Visits to a child or young person who has been referred for Communication and Interaction, the Specialist Teacher may include:

• Observations of the child or young person in class to observe child engagement and how they access whole class lessons
• Observations at play, or during a targeted intervention
• The use of formal or informal assessment tools to ascertain the child or young person’s needs, gaining knowledge of strengths and weaknesses
• A consideration of effects of the working environment and sensory needs
• A meeting with class teacher or SENCO to gather further background information
• A meeting with parents if appropriate to ascertain their views
• Meetings with class teacher, SENCO and parents to discuss and review outcomes and targets
• Support for school staff with advice about training and resources for making appropriate adaptations to the curriculum
• Support and advice at key transition times

Once the Specialist Teacher has met with the child or young person and explored what their barriers to learning are, they work closely with the teaching team to ensure that despite these difficulties, with appropriate adaptations the child or young person is able to access the same curriculum as their peers. The Specialist Teacher will meet with the class teacher or SENCO to agree targets that will support the child or young person and will enable the child or young person to access learning and discuss any additional resources or one to one support the child or young person might need. Often teachers will use these strategies with other children or young people in their class. Sometimes the Specialist Teacher may also advise that the child or young person needs a targeted intervention outside of the classroom to develop specific skills, e.g. to follow a speech and language or social skills programme. If needed training will be suggested for a particular intervention.

After the visit, the Record of Visit will be emailed to the SENCO with suggested targets, strategies, resources and training. The SENCO will then send home a hard copy to the child or young people’s parent/s and also adapt their personalised provision plan to reflect these new targets and strategies.

The Specialist Teacher will carry out a review visit to see whether the child or young person is making progress with the targets that have been set and address any issues that have arisen. If the school feel that the plan is going well, and the child or young person is making progress, the case may be closed. Sometimes there might be more than one review visit, depending on the complexity of needs.