Special Educational Needs in early years

If you are concerned that your child may have difficulties with learning it is important to speak to someone as soon as possible – parents are often the first to notice any difficulties.

If your child has not yet started school, you should speak to your doctor, health visitor, or the Early Years and Childcare Team.

The Child Development Service (CDS) provides a comprehensive multi disciplinary assessment and intervention for children with complex needs (0-5years) working alongside health pediatricians, speech and language, occupational and physiotherapists, and other health and educational professionals and under 5 providers.

The CDS becomes involved following a request by a medical or educational professional due to a child’s complexity of need which will require multi agency involvement and assessment.

The Service offers families the opportunity to meet with professionals and other parents in a user friendly environment at either of the two centres, currently in Crewe and Macclesfield. All involved will meet and discuss the child’s difficulties, interventions employed and progress achieved with parent/carers and other professionals as required.

CDS staff will arrange to visit the child in the home and in the early settings as part of the assessment process. Information from the parent/carer is a vital of this assessment process.

Any centre based intervention allows all those involved to observe the child in a different context and understand how they interact with other children and adults out of the home. The centre sessions are for a limited period of time.

CDS staff will:

• Liaise with the medical professionals as required
• Provide information and advice as required by an individual child’s needs
• Provide advice on communication and behaviour strategies
• Recommend a variety of appropriate activities and resources
• Assist in the development of routines and consistency of approaches
• Model any intervention required by the child
• Offer training on a variety of topics relating to early year development
• Provide an outreach service seeing the child in their home and / or local pre school setting
• Provide centre based sessions as appropriate
• Work alongside colleagues in early years settings to ensure the child needs are known and understood and what intervention strategies need to be employed
• Assist transition into a pre school or school setting

Contact us

The Child Development Service can be contacted at

Oaktree Children’s Centre
Mablins Lane
Crewe, CW1 3YR
Tel: 01270 371220

or

The Ingersley Building
Macclesfield District General Hospital
Victoria Road
Macclesfield
SK10 3BL
Tel: 01625 661678