Differentiation

Every child is different. Differentiation recognises the difference in children, in terms of how they learn and how they should be taught.

Differentiation is an approach to teaching and learning that responds positively to children’s needs by adapting what they will learn, how they will learn and how they will demonstrate their learning. It is an inclusive approach that enables all children to move on together. In ‘An inclusive learning environment’ we started to explore that differentiation is not about different children doing distinct individualised activities.

Differentiation is for every child in your early years setting, irrespective of their gender, age, ethnicity, interests, faith, first language, learning needs, or past or present experiences. It is important to be mindful of variations between your children so you can differentiate in response to them:

  • Repeat instructions to children in their home language if English is not their first language
  • Provide stories and non-fiction books with large text for children who are visually impaired
  • Engage children by using their interests.

We all want to give children the best chance at learning, irrespective of their abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Differentiation helps children to learn and helps you to teach. It can help you to support every child, not just those who are at the extremes of the ability range, for example, those who might be considered ‘able, ‘gifted’ or ‘talented’, or those who have special educational needs or disabilities.

Differentiation supports you in responding positively to the individual and group needs of your children so they can all achieve. It also increases children’s motivation to learn because their needs are being met. Where differentiation is not used, children can become frustrated, demotivated and fail to achieve because they are unable to access the curriculum and the learning opportunities.

You can use differentiation whenever and wherever it is necessary to make modifications to help children to access the curriculum:

  • You can use it in outdoor play, for example, by asking different children to catch different-sized balls depending on their hand-eye coordination skills.
  • You can use it by asking children different types of questions about a story they have heard, for example: 
    • ‘Where does the rabbit live?’ This is a closed question which requires a short, specific answer such as ‘under the tree’. 
    • ‘Why does the rabbit eat all of the vegetables?’ This is an open question that requires thought and explanation, such as ‘He is very greedy!’ or ‘He is a naughty rabbit!’

There are numerous differentiation strategies that you can use to help children access the curriculum. They include:

  • Modelling
  • Resources
  • Grouping
  • Task
  • Pace
  • Response
  • Challenge
  • Peer support
  • Questioning
  • Prompting
  • Interaction

Broadly, these strategies fit into three categories:

You can use differentiation across all of the curriculum areas, and we have provided examples of activities for each curriculum area. Each of the example activities below relates to a learning statement from a different curriculum area and demonstrates differentiation strategies which are then summarised at the end of the activity. The activities include indoor and outdoor contexts to exemplify differentiation in different areas of the learning environment.