Early identification in the EYFS

Further support and guidance for Early Year practitioners

Early years providers will also use the Early Years Foundations Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework, alongside other assessment tools, to monitor children’s progress and identify where a child is making less than expected progress. If a child is identified as showing some delay in their learning and development, the setting should take the following steps:

1. Arrange a mutually convenient time to meet with the child’s parent carers to talk about what they have seen, listen to their perspective, make a plan and a time to review the impact for the child
2. Review the provision for the child and the experiences that they access to see what adaptations can be made to support the child to make progress
3. Continue to monitor the progress of the child and review with the parent carers and involve other professionals, if appropriate and agreed with parents/carers. In the first instance, these professionals are likely to be a Health Visitor, an Early Years and Childcare Advisor (EYCA) or a referral_to_the_speech_and_language_therapy_service.

Tools to support assessment and early identification of delay

• Information and support provided by West Sussex County Council for the Early Years Foundation Stage
• West Sussex Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) assessment guidance, including the Learning Journal (September 2021 onwards)  These materials have been developed as a tool which early years and childcare providers may wish to use to record a child’s learning and development during their time spent in an early years setting. The resources are designed to enable you to implement the overarching principles of the EYFS Statutory Framework introduced in September 2021.
•  Development Matters This non-statutory curriculum guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage was produced by the Department for Education and revised in July 2021.
• Birth to 5 Matters was published by Early Education in 2021 on behalf of the Early Years Coalition.  It provides non-statutory guidance for Early Years Foundation Stage.
• Child Development Overview These summary cards highlight the more important aspects of child development in each of the six stages of the EYFS.
• What to expect, when  A guide for parent carers to their child’s learning and development in the early years foundation stage, produced by Action for Children in 2019.
• Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) This non-statutory guidance material from 2012 is produced by The British Association for Early Childhood Development and supports practitioners in implementing the statutory requirements of the EYFS.

Communication and Interaction Assessment tools

• Stages of speech and language development, adapted from ICAN ‘Stages of Speech and Language Development’ and the ECAT monitoring tool.
• Practice Strategies for 0-5 years, for Listening and Attention, Understanding (Receptive Language), Talking (Expressive Language)  and Social Communication.
• I Can, for information and resources to help you understand and support children and young people’s speech, language and communication

Tools to support review of practice within the setting

In the early years in particular, children’s learning is supported by practitioners who understand the child’s interests and unique learning preferences and can use this to plan learning experiences that build on what children can do in a way that motivates them to engage and learn. Early years practitioners should regularly review the provision that they are offering and the progress that children within their setting are making. This will help them to understand if the provision is not meeting the children’s needs and supporting them to make progress or if there are individual or groups of children who are making less progress. Practitioners should review and develop their practice to make sure that it meets the needs of all children attending and support them to make progress and reduce any emerging attainment gap.

• The National Strategies, Early Years (Department for Children, Schools and Families) produced the following guides:
  • Challenging practice to further improve learning, playing and interacting in the Early Years Foundation Stage, 2010
  • Early Years Quality Improvement Support Programme (EYQISP) 2008
  • Progress Matters: Reviewing and enhancing young children’s development 2009
• Evaluation of Communication Environment Tool – guidance for practitioners to help them in developing their environment to meet the needs of children whose speech and language development is causing concern.
• West Sussex Improvement Plan template

Taking a celebratory approach

• A Celebratory Approach to Working with Children with SEND, for children and their families 2021.  Giving additional support in the Early Years.  The aim of this document is to provide information, exemplars, and links to relevant tools and/or services that will enhance practitioners’ knowledge and skills when working collaboratively with children with SEND and their families. This work has been funded by the Department for Education.
• A Celebratory Approach to SEND Assessment in the Early Years 2018 A small group of professionals was tasked with developing a celebratory assessment tool for children with special educational needs and/or disability. This work has been funded by the Department for Education.