Top tips for introducing a School Dog to help your students
with Cherryl Drabble, SEND educator Support and animals can have a very beneficial effect on children with additional needs or who have experienced trauma. But not every child who needs …
Category: Health
Using a different lens for neurodivergent children: Don’t treat them as younger, give them the tools to achieve
A little while ago someone on my Facebook posted a meme that supposedly showed the functional age of a child with ADHD according to their chronological age. The meme contained …
The #SENDReview must embed Speech, Language and Communication skills across education, especially teacher training
with Amy Loxley, Lead Speech and Language Advisor for I CAN, One of the major criticisms of the SEND Review is its silence about the revolution in SEND teacher training …
Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) and Perplexing Presentations – New guidance for social work practitioners
with Sally Russell, Trustee, The PDA Society Scientific rigour in medicine is, thankfully, the rule rather than the exception. We want our medicines, procedures, and treatments to be based on …
Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: What doctors and schools need to know
With Sandra Butcher, Chief Executive of The National Organisation for FASD and Brian Roberts, consultant and former Virtual School Head We assume that most women know that drinking alcohol in …
Free course: Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) in children with mental health difficulties
With Melanie Cross, Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists One of the most common elements of additional needs is speech, language and communication needs (SLCN). If a child also …
Therapy resources for families of children with additional needs
I often get asked lots of questions by parents looking for support for their children. Naturally, parents are keen to find out who I am and what I can do …
Let’s MOVE! Supporting disabled children to get their movement skills back on track
with Charlotte Peck of Enham Trust and Move Europe During the pandemic, thousands of disabled children and young people who rely on therapies such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy and hydrotherapy …
How we fired up our disabled children’s home learning with the specialist kit they need
It looks like many more children with SEND have been able to go back to school this month, latest government figures show 15% of children with Education, Health and Care …
Protecting Parents from False Allegations of Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII)
False allegations of Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) are on the rise in the SEND community. Parent and Carer Alliance are offering a free webinar to help parents know how to protect themselves.
How has coronavirus affected your child’s access to speech and language therapy?
with Caroline Wright, Policy Adviser at the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists In the first lockdown, thousands of children overnight lost the external therapy input such as speech …
We need more awareness that pandemic life is far from an equal experience
“It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it”… the Star Trek (mis)quote sums up 2020 for most people. Even if your family has escaped a serious coronavirus infection or, …
It is a mistake to assume all vulnerable children are ‘at risk of harm’
Coronavirus has divided Britain into those who are vulnerable and those who are not. But vulnerable means different things to different groups of people, and