Understanding the Development of Young Children with Complex Additional Support Needs
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis presents a body of work for the award of the Professional Doctorate in Educational Psychology. It is comprised of two projects and a literature review, all of which are united by a broad interest in supporting children with complex additional support needs and by a specific interest in in exploring conceptualisations of development for this group of learners. The aim of the thesis is to inform an understanding of development that is shared by both parents and education staff and which leads to the identification of meaningful targets and strategies to promote a child’s progress, supported by educational psychology practice. Project I consists of a Recognised Prior Learning claim (RPL) for 20% of the award (Appendix 2). The claim details the process leading to the development of the South Lanarkshire Framework (South Lanarkshire Inclusion and Psychological Service, 2015) for supporting pupils with complex additional support needs (referred to throughout as ‘The Framework’). This document contains information about how children with this level of need learn and provides advice about appropriate assessment and teaching approaches. The RPL claim also contains an article detailing the development, implementation and evaluation of The Framework (Rees, Tully & Ferguson, 2017). This evaluation, involving seven Additional Support Needs establishments and using a pre and post audit of curricular practice and semi-structured interviews, emphasises the positive impact of The Framework on teacher practice and mind-set. The findings also highlight the need to further clarify parents’ and education staff definitions of progress. This paved the way for the literature review and Project II. The literature review begins by considering dominant theories of development in relation to the progress of children with complex additional support needs. Consideration is also given to how categorisations of disabilities and definitions of educational needs are dependent upon the ed…
abstract: This thesis presents a body of work for the award of the Professional Doctorate in Educational Psychology. It is comprised of two projects and a literature review, all of which are united by a broad interest in supporting children with complex additional support needs and by a specific interest in in exploring conceptualisations of development for this group of learners. The aim of the thesis is to inform an understanding of development that is shared by both parents and education staff and which leads to the identification of meaningful targets and strategies to promote a child’s progress, supported by educational psychology practice. Project I consists of a Recognised Prior Learning claim (RPL) for 20% of the award (Appendix 2). The claim details the process leading to the development of the South Lanarkshire Framework (South Lanarkshire Inclusion and Psychological Service, 2015) for supporting pupils with complex additional support needs (referred to throughout as ‘The Framework’). This document contains information about how children with this level of need learn and provides advice about appropriate assessment and teaching approaches. The RPL claim also contains an article detailing the development, implementation and evaluation of The Framework (Rees, Tully & Ferguson, 2017). This evaluation, involving seven Additional Support Needs establishments and using a pre and post audit of curricular practice and semi-structured interviews, emphasises the positive impact of The Framework on teacher practice and mind-set. The findings also highlight the need to further clarify parents’ and education staff definitions of progress. This paved the way for the literature review and Project II. The literature review begins by considering dominant theories of development in relation to the progress of children with complex additional support needs. Consideration is also given to how categorisations of disabilities and definitions of educational needs are dependent upon the ed…
author: Rees, Kirstie
language: eng
date published: 2020
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:08:52Z
provider: University of Dundee
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Dundee