Additional Support Needs Analysis

Words: 1079
Pages: 5

This assessment will discuss the needs of children in terms of their holistic environment and give an explanation of additional support needs. The medical and social model disabilities will also be defined as well as how societies’ attitude towards children with additional needs has changed over time.

Children’s holistic development requires their needs to be met physically, cognitively, socially, emotionally and linguistically in order for them to develop and reach their full potential as individuals. A child’s developmental components impact on each other and fuse together to form the child as a whole. Such developmental components including physical can be met with the need for food to supply a sustainable amount of energy to the body allowing
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They are categorised as an individual who needs extra support beyond what is provided to children of a similar age, helping them develop to their fullest capability. The need for additional support can be triggered from a variety of factors such as the child’s learning environment, disability/medical needs, their domestic surroundings, and social and emotional factors. Additional needs can be long term, short-term or can refer to the help a child requires in overcoming a difficult period. A short term need, for example, could be that the child suffers from asthma and so is in need of having an inhaler given that they may have difficulty breathing. A diagnosis of a long-term need could be dyslexia, where the child requires support with literature/reading work and so needs to develop strategies to deal with their …show more content…
In 1980, the Education (Scotland) Act was introduced, stating that education authorities must engage a “record of needs” for any child two years or over who has special educational needs which are clearly indicated as distinct or complex. Previously, opinions towards disability were often based on ignorance or fear of the unknown. Children with a disability were regularly termed as cursed by God. Changes in terminology has developed from offensive language such as ‘cripple’ to a preferred description as ‘mobility impaired ambulatory disabled’ centring its focal point on the individual’s personality. The new term children with additional support needs strengthens the special educational needs definition, combining any factor causing a barrier to learning under this term. It also targets the child’s needs granting appropriate levels of care to support and provide for the child in their everyday life. This comes under The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 which also declares that education authorities have an obligation to identify and develop the support needed for learning for every