Staged Levels of Intervention – Targeted

Children and young people can benefit from additional or targeted support, tailored to their individual circumstances. This could be at any point on their learning journey or throughout the journey. 

This targeted support is any focused support which children or young people may require for short or longer periods of time to help them overcome barriers to learning or to ensure progress in learning. 

Targeted support is usually, but not exclusively, co-ordinated and provided by staff with additional training and expertise through a staged intervention process. This may be by staff other than the class teacher and outwith the pre-school or school setting but within education services 

Targeted assessment and planning for autistic individuals using the SCERTS framework

In Scottish education, the SCERTS® Model is increasingly being used as a framework to assess and plan to meet the needs of learners with additional support needs for whom a targeted plan for support is required.  The SCERTS® framework considers the child’s stage of development with regards to social communication and emotional regulation and directs practitioners to suitable supports to promote engagement, meaningful participation and learning.  Even if you are not using the SCERTS framework as part of your practice, it can be helpful to be aware of the three stages of development identified by the SCERTS® framework, as shown in the figure below and referred to throughout the Toolbox:   

   

  • Social Partners (of any age), who are not yet using words   
  • Language Partners refers to individuals with emerging language   
  • Conversation Partners refers to learners who are moving towards conversational effectiveness, but may still benefit from support   

   

It is important that selected approaches are appropriate to a child’s stage of development. Social Stories for example, require metacognitive skills and an ability to reflect.  For this reason, this approach would be more suitable for individuals at the Conversation Partner stage of development and perhaps some individuals at the Language Partner Stage.  Social Stories are unlikely to be helpful for those at the Social Partner Stage.   

  

Further information about the SCERTS Framework can be found here: The SCERTS® Model