Moderate Learning Difficulties
The Special Educational Needs Inclusion Service: Cognition and Learning supports pupils with Moderate Learning Difficulties (MLD) in mainstream schools. It also provides advice and guidance to parents and to school staff to further support children with MLD at home and at school.
The Service has compiled a number of fun and exciting resources and websites that you may find useful to support your child with various aspects of their learning at home during the school closure period.
If you are a parent or teacher and you have any queries regarding a pupil with Moderate Learning Difficulties, or a child you think may have similar emerging special educational needs, please email us at InfoSenis.MLD@eani.org.uk, leaving your preferred contact details, and a member of our team will telephone you to offer further advice and guidance.
Learning the Alphabet
Resources
Rainbow Arc Instructionspdf395.02 KB
Rainbow Arcpdf252.82 KB
Alphabet Hide and Seekpdf407.08 KB
Alphabet Memory Gamepdf279.59 KB
Alphabet Board Gamepdf1.31 MB
Initial Sounds
Resources
Sound Stairspdf241.14 KB
Mr Postie's Initial Sounds Gamepdf524.14 KB
SATPIN Bingopdf1.17 MB
Hit the Rollpdf384.92 KB
Sounds Snailpdf156.97 KB
VC Word Level
Resources
CVC Word Level
Resources
CVC Spelling Workbookpdf269.07 KB
Snakes and Ladders - CVC Word Endings 'at'pdf70.28 KB
CVC Racetrack - Mixed CVC Wordspdf228.43 KB
Time
Analogue Time
Clock face with handspdf261.87 KB
Making a Clock Face!pdf66.9 KB
Loup Game - 'o'clock'pdf297.55 KB
Match the Time - 'half past'pdf307.14 KB
Match the Time - 'quarter past'pdf305.58 KB
Telling the Time - 'o'clock'pdf622.16 KB
Time Activities - 'o'clock'pdf264.53 KB
Digital Time
Bingo! - 5 minute intervals to 'half past'pdf240.63 KB
Digital Time - 'o'clock'pdf224.36 KB
My Digital Clockpdf234.1 KB
Ordering Digital Time - 'o'clock' & 'half past'pdf249.52 KB
Snakes and Ladders - 'o'clock' & 'half past'pdf149.09 KB
Useful Websites
Useful Apps
Money
Resources
Counting Pennies, to 10ppdf92.96 KB
Making Money - 1p, 2p & 5ppdf1.66 MB
Paper Coins - 1p, 2p, 5p & 10ppdf3.12 MB
Sorting Coins Activity, to 10ppdf250.8 KB
Toy Shop - Money to 10ppdf286.69 KB
Welcome to the Toy Shop! - Money to 20ppdf383.71 KB
Numbers
Resources
Early Counting Skillspdf331.76 KB
Making Patternspdf405.78 KB
Matching Activitiespdf256.57 KB
One-to-One Correspondence (1-5)pdf449.06 KB
Making 5pdf347.84 KB
Making 10pdf348.76 KB
Making Number Bonds to 10pdf214.03 KB
Go Fish! - Number Bonds to 10pdf227.94 KB
Down Syndrome
The Education Authority’s (EA) Special Educational Needs Inclusion Service (SENIS) for Down Syndrome provides advice/support and resources for the effective inclusion of pupils with Down Syndrome within all phases of schools/settings.
All schools and parents with children with Down syndrome can contact SENIS Down Syndrome Support at infosenis.ds@eani.org.uk
You will then be contacted by your child’s Advisory teacher who will offer any advice and support you require.
We aim to continue to offer support via phone and remote learning platforms.
Resources
Parent Training LANGUAGE & LITERACYpdf1.11 MB
Parent Training NUMERACYpdf1.06 MB
Parent Training PLAYPDF542.74 KB
Parent Training SENSORYpdf917.32 KB
Parent Training TOILETINGpdf677.1 KB
PLAY SKILLS BOOKLETpdf1.44 MB
Sensory play ideaspdf457.38 KB
letter overview parentsdocx14.09 KB
Links to signposting
We base much of our support and advice from leading research and work closely with Down syndrome Education International. They will be offering freely accessible webinars on their website to support you starting with open Q&A sessions by age group.
