Science and pre‐school children with special educational needs: aspects of home‐based teaching sessions

This article focuses upon the role of the peripatetic pre‐school teacher for children who have special educational needs. It explores the key issues involved in home‐based teaching; the importance of developing meaningful partnerships with parents; early intervention; and the significance of play in promoting learning for young children. The research that informs this article is concerned with the possibility of teaching science to pre‐school children with special educational needs. The author, Andrea Bennington, was herself an early years special educational needs inclusion teacher when she undertook the work described here. She is now an advisory teacher for children with physical disabilities. In this example of practitioner research, key scientific concepts are discussed in the context of intervention through play carried out in the home setting. The work focuses on the responses of six children to a sequence of six ‘experiments’ carried out through a period of teaching. Andrea Bennington asks whether science activities can be used to promote the learning experiences of pre‐school children who have special educational needs and, therefore, their inclusion in teaching and learning situations.