SpLDs/ conditions profiled by SNAP

• Attention deficit disorder
• Developmental coordination disorder/dyspraxias
• Dyscalculia
• Dysgraphia
• Hyperactivity
• Hyperlexia
• Information processing difficulties
• Literacy difficulties/dyslexias
• Non-verbal learning difficulties
• Phonological difficulties
• Social awareness and communicative difficulties
• Specific speech, language and communication difficulties
• Visual processing difficulties
• Working memory difficulties
• Essential fatty acid deficiency

In many areas of school-based SEN diagnostic assessment the SENCO is presented with an amorphous mass of overlapping problems and 'symptoms', with no specific defining characteristics to clearly differentiate, say, dyslexia, dysgraphia and specific language impairment, or ADD/ADHD, social and communicative difficulties, and with no real overview of how all the diverse strands might interrelate - until now!

At last just what every SENCO needs: an exciting development that brings new insights and order to the practical diagnosis of learning difficulties! SNAP is a computer-aided diagnostic assessment that makes it possible to map each child's own mix of problems on to an overall matrix of learning, social and personal difficulties. From this, clusters and patterns of weaknesses and strengths help to identify the core features of a child's difficulties - visual, dyspraxic, phonological, attentional or any other of the 15 key deficits targeted - and suggests a diagnosis that points the way forward for that individual child.

SNAP will be indispensable in helping SENCO's fulfill their assessment responsibilities under the SEN Code of Practice. It provides a coherent, structured profile which yields a vital overview at the early stages of 'School Action' - but it will also profoundly inform the process of external referral, helping to ensure that the most appropriate specialist provision is made at 'School Action Plus'. SNAP allows the SENCO to make fuller assessments of - and thus better provision for - the larger number of pupils who remain at 'School Action' stage, without external referral. The information sheets it generates will also help strengthen home support.

SNAP involves four steps:

Step 2: (CD-ROM) the SENCO or Learning Support teacher collates the parent and teacher responses on to the CD-ROM, pinpointing any diagnostic follow-up assessments which may be needed as Step 3

Step 3: (User's kit): focused assessments from a photocopiable resource bank of quick diagnostic 'probes' yield a detailed and textured understanding of the child's difficulties.

Step 4: (CD-ROM) the computer generated profile yields specific guidance on support (including personalized information sheets for parents) and practical follow-up.

The User's Kit provides full information for administering and interpreting SNAP, and includes the photocopiable diagnostic probes. The Pupil Assessment Pack contains ten copies each of the SNAP Pupil Assessment Questionnaire and the Information from the Family questionnaire.

The two-year CD-ROM licence helps to ensure that, in a potentially 'high stakes' assessment context, SNAP will continue to provide a 'common currency' and that the ongoing research which underpins the package will benefit all users.

SNAP is designed particularly for use by SENCO's, learning support and specialist teachers in primary and secondary schools, SEN support services, special schools and dyslexia/SEN assessment centres, and has no pre-training requirement.

It has been developed and trailed with SENCO's in primary and secondary schools, individual members of the Professional Association of Teachers of Students with Specific Learning Difficulties (Patoss), and the Learning and Behaviour Support Service in Warwickshire.