SENExtra October 2021

Your free special educational needs update Oct 2021 Dyslexia - hearing - language Language learning for SEN children – and why it’s so important! For children and students with special educational needs, language learning may not be seen as a priority by many. However, this could not be further from the truth – teaching MFL is not only essential for all students, but has unique benefits, particularly for SEN students. Even though MFL is often regarded as a difficult subject that most children will opt out of by the time they leave school, due to frustration and lack of inspiration, nowadays, more is being done to promote equality of educational opportunity. No longer is language learning reserved for the academic ‘elite’, but rather is being recognised for its benefits for non-SEN and SEN children, and even their parents! As is summed up beautifully by David Wilson of Specialeducationalneeds. com: “Like their non-SEN peers, students with SEN will only reach their full potential if they are given the opportunity to move outside their comfort zone and to learn new skills.” MFL classes do exactly that: they challenge learners to confront new languages, which entail new cultures and different ways of thinking, all whilst improving multiple skillsets. The joy of language learning is that it promotes a new perspective: for example, teaching French or Spanish grammar in MFL lessons involves looking at the English equivalents and how they work, thus indirectly strengthening a students’ knowledge of their native language. This can also be seen in how vocabulary develops, by comparing the English words with target language equivalents or by finding cognates, which can also improve spelling in English. Even numeracy skills benefit from MFL lessons, through counting exercises and arithmetic activities in the target language. The beauty of all this is that it is done indirectly – the student learns multiple subjects all in one lesson, often without realising it! This can be a huge boost to SEN students, who often have to deal with a lack of self-belief, which is of course, no fault of their own and is often down to incompatible teaching methods that can overlook the unique characteristics of SEN students. In contrast, MFL classes lend themselves particularly well to SEN-friendly teaching strategies. READ MORE Malala Yousafzai champions new campaign to highlight impact of hearing loss on children’s education The Malala Fund and hearing health not-for-profit The Cochlear Foundation have partnered to raise awareness of the barriers keeping millions of children and young people with hearing loss from accessing a quality education. According to the World Health Organization, 34 million children around the world live with disabling hearing loss. Without equal access to a quality education and early access to hearing healthcare and support these children may not realise their full potential. In response, the world’s youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate and co- founder of The Malala Fund, Malala Yousafzai, called for societies and governments to prioritise hearing health in a personal foreword for the World Health Organization’s first-ever World Report on Hearing, in March 2021. READ MORE .open days are back! Join us on 10 November at Henshaws Specialist College in Harrogate Book your place today at henshaws.org.uk/opendays senmagazine.co.uk