SEN Support Toolkit

Gathering children and young people’s views

When considering how to gather the views of children and young people that you are working with, there are several guiding principles that are helpful to hold in mind, including:

• Ensure that a trusted adult works with the child/young person to gather their views.
• Work together in a place that the child/young person feels comfortable.
• Consider whether the child/young person needs rest breaks or to do the activities in multiple sessions.
• Be flexible about the activities, considering the child/young person’s development stage, interests and communication preferences (e.g. Makaton/ InPrint, Talking Mats).
• Letting the child/young person know what their views are going to be used for and how. This might need to include who might read them and timescales for changes/responses.

Photos and pictures

• Take pictures together of things they do and don’t enjoy – toys, games, activities, places and people!
• Ask the child/young person to draw what they like doing/ their favourite toys/people etc.
• Create a painting/picture/collage of their favourite things from magazines, pictures etc. Or ask them to make a picture of their best day ever (and use questions below to add details e.g., what would you be doing? Who would be there? Where would you go?)
• Could they draw a map of the classroom/school and show you where their favourite things are?

 Talking to the child/young person

This will depend on the pupil’s age and their language skills. Some children/young people prefer to chat while doing something – drawing, playing a game, out for a walk. Questions might include:

• What do you like best?
• What don’t you like?
• How do grown-ups help you?
• Where is your favourite place to be?
• What are you good at?
• What do you find hard?
• Who are your favourite people?
• What has been your best day?
• What would be your best week at school be like?

 Talking to adults can sometimes be hard, could you:

• Use puppets or favourite soft toys to ‘talk’ with the child?
• Give them a choice e.g., sort picture cards or photos of activities into ‘I like’ or ‘I don’t like’ piles.
• Print out a list of photos of activities at home/preschool/school/college and circle their favourite in a colour they like etc.

Below are some resources which Hampshire and Isle of Wight Educational Psychology have provided to support working with children and young people.   Please note that some open within your browser and others are downloads.

Do you have questions or queries?

Contact the SEN Support Line using  this link.

Quick Links

Communication & Interaction

Social, Emotional & Mental Health

Cognition & Learning

Sensory and/or Physical

Document Name

Link

Child View Collection Sheet (Primary)

 Child View Collection Sheet (Primary)

I Like Sheet (Early years and infant)

 I Like Sheet (Early years and infant)

My Lessons (Primary)

My Lessons (Primary)

My Lessons (Secondary)

My Lessons (Secondary)

My Perfect Week (Secondary)

My Perfect Week (Secondary)

Questionnaire (Secondary plus)

Questionnaire (Secondary plus)

Relationship Circle (Junior and Secondary)

Relationship Circle (Junior and Secondary)

Story of You (Junior and Secondary)

Story of You (Junior and Secondary)

How I feel in school

How I feel in school

What's important to me (Early Years)

What's important to me (Early Years)