U is for Unique Child
“See a child differently, you see a different child.”
We are all wonderful, capable, creative, critical thinkers and we embrace this so well within the early years. We follow our children’s interests; we allow them to choose a path that we support with our planning and flexible continuous provision. We enable their unique thinking, their ideas, their play and their wonderful view on the world.
But is this the case for all children?
What about our neurodivergent children who communicate differently to others, who play differently to what we have seen before? Is this uniqueness embraced, are their play needs planned for, are their ideas and preferences understood and supported?
“Once you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.”
We need to be aware of difference, we need to understand difference, we need to accept difference and we need to advocate for difference. By doing so, we completely embrace each and every unique child we have the honour to care for and support. Difference is just that, difference. But difference doesn’t mean less, difference is not a deficit, difference is not something that needs to be fixed.
Our neurodivergent children are different, we may not have seen play, how they play before, we may not have seen self-regulation like the strategies they use before, we may not have seen their social communication preferences before, but to understand them is to understand the unique child in front of us.
Our children may have a diagnosis of a neurodivergent condition, or they may be displaying some emerging traits, and therefore our main job is to get to know how each neurodivergent condition presents for that child.
Build a child’s unique profile that highlights:
- Their strengths.
- Their special interests.
- Their preferred play types.
- Their preferred communication style.
- Their triggers.
- Their sensory seeking or avoiding strategies.
- Their signs and indicators of dysregulation.
- Their self-regulation strategies.
- Their trusted adult.
We need to ensure that this process is completed holistically in collaboration with the parents/carers as well as any other professional involved with the family. We need to see the whole unique child for us to be able to support them in our early years settings best.
Play
Neurodivergent children play differently, with many preferring solitary or parallel play, this may mean that whilst they are in our early years environments, we may not observe that developmental shift into social or cooperative play. But that’s okay. Embrace and support their preferred play. Allow for space around tabletop activities, a great top tip is to remove the chairs! This can be a barrier for many of our children who prefer standing up to play rather than the feeling of being ‘trapped’ under a table.
Allow our children time to play in their preferred way. Know that it’s ok for our children to be so involved in their play that they may not hear instructions from adults, that they may find a transition to something else really tricky, and that they may not be able to share the resources or the space with others.
Build your knowledge of the schematic play, sensory seeking play, and special interest play, and embrace all that this looks like and feels like for your neurodivergent children. Plan for it, embrace it, and enable it.
Development
Many of our children will have a spiky profile; some areas where they shine so brightly and others are more challenging for them. For our autistic children, their social, cognitive and emotional development and the key focus areas for support. However, and it’s a big however, this is not about offering ‘support’ that insists on our children being more neurotypical, or to ‘fix’ them. This is not promoting the unique child.
Neurodiverse children do show attention, they do focus (actually they focus in bucket loads) and they do have attention skills, these just may look a little different to what we are used to seeing. Again, that word is different! Remembering always that different is not less.
Communication
The end goal for communication in early years is not verbal communication, it’s communication. And this comes in many different forms. Your children may have a preference for communication through gestures, or signs. Maybe the use of visual prompts or objects of reference. For some children, this may also include the use of AAC (augmented and alternative communication) devices. We need to allow all our children to have a voice, to share their views, their thoughts and their feelings with us, however, that is preferred.
Neuroaffirming
To embrace uniqueness and difference is to become a neuro-affirming educator. Being a neuro-affirming educator is to affirm (to declare one’s support for) neurodivergent identity.
Embrace difference, accept our children just as they are, enable their uniqueness to shine.
Cheryl is currently working with many nurseries, schools and early years settings across the UK in a range of ways, including ongoing partnerships as their SEND consultant. Contact her via her website for more information.
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About the Author
Cheryl has three decades of experience within the early years sector and is now a consultant and award- winning trainer. Her passion for acceptance for neurodiversity within early years is impactful, as a professional and as a parent of two neurodivergent children. She is an advocate for true inclusive practice, enabling ALL children to be heard and accepted for their uniqueness.
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