OUR LEARNING SUPPORT SERVICES FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD

What areas are focused on, and why this is important? The Early Years Profiling service helps one understand three areas of the child's basic English skills and abilities.

1. Early Years Vocabulary – Colours, Shapes, Letters and Number Testing:
   Children learn to identify colours and shapes and classify objects around them based on these attributes. Knowing if they have letter and number skills that form lifelong learning foundations is also essential.
    

2. Foundation Literacy Skills – Sound-Letter Correspondence, Syllables, Rhyming and Initial Sounds:
   When children understand that words are comprised of sounds, they can transfer this knowledge to reading and writing. Phonemic awareness is essential because it is critical to reading and spelling success. Children who cannot distinguish and manipulate the sounds within spoken language have difficulty recognizing and learning the necessary print/sound relationship critical to skilful reading and spelling success.
    

3. Visual Reasoning:
   We measure fluid intelligence, which can quickly identify patterns, logical rules and trends in new information. Our screening identifies causes, integrates this into existing knowledge, and applies it to solve problems.

We provide feedback in the form of a report, identifying what has and should still be learnt. It does not grade kids, which can have a negative impact. Instead, it suggests the child's level, starting with the lowest level of Novice and rising to Expert level. The goal is a sense of pride as children make minor improvements to their skills. We will also produce institutional records for management as evidence of efficacy.