Please or to access all these features

SEN

Here you'll find advice from parents and teachers on special needs education.

2 year old referred to 0-4 assessment?

5 replies

GreeneryGrass · 13/06/2025 07:00

Hi, will try to keep this brief, hopefully this is the right place to post. We have a 2.5 year old who goes to nursery 3 days a week. At home his behaviour is brilliant 95% of the time - he gets upset the odd time or may occasionally do something small like make a bit of a mess whilst looking for a certain toy then not want to put the rest away (but will once told a few times), we've just assumed this is normal toddler behaviour. He went through a phase at nursery of pouring his water on the floor or putting his plate of food on the floor. He tried this once or twice at home - we corrected it straight away and he hasn't done it since at home.

Last night when picking him up, they asked to speak to us and mentioned they want to put a referral in for his behaviour. We both work in education (but with older kids so unsure of the process with little ones) so we were absolutely blindsided by this. We asked if anything else had gone on apart from the food and water issues and they tell us he's apparently been throwing toys when he's already holding them at other kids and has been doing it for a couple weeks but we didn't know any of this? He's literally never done this at home, he doesn't even throw a ball unless asked! At groups he talks to other toddlers and gives toys to babies. He sings happy birthday to his friends. The only behaviour we recognised is when he sometimes shakes his hands or hits his head when he's frustrated (very rare, he's only done this a handful of times) but again we thought this was a normal way of a toddler regulating and getting their frustration out but maybe not?
We're just really lost here and were hoping someone with experience going through this process could shed some light? We didn't know any of his incidents so we're devastated as we couldn't help if we didn't know - he doesn't do anything concerning at home. Thank you so much

OP posts:
perpetualplatespinning · 13/06/2025 08:34

It isn’t uncommon for DC to present differently in different settings. It is brilliant the nursery is on the ball and has raised referral with you if they think it is necessary.

The NHS assessment process varies area to area.

What support is the nursery providing?

GreeneryGrass · 13/06/2025 10:05

perpetualplatespinning · 13/06/2025 08:34

It isn’t uncommon for DC to present differently in different settings. It is brilliant the nursery is on the ball and has raised referral with you if they think it is necessary.

The NHS assessment process varies area to area.

What support is the nursery providing?

Thank you, this isn't anything we've ever dealt with before so any advice is appreciated. They haven't offered any support beyond saying they'll put in the referral and one of their management will observe him to see for themselves. We asked them what we could do behind what we already do at home, and they didn't really have an answer as they wanted whoever would do the referral to advise us I assume?

We just find it so sad he seems to be different at nursery as we can't help him there, do you know what I mean? He's honestly brilliantly behaved at home, he's so gentle and happy, chatty and playful both independently and with others. So it's just a huge surprise.

OP posts:
perpetualplatespinning · 13/06/2025 10:13

Request a meeting with the nursery. They should be providing support. If they need more support to know how to support DS, they should ask the Area SENCO or, if your area has one, the specialist teaching service for support.

Throwing can sometimes be related to unmet sensory needs. Some people find this booklet helpful. The nursery and you might want to look at sensory circuit ideas - some sensory circuit activities might be beyond DS’s level at the moment, but there are some ideas the nursery could put into place.

GreeneryGrass · 13/06/2025 10:52

perpetualplatespinning · 13/06/2025 10:13

Request a meeting with the nursery. They should be providing support. If they need more support to know how to support DS, they should ask the Area SENCO or, if your area has one, the specialist teaching service for support.

Throwing can sometimes be related to unmet sensory needs. Some people find this booklet helpful. The nursery and you might want to look at sensory circuit ideas - some sensory circuit activities might be beyond DS’s level at the moment, but there are some ideas the nursery could put into place.

Request a meeting with the nursery. They should be providing support. If they need more support to know how to support DS, they should ask the Area SENCO or, if your area has one, the specialist teaching service for support.

Throwing can sometimes be related to unmet sensory needs. Some people find this booklet helpful. The nursery and you might want to look at sensory circuit ideas - some sensory circuit activities might be beyond DS’s level at the moment, but there are some ideas the nursery could put into place.

Thank you so much for this comment, I've had a Quick Look through what you've sent and it looks really useful. I hope you don't mind me asking your opinion here - so if he doesn't throw in any other setting (home, soft play, toddler groups, shopping, park etc) but does throw at nursery, would that suggest his sensory needs may not be met there? I'm just trying to wrap my head around the different possibilities, I just want to help him any way I can.

I'm going to go and speak to the nursery again I've decided, to ask what you've mentioned and also to ask how this has been going on long enough to create a behaviour log but we haven't been made aware - we would've been involved much earlier. I just feel like if he's been potentially causing harm to others we should have been made aware of that straight away? I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking this. Thank you so much for all your help

OP posts:
perpetualplatespinning · 13/06/2025 12:03

It may be there are unmet sensory needs at nursery. Nursery is a very different environment. You may also be naturally adapting things to meet DS’s needs in ways you don’t realise you are doing/related.

It may also mean there are unmet sensory needs at other times, and at other times DS has the resources to manage that better, but nursery places other demands on him that means he can’t do that there. People often find sensory needs more difficult to manage when there are competing needs they are trying to manage. A simple analogy is DS’s cup always has sensory needs in but other things top up his cup at nursery, meaning his cup sometimes overflows when he is there.

Throwing can also be a normal stage of development for some young children. The nursery may have wanted to establish more of a pattern/ensure it wasn’t a short-lived phase before raising it with you.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page