Should all non-verbal pupils be placed on the SEND programme?

Not necessarily.

Remember that just because a child cannot say the sounds out loud, it does not mean that they are unable to understand them and blend with them to learn to read.

Here are some tips to help you get to know what your non-verbal child can do:

• Ask them to point to sounds that you are saying during Daily Keep-up sessions.
• If you give them a choice of two or three cards, you can find out if they can confidently recognise the sound.
• You can also do the same with oral blending – you say the sounds and get them to point to the corresponding images.

If you do this, you will be able to understand what they know.

All of our core programme assessments have images to go with all the oral blending words so you can use these assessments at the end of a half term.

We would recommend these in the first instance as these children might not have a SEND need or need the SEND programme at all.