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Colourful hands symbolising neurodiversity
Author: Karen Wilson, SEND Specialist
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Approximate reading time: 1 minute

Learners, with or without EAL, may have special educational needs. These needs often require a range of carefully selected strategies and approaches to help learners reach their full potential.

Tip or Idea: Take time to observe your learners, to help distinguish between needs arising from English as an Additional Language (EAL) and those stemming from specific educational needs (SEND). Careful and systematic observation helps teachers to make informed decisions to support learners effectively. This guidance from the Bell Foundation provides a helpful framework.

Learning Village resource: Our range of SEND guides include useful information about different learner needs, as well as adjustments you can make both in the Learning Village and to your teaching practice to support them. Take a look at our summarised Autism guide. Members can access the full set of comprehensive guides here.

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SEND support: Dual coding - Use of visuals and words

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Tip or Idea: Deaf learners may need to lip read or see speech physically modelled to support their understanding. Using our resources in an adult-led small group session and/or using the demo learner as a teaching tool can be very powerful for deaf learners.

SEND support: Storytelling

Created: Mon 13th Nov 2023

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