Tracking children with SEN through the early years: can education make a difference?

Conference item : Presentation

A longitudinal study of 3000 children (the Early Years Transition and Special Educational Needs/ETYSEN project) has demonstrated that pre-school education can reduce the number of children who are at risk of developing Special Educational Needs (SEN). Early years education can act as an ‘intervention’ for these children if the quality of the education and care they receive is high. A large, representative sample of children was followed from entry to pre-school at age 3+ to the end of Year 1 in primary school at age 6+. They came from a wide variety of backgrounds and were assessed repeatedly for both cognitive and social/behavioural development, enabling generalisation across England. This study shows that universal Early Childhood Education can reduce the risk of children identified as having SEN.

Authors: Sylva, K; Sammons, P; Taggart, B; Siraj-Blatchford, I; Melhuish, E

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: British Psychological Society
• Journal: Vernon Wall Lecture
• Volume: 23
• Pages: 1-11
• Publication date: 2004-01-01
• Event title: 23rd Vernon-Wall Lecture at the Annual Meeting of the Education Section of The British Psychological Society
• Event location: Manchester
• Event start date: 2003-11-08
• Event end date: 2003-11-08
• DOI: 10.53841/bpsvern.2004.1.23.1
• EISSN: 2396-9644
• ISSN: 0263-5895
• ISBN-10: 1854334476
• ISBN-13: 9781854334473
• Language: English
• Keywords: EPPE; pre-school quality; early years education; ‘at risk’; special educational needs (SEN)
• Subtype: Presentation