SUPPORTING CHILDREN WITH IDENTIFIED SPEECH, LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION NEEDS AT TWO-YEARS-OLD: VOICES OF EARLY YEARS PRACTITIONERS N Nicholson Doctor of Philosophy 2020 SUPPORTING CHILDREN WITH IDENTIFIED SPEECH, LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION NEEDS AT TWO-YEARS- OLD: VOICES OF EARLY YEARS PRACTITIONERS Nyree-Anne Nicholson A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Lincoln for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2020 2 Contents 1.1 Background positioning the study ........................................................................ 3 1.1 Positioning the researcher ................................................................................... 6 1.2 Relevance of prior experiences ............................................................................ 6 1.3 Aims and approaches of the current study .......................................................... 8 1.4 My journey to Foucault ....................................................................................... 10 1.5 Justification and limitations ................................................................................ 11 1.6 Contribution to knowledge .................................................................................. 13 1.7 Outline of the thesis ........................................................................................... 14 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 17 2.2 What does it mean to be a child? ....................................................................... 18 2.3 Education and care versus education or care .................................................... 20 2.4 Political influences on early years policy ............................................................ 22 2.5 Provision ............................................................................................................. 30 2.6 Qualification levels of early years practitioners .................................................. 42 2.7 Introduction of the early years curriculum .......................................................... 50 2.8 The Purpose of assessment in the early years .................................................. 56 2.9 Defining development ........................................................................................ 60 2.10 Summary of the chapter ..................................................................................... 71 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 73 i 3.2 Special educational needs and disabilities ........................................................ 75 3.3 Identification of speech, language and communication needs .......................... 78 3.4 Government initiatives to aid early years practitioners in identifying SLCN....... 84 3.5 Existing tools for identification and assessment of speech and language ......... 85 3.6 Specific training for communication and language professionals ...................... 89 3.7 Support ............................................................................................................... 93 3.8 Impact of speech, language and communication needs .................................. 100 3.9 Discussion of the literature ............................................................................... 108 4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 111 4.2 Philosophical perspectives ............................................................................... 112 4.3 Towards a philosophical stance ....................................................................... 114 4.4 Pilot Study ........................................................................................................ 120 4.5 Research methods ........................................................................................... 123 4.6 Qualitative paradigm ........................................................................................ 124 4.7 Research aims and questions .......................................................................... 125 4.8 Conversational interviews ................................................................................ 126 4.9 Reflective research journals ............................................................................. 128 4.10 Data collection procedure ................................................................................ 129 4.11 Participant sample, recruitment and selection ................................................. 131 ii 4.12 Analysis ............................................................................................................ 135 4.13 Problematising the validity of narrative studies ................................................ 143 4.14 Guiding principles in research .......................................................................... 150 5.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 158 5.2 Introduction to the participants ......................................................................... 160 5.3 Overview of the children ................................................................................... 162 5.4 Normalisation through expected levels of development .................................. 163 5.5 Normalisation and accountability control measures ......................................... 169 5.6 Prioritisation, Organisation and Deployment of resources ............................... 186 5.7 Local authority 1 support .................................................................................. 196 iii 5.8 Internal support ................................................................................................ 204 5.9 Summary of the findings chapter ..................................................................... 212 6.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 214 6.2 Introduction to Foucault .................................................................................... 215 6.3 The formation of a discourse ............................................................................ 216 6.4 Foucault: Normativity and normalisation as power .......................................... 226 6.5 Panoptical Surveillance: Introduction ............................................................... 241 6.6 Summary .......................................................................................................... 257 7.1 Returning to the research question .................................................................. 261 7.2 Implications for policy and practice .................................................................. 267 7.3 Next step for research in this area. .................................................................. 273 7.4 Limitations of this study .................................................................................... 276 7.5 My contribution to knowledge ........................................................................... 277 7.6 Summary .......................................................................................................... 281 iv Abstract: Communication and language skills are essential for children to access learning opportunities and the curriculum. Existing research has highlighted that some children are living in England who start school without the necessary level of communication and language skills, to access the curriculum fully. Previous research has demonstrated that early identification of a speech, language and communication need (SLCN), is key to providing targeted interventions, to reduce the impact caused by these additional needs. However, changes within policy have created challenges for early years practitioners in identifying SLCN and providing support for those children. The current study explores the experiences of early years practitioners, as they navigate through the current statutory and non-statutory guidance, to identify, assess and support children’s development. The study utilised a narrative inquiry approach, through unstructured conversational interviews, to explore participants’ experiences. The fourteen interviews conducted involved fifteen participants from two geographical locations. A synthesised approach to analysis was taken, using both constructivist grounded theory and narrative framework approaches that provided an analytical framework. Findings suggest that the level of external support available to practitioners through education and health authorities varies according to location. Assessment arrangements through the primary tools used to assess children and the external pressure to collect data from assessments were discussed as a pressure point for participants, that at times, impacted on the reliability of the assessments conducted. These findings could add to the existing body of knowledge, by providing insight of assessment processes and the differences in assessments from setting to setting within geographical locations. The findings could raise questions on the validity of the assessment tool gathered from local and national data to create an overview of children’s developmental levels nationally. v Statement I confirm that the work in this thesis is original except