Special educational needs

supporting and planning for children with special educational needs. Perhaps the benefits are all the greater when working with the children's parents, who can be reassured that all children have schemas and, once their children's schemas are explained to them, can see and take pleasure in the progress their children are making.

Children with autism: By Shirley Conway

I observed two children with autism and listed typical autistic behaviour under the following schema headings.

Vertical and horizontal trajectories

* Climbing, stepping up or down

* Lying down flat on the floor

* Lining up cars or trains

* Walking to and fro along the same route

* Doors open and shut

* Flicking lights on and off

* Repetitive behaviour

* Banging objects on objects

Enclosures and enveloping

Autistic children often feel more secure in enclosed places, such as under the table or in a corner, and often will work better at a workstation with the chair close up to the table.

Spirals

* Spinning self and objects

* Twizzling threads or pieces of string Trajectory

* Flapping hands or arms

* Jumping off from high places

* Rocking Transporting

* Putting objects in trains or trucks and transporting them along tracks and back again

* Marble run game Maria: By Layla Jennings

Observation

Maria (not her real name) is two years and eight months old and shows signs of extreme cognitive delay, though no diagnosis has yet been made. I observed her eight weeks after her joining the playgroup.

Maria was playing in the sand and found a piece of a puzzle, which she removed from the sand and looked at from every angle. She walked to the puzzle table, twiddling the piece of puzzle between her first finger and thumb in her left hand. She tried to fit the piece in the correct place in the puzzle, but the wrong way round.

Maria enjoys putting things into slots, hence her enjoyment of inset puzzles, and putting things away in the right place.

Schemas

This pattern of behaviour helps her to create order in the objects around her, to predict where things go and to organise her thinking through her transporting, rotation and inside schemas. Putting things in the right or wrong place are an important part of learning.

Planning and resourcing

We are trying to give Maria control over her learning by helping her to transport things, to put them away or to find her favourite things (which seem to involve putting things in things and rotating them). Children lack confidence to be curious, explore and develop their learning when they have no autonomy. We are helping her to work out why things are organised and stored as they are.

Parents

Parents whose children have special educational needs are reassured to know that all children have schemas. Understanding their child's schemas helps them to see the progress that their child is making and to feel positive that their child is learning and developing.