivious and the child with special needs felt so good to be treated just the same as everyone else!