Early Years Developmental Journal

The Early Years Developmental Journal is based on extensive analysis of a wide range of developmental assessment tools. It is a resource for families and practitioners working closely with them to record a child’s developments to better aid the identification of areas where additional help may be required. It is designed to support key working and foster communication between all those involved in a child’s development. While its primary use is for families, it is also intended that the Journal will be a useful resource for the 24-30 month statutory EYFS progress assessment as well as supporting child health monitoring

Evaluating health visitors’ existing knowledge of Down syndrome and the effect of a training workshop

© 2018 The Authors. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities published by International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Children with Down syndrome are at an increased risk of health and development issues in early childhood, therefore monitoring their development and identifying health conditions as early as possible is critical. Health professionals may not always have the training and knowledge to effectively support families of children with disabilities, including Down syndrome. In the UK, health visitors conduct health and development reviews for children under 5 years, therefore they have a key role to play in monitoring and identifying health issues in young children with Down syndrome. However there has been no research on health visitors' knowledge and training needs regarding Down syndrome. This study aimed to assess health visitors' existing knowledge of Down syndrome and evaluate a pilot Down syndrome training session for health visitors. Twenty-six health visitors from two NHS Trusts in England participated in 1 of 5 group training workshops. Pretraining and posttraining questionnaires assessed knowledge about Down syndrome, and feedback on the training session. Knowledge about Down syndrome was low prior to the training and increased significantly following the training session. Health visitors rated the training workshop very highly and would recommend it to a colleague. Health visitors identified a need for training to enable them to increase their knowledge about Down syndrome and better support families. In summary, a pilot training session about Down syndrome received positive feedback from health visitors, and led to improvements in knowledge and understanding about Down syndrome. This has the potential to improve health outcomes for children with Down syndrome.Peer reviewe

Developing Key Working

The Guide to Developing Key Working aims to offer guidance to those involved in developing, managing and delivering key working for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, and their families. The primary audience is commissioners and managers in local areas and in the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) sector implementing key working, but it is also intended to be of use for a wider range of people including policy makers and those carrying out key working functions

Using ‘Getting on with Epilepsy’ to support people with learning disabilities and epilepsy

© 2023 University of Hertfordshire.A one-page summary of our guidance about how to use 'Getting on with Epilepsy' to support people with learning disabilities and epileps

An intervention for people with learning disabilities and epilepsy

Date of Acceptance: 09/01/2015Epilepsy is relatively common in people with learning disabilities, and can be complex and refractory to treatment, with negative effects on quality of life and service costs. This article describes a randomised controlled feasibility trial, called Wordless Intervention for Epilepsy in Learning Disabilities, under way at Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust. Recruitment of people with learning disabilities and epilepsy to the trial has been affected by logistical issues, such as difficulties in identifying potential patients and contacting carers. However, public and patient involvement has improved study design and management, and has helped maximise recruitment. Should the present study confirm feasibility, a full-scale randomised controlled trial will address the effects of the Books Beyond Words title Getting on With Epilepsy as an intervention for people with learning disabilities and epilepsy.Peer reviewe

School Years Developmental Journal

The School Years Developmental Journal is designed to help parents, young people, teachers and other practitioners record, celebrate and support learning and development. It also helps everyone to share information, supporting a key working approach. Young people may like to make the Journal their own when they reach an age where this is appropriate. The Journal is particularly useful if a child or young person has an additional need or disability. The School Years Developmental Journal follows on from the Early Years Developmental Journal and includes behaviours that most typically developing children and young people show during their time at school and beyond, i.e. from when they are aged five to 18 years and above

How to use the School Years Developmental Journal

A guidance document for the Early Support School Years Developmental Journa

Developmental Journal for Children and Young People with Multiple Needs

The Developmental Journal for Children and Young People with Multiple Needs has been produced to help families and practitioners support the achievements of children whose development is affected by multiple factors that result in challenges to learning. It is based on the concept of a series of ‘Can Do’ cards which help parents and practitioners to observe, record and celebrate children’s and young people’s abilities, and to develop and strengthen these abilities. The Journal supports key working by helping everyone involved with a child to share what they know and discuss how best to work together to support development and learning

Practice Guide to the Early Years Developmental Journal

The Early Years Developmental Journal is intended as a useful resource for practitioners when monitoring progress, supporting assessments and providing a basis for communicating with parents and other practitioners. In particular it can support the statutory early years progress assessment and child health monitoring when a child is around 2 years of age. It is closely linked with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Development Matters and with the Personal Child Health Record (PCHR or ‘red book’). The Journal is also suitable for older children with special educational needs and disabilities, depending on their developmental level, and therefore the Journal’s Steps have also been mapped onto P scales for use in schools. Views from practitioners from different sectors were sought and taken into consideration during the development stage of the Early Years Developmental Journal. However, it is recognised that practitioners may have different priorities and requirements from such a resource than parents. This Practice Guide to the Early Years Developmental Journal has been produced to support practitioners and parents joint working in practice. In this document, there is supplementary information that both practitioners and parents may find useful along with the Early Years Developmental Journal Record, a single page Developmental Profile and a table that maps the Developmental Steps to approximate age ranges