SNAP – A Bestselling SEN Profiling Tool from RS Assessment from Hodder Education

A powerful and insightful evidence based tool for identifying support for children with additional educational needs...

At a glance

• Online assessment tools for identifying specific learning and behavioural difficulties
• Easily build a picture of core strengths and weaknesses
• Generates school and home reports and suggests hundreds of targeted interventions
• Create as many new assessments as needed for each pupil
• User handbooks with helpful guidance on administering the assessments

Pupils’ needs are complex and diverse and pinpointing their specific learning and behavioural difficulties is far from easy as a wide range of underlying difficulties can cause certain symptoms or behaviours. What to do about them is even more challenging and the array of possible assessments can be overwhelming.

RS Assessment from Hodder Education has a tool to help and it comes with a memorable acronym too. SNAP or Special Needs Assessment Profile is actually a pair of clever online diagnostic assessments that can help us get to the heart of the matter and support children appropriately. Both see the problem as the problem and not the child.

SNAP-SpLD (Specific Learning Difficulties) and SNAP-B (Behaviour) are both in-depth assessments that quickly dig into pupils’ needs and offer targeted interventions involving both home and school.

They are both a simple way of identifying, prioritising and tracking vulnerable pupils and offer a wide range of special educational provisions of differing degrees across the entire school age range.

When you sign-up for a subscription then you get access to online questionnaires, printable Family and What I Feel Questionnaires, next steps and interventions as well as instant online reporting.

SNAP-SpLD identifies and provides interventions for 20 learning difficulties. There are three online questionnaires which detect strengths and weaknesses and then produce interventions based on the child’s individual needs.

There are certainly plenty of interventions to select from too with 86 interventions for ages 4-6 and 134 interventions for ages 7-16.

SNAP-B (Behaviour) identifies and provides interventions for 17 social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and again comes with three online questionnaires and a whopping 78 interventions to choose from.

Managing the SNAP resources online is really very simple and easy to set in motion. The tools are clean, fresh and highly accessible. They follow the Assess-Plan-Do-Review model and through this structure you can access a letter to parents, questionnaires, diagnostic probes and pupil record.

Strengths and weaknesses are clearly detailed and with just one click you can see information sheets, a matrix of answers and interventions. Notes can be easily added to assessments too.

The right interventions cannot be put in place if a child’s needs have not been correctly identified and this is precisely why SNAP is needed.

Rather than drilling down into the precise needs of each child and then personalising support around them, too many schools use interventions based on their current offer.

The SNAP resources provide essential documentary evidence and offer a valuable contribution to identifying needs and safeguarding too. It focuses us on the impact of the support we provide to pupils, rather than how pupils access support according to the category they fit into.

They also help schools communicate openly, frequently and honestly with parents and children with SEN. Cracking user manuals accompany both tests and give all the support you need.

These resources are packed with support, teaming with top tips, bags of pointers and intelligent interventions that will help you help children to progress and grow.

The verdict

• Offers an holistic approach to support specific needs
• Easy to administer and no need for specialist training
• Inform priorities and provision planning to support individuals and groups
• Focus upon a child’s needs rather than deficits
• Iis comprehensible to all, promoting a culture of confidence and openness
• Gives pupil voice high priority

Upgrade if…

you are looking for a powerful and insightful evidence based tool for identifying support for children with additional educational needs that directs attention towards pupil achievement rather than failure.

Cost: From £199+VAT. Find out more at risingstars-uk.com/series/snap.

Reviewed by John Dabell