In addition the following resources are available:
The Reading and Language Intervention for Children with Down Syndrome (RLI)
This is a teaching program designed to improve reading and language outcomes for children with Down syndrome. It supplements and supports regular teaching with daily one-to-one intervention sessions. The intervention sessions follow a consistent format within which instruction is carefully targeted to the individual student.
In case you find yourself working with the Reading and Language Intervention for Children with Down Syndrome (RLI) but do not have access to the resource CD, the contents are now available free online:
Speech and Language Early years for children with Down Syndrome
"Speech and language activities for preschool children with Down syndrome" is now freely available.
This film explains and demonstrates activities for promoting communication, speech and language development for preschool children with Down syndrome from 18 months to 4 years.
It focuses on practical strategies to promote speech and language development that can be woven into everyday play, routines and activities.
The film explores techniques to help children with Down syndrome understand the meanings of words, communicate what they know and develop clear speech. It also looks at ways to help them learn to read words and sentences, and explains how teaching reading benefits their spoken language.
Developmental Activities for babies with Down Syndrome
This film is now freely available and explores what our understanding of the development of infants with Down syndrome tells us about how early development can be promoted for babies with Down syndrome from birth to 18 months.
The film emphasises the importance of everyday family activities for children's learning and development. It focuses on practical activities to promote development that can be woven into everyday routines and activities.
Section 1 focuses on early development. It describes the important elements of development and demonstrates significant behaviours and activities for very young babies. It seeks to provide a general foundation for later skills to build on and it discusses the principles that can be applied to different areas of development.
Section 2 gives practical advice and activities for supporting the development of skills that may be more difficult for babies with Down syndrome to develop independently.
Activities are clearly illustrated by parents and therapists working with young babies with Down syndrome.
Medical Needs
The Education Authority’s (EA) Special Educational Needs Inclusion Service (SENIS), Medical Needs provides early intervention advice and support on the effective inclusion of pupils who live with a long term medical condition such as Type 1 Diabetes.
The Service provides advice and support at all phases of school life - preschool, primary and post-primary.
Support to schools and parents is provided in a variety of ways, taking a holistic child-centred approach. There is a focus on achieving positive outcomes for the children and young people with whom we are involved.
The type and level of support is based on each pupil’s individual needs within the context of the school/setting.
Advice and support aims to reflect current developments in health and best practice guidance from our partners in the health and non-statutory sectors.
The Service aim is that families will be knowledgeable about available supports, best practice and the roles of all partners. It aims to help families to find the information they need as their child progresses on their educational journey.
Advice and support centres on developing the components of successful school support for pupils with medical needs such as Type 1 Diabetes. Both schools and parents/carers may avail of advice from SENIS Medical Needs.
The resources we have signposted may be useful as you assist your child to explore their new diagnosis or aspects of their diabetes management. Please note, however, that these are not a substitute for the specialist advice provided by your child’s Diabetes Team and you should use the usual arrangements to contact your child’s Paediatric Diabetes Specialist Nurse where appropriate.
During the COVID-19 school closure period, advice and signposting may be obtained from SENIS (Medical Needs) by contacting us on the regional telephone number below or by using the central email address. Please include a contact number in any email and a member of staff will return your call as soon as possible. Staff members will also be able to signpost parents to advice in relation to other common medical needs.
KEY CONTACTS - SEN Inclusion Service (Medical Needs)
| Medical Needs Co-ordinator | Noreen McQuaid |
| Administrative Officer | Peter Malone |
| Telephone | 028 71272340 |
| EADiabetesSupportMailbox@eani.org.uk |
Type 1 Diabetes
The 4Ts of Type 1 diabetes.
The Special Educational Needs Inclusion Service supports the work of the Public Health Agency, Diabetes UK and all our partners in raising awareness of Type 1 diabetes.
The video below highlights the importance of recognising symptoms early.
The four most common symptoms of Type 1 diabetes are
- Toilet – going to the toilet a lot, bed wetting starts unexpectedly;
- Thirsty – a child being very thirsty;
- Tired – feeling more tired than usual;
- Thinner – losing weight or looking thinner than usual.