Level D builds on what has been learned at levels B and C.
Level B introduces the core issues around promoting and maintaining positive behaviour and relationships with children with
SLD/PMLD/CLDD.
Level C builds on this by focusing on types of attachment and ways of interpreting communication to help understand children
better.
Level D covers the skills to facilitate emotional relationships with children and develop the range of communications children
use to express their needs.
It also looks at how adults can work together as a team to implement a plan to facilitate changes in behaviour. Assessing
when it is appropriate to use positive handling strategies to manage challenging behaviour is also covered.
The materials in this level are intended to enable the user to:
- Synthesise understanding, skills and experience in order to work effectively with children to develop and support positive relationships and behaviour, and
- Critique the type and range of provision available for children in order to consider extending or developing more effective services.
Details of the professional standards that apply to all teachers in England can be obtained from the Department for Education website. These standards apply to all teachers regardless of their career stage and all aspects of the standards are relevant to teachers working with children with special educational needs.
As defined by the Department for Education Special Educational Needs Code of Practice (2001), children have special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for them.
Children have a learning difficulty if they have:
- A significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age, or
- A disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age in schools within the area of the local education authority.
