How can practitioners develop methods of hearing the voice of pre-verbal, pre-school children with SEND?

The intent of this research was to add to the existing literature regarding hearing the voices of pre-verbal early years’ children with complex and special educational needs and to inform and contribute to the development of communication and interactive methods for this population. This research will be pertinent to the local and national context and recent legislation that promotes collaboration and participation with children, young people and their families.
The exploratory research took a post-positivist pragmatic position, with elements from a transformative paradigm. This stance allowed flexibility in the way reality can be captured from this heterogeneous and potentially vulnerable population. This mixed-methods research study included a collective case study of children, parents and teaching staff sampled from a special educational needs school in the UK. Various data gathering methods such as eye-tracking software, questionnaires and observations were used.
The findings imply that each child required individualised communication methods and adaptations were informed through observations and parental and teacher information. The findings also indicated a common thread across the case studies, which placed emphasis on adapting and considering the systems around the child, as well as the individual needs of the child themselves. This research will add to the limited, but growing body of literature exploring the barriers to hearing the voices of pre-verbal early years children with complex and SEND, as well as inform Educational Psychology (EP) practice by demonstrating how the views and opinions of this complex population can be included in the decisions that are made about them.