The SEN Jigsaw Conference has recently announced who the plenary speakers are for their 5th event and they will probably be familiar to you.

As co-organiser of the SEN Jigsaw Conference, I am absolutely delighted that we are able to bring together parents, teachers and specialist teachers to listen so some of the leading specialists in the world of Special Educational Needs.

“I do what I do because I want every dyslexic child to believe that their uniqueness could change the world.”

— John Hicks - Dyslexia Coach, Counsellor and Blogger

I was thinking recently about why I do the work that I do an it became important for me to see if I could capture that in a sentence as this is what I judge my work by…

I realised that in all of my work in ‘Dyslexia World’ what I am trying to do is help the process in which young people with dyslexia can start to raise their level of self-esteem, to believe in themselves more and to believe that whilst they may well think differently to other young people who are not ‘neuro-diverse’ , it is that different thinking that could very easily have such a positive impact on themselves and those around them. In short, if they believe in themselves, their different way of doing things could change the world.

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I believe in this so strongly but whilst it does take a dyslexic individual to realise this, they also need support be that academically or emotional.

The more I think about dyslexia and the more I learn, I start to think of it more as a ‘spectrum of needs’ rather than a particular and specific diagnosis. We know that no two dyslexics have the same needs. Why? We know this because we know that with a diagnosis of dyslexia comes the identification is aspects of other specific learning differences such as DCD/Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia, ADHD/ADD, ASD and so on.

If as adults we truly want to understand the needs of a child with dyslexia, regardless of whether we are a parent of or teacher of, then having an understanding of Special Educational Needs in general will help you to help that child.

So the SEN Jigsaw Conference, whilst it doesn’t focus entirely on dyslexia it helps to educate it’s delegates across this whole topic. It provides resources, good practise and a great opportunity to network with other like minded supporters of children with SEN so as to share ideas.

Our delegates describe the SEN Jigsaw as good value for money and very informative on the topic of SEN.

So for our 5th year we want to continue to do this and I am so excited about who our plenary speakers are and about what they are going to talk about.

What are the plenary speakers talking about?

Neil Mackay - Special Educational Needs Trainer & Consultant.

“Can’t seem to remember from one moment to the next!

Research validated, classroom based solutions to address issues with working memory, speed of processing and retrieval.”

Neil is a freelance consultant and trainer who created the concept of Dyslexia Friendly Schools.

He is an experienced teacher who has taught for 26 years, working with children with a wide range of ages, needs and ability. He is known for his ability to bring the classroom into his training and for providing lively, entertaining and thought provoking opportunities for teachers and teaching assistants to reflect on and develop their practice. His audiences particularly appreciate his ability to offer workable responses to a range of learning needs, including AD(H)D, Asperger's Syndrome and Dyspraxia in ways which meet diverse learning needs without affecting the work of the rest of the class.

Fintan O’Regan - UK Behaviour & Learning Specialist.

Fintan O'Regan - Leading UK Behaviour & Learning Specialist.

"Meeting the learning, behavioural and socialisation needs of children with ADHD and co-existing difficulties."

Fintan is one of the leading behaviour and learning specialists in the UK.

He is currently an SEN and Behaviour Consultant for the Schools Network and an associate lecturer for Leicester University, the National Association of Special Needs, Tribal Education and the Institute of Education.

What else is taking place at the SEN Jigsaw Conference 2020?

Delegates who have been before will also have benefited from attending SEN focused afternoon workshops as well as visiting our exhibition of SEN focused products and services.

We are still putting together the rest of the programme but we are expecting to expand our workshops and have more companies exhibiting too.

During this process of tying down the last details, we have made available a number of ‘Early Bird’ tickets for the event which will be available for the rest of 2019 after which we will announce our full lineup and bring our ticket prices back to the standard prices.

We would love you to book sooner and gain even better value for money whilst also further empowering you to support the child that you know who has special educational needs.