The Importance of Recognising and Responding to Concerns about Young People’s Development

Describe with examples the importance of recognising and responding to concerns about children and young people’s development. The following things would cause concern about a child or young person’s development. If the problem was left untreated then things could get worse, and a delay in treatment could mean that the outcome is not as good as it would have been if treatment was started earlier. 1. Speech / Language. If a child or young person does not talk to anyone or even only speaks a few words compared to others, this may cause concern.

This would socially affect the child or young person’s because they would find it hard to make friends, work in groups or even interact with adults. It would also affect their communicational development because they would find it hard to speak to people and also may find it hard to listen to instructions etc. Early intervention would be the best way to respond to this concern, the first step would be to have the child or young person’s hearing checked because if they have poor hearing they will find it hard to hear people so will not want to communicate with others in case they get something wrong.

Poor reading and writing. If a child or young person has difficulties with their reading and writing it may cause concern, but this may not be noticeable until the child is around the age of 6 or 7 because by this age they should have learnt how letters are formed and start to string words together. These are the main skills a child needs to help them develop in all areas. Due to poor reading and writing the child or young person will start to fall behind his peers of the same age.

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They may find it difficult to interact or make friends with others who are more advanced than them, in case they are bullied etc. They would struggle with their intellectual development not only with the reading and writing, but they would struggle with their memory and even their concentration. They would have a low self-esteem, and could also have a speech problem. They may become very disruptive in the class, because they can not do the work etc.

The best way to respond to this concern would to inform the main teacher and also inform the SENCO, so that they can follow it up correctly as the child or young person may have dyslexia. 3. CO-Ordination. If a child or young person starts to show signs of clumsiness or struggle with their fine motor or gross motor movements then this would cause concern and make you wonder what could be causing this? Their social development may be affected as they may find it hard to interact with other children when playing games in the playground.

The child or young person will have problems with fine motor and gross motor skills and therefore may struggle to use a pen/pencil, have hand-eye co-ordination problems, balance and even running. This will also have a knock on affect on them intellectually, because if they are unable to hold a pen/pencil then they will be unable to write. The best way to respond to this concern would yet again inform the child’s teacher and also inform the SENCO, as the child or young person may suffer from dyspraxia, and they will need to be assessed.

Signs of Abuse. It can be very difficult to recognise signs of abuse in a child or young person. They are some signs, which could alert staff to the fact that the child or young person might be being abused at home, for example constant bruising, or having unusual injuries for the child or young person. This may have an affect on their emotional development because they may suffer from low self-esteem, and be unable to name the emotion they are feeling.

They may also have problems with their physical development because if the child or young person has been physically abused and hurt then they may be in pain when doing things. The best way to respond to this kind of concern is to inform the child’s teacher and also the head teacher and then they can then inform social services and the police and then they can look into the situation more closely. 5. Diet / Weight. If a child or young person’s diet / weight were to suddenly drop or increase in a short period of time then this would cause some concern about them.

Things that would raise concern would be if they came to school and did not have any lunch (packed lunch) or if they only eat small amounts, this would make the child very irritable and very lethargic because they are not getting the right nourishment for one reason or another. If the child or young person is malnutrition they may have difficulty with their social development because they nay struggle with their speech and therefore are unable to interact and make friends. Their physical development may develop at a slower rate compared to the other children etc.

The signs of a child being under weight could be that they have an illness like leukaemia, or the fact that they are being neglected at home. The best way for staff to approach this would to be speech to the parents/carer of the child or go to social services. 6. Behaviour. If a child or young person’s behaviour is more along a negative line constantly then this may cause concern and make staff etc wonder what could be causing the constant negative behaviour. This behaviour could be signs that the child or young person has ADHD, Autism etc. If left untreated then the child or young person’s development would be affected in a big way.

Socially no one would want to be their friend if they constantly hit, kick or even bite others, this would then make is hard for them to make friends and share with others. If the child does have a condition that is affect their behaviour this would cause them to have poor concentration and their listening skills would also suffer. Emotionally they may be constantly angry or confused by what is going on. The best way to respond to this would be to inform SENCO and maybe introduce a behaviour chart in the class and reward the good behaviour.

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