Page 92 - SEN114 September/October 2021

SEN publishers
Me? An Author?
Judith Carter makes the case that the publication of a book is the ideal way to share your observations and practical experiences.
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Writing a book has always been a dream of mine, but nothing prepares you for the feeling of ‘holding’ the actual book you have written. At the time of writing this article, I have been a published author for all of a week! So obviously I still have much to learn. I certainly was not prepared for ‘seeing’ my book on publisher websites. It is a strange feeling that combines pride, shock, relief and of course the inevitable anxiety, hoping, above all other things, that you have written a GOOD book! So why do this?
The ultimate purpose of writing my book was to share the outcomes of my work with others, in the hope that it will support colleagues, promote reflection and further professional dialogue, which ultimately may improve the experiences of children and families with SEND. I spent years noticing that there was an apparent gap in our language of assessment for children with SEND. Firstly, we paid limited attention to individual strengths, tending instead to focus on the difficulties or barriers to learning. But we also only had the curriculum as our language for assessment. Of course, the curriculum is essential, it is our ‘bread and butter,’ but the Code of Practice 2015, tells us that SEND provision should be “additional to or different from that made generally for other children or
“Promote reflection and further professional dialogue”
young people of the same age,”. Yet, more often than not, our provision was more of the same. For example, if a learner was experiencing difficulties with maths, we would give them more maths. Of course, they are entitled to more maths, as is every child in a class, but in what way is ‘more of the same’ additional to or different from? In fact, our priority should be to explore ‘why’ the learner is experiencing difficulties in maths, after all this could relate to working memory, speed of processing or a language issue. By establishing a hypothesis exploring the barrier(s) to learning, we are able to compliment the ongoing curriculum entitlement of ‘more maths,’ with action that seeks to develop language, processing or memory skills, which is by definition, additional to or different from that made generally for others.
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