Each child is unique

When a child is described as having complex needs, we are also referring to the complexity of support that adults need to provide. As outlined in Doran’s quote in Section 5.1, their complex medical needs do not refer to a diagnosis or condition. Children with complex needs will have very varied experiences and are unique, competent and active learners [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]   whose potential needs to be encouraged and supported.

In Week 4 we heard about the importance of diagnosis and acknowledged the balance to strike between the usefulness of a diagnosis compared with how it might limit how we view a child. This can be even more challenging when a child has complex medical needs. It can sometimes feel that the child and all their personality is lost behind many medical labels. In this section we will look at the importance of providing appropriate support and the need to put medical information into perspective and focus on the whole child.

Watch this short film where Pamela, a parent, describes how she supported her daughter’s transition from home to nursery.

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Transcript: Video 5.1  Transition from home to nursery

PAMELA:

So as a parent, preparing Eilidh for nursery, was I had to buy a bib for her to get messy and play with and also had to complete a lot of documents, or had been asked to complete a lot documents about Eilidh's communication, about her physicality, the things that she likes to play, how she sees things, how she hears things. There was a visual passport, there was a communication passport, there was an access to nursery, so many documents and things.

And as I sat down to write them, I just couldn't put up. I just couldn't. It just didn't translate into paper who she was as a person. So we offered the nursery that I would come and play with Eilidh at nursery. And we took some things into nursery that she liked to do at home.

She loved to investigate into boxes, so, yeah, we'd done that, started there, and took those into nursery. We just played, and we told her a lot about the things that she plays, and nursery asking questions about, is this normally how she would do this? Or, you know, yeah, there was just lots of toing and froing and lots of just communication about what was happening, and really for the nursery to have, to see it and to build their own ideas about what they can do and how they can play with Eilidh was, yeah, it seemed to be key.

And that seemed to be more comfortable for us and for them. And, obviously, it was hugely beneficial to Eilidh because there was nobody fretting with a book, going, ‘oh, right, OK, I think that I should be doing this now’ or worried about anything because they had seen her in that environment and had played with her in that environment. And, hopefully, it just made everybody very comfortable.

How Eilidh read on paper was so different to how she presented. And that could have been worrying if you'd read her, all the things that she couldn't do. And if you'd read her on paper, thinking, ‘oh, my goodness, what am I going to, how am I going to create play activities and experiences for this child?’ But when you met her, it was very obvious in what she could do. So I guess, then, there would have been no anxiety for people worried about who she was and what she could do because they could see them.

End transcript: Video 5.1  Transition from home to nursery

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Video 5.1  Transition from home to nursery

Imagine someone writing a description about you to someone else before you met them. Written information can be very useful but is no substitute for meeting the real person. Getting to know someone – whether it’s a child, a parent or another professional involved in a child’s care – requires listening skills that you will look at in the next section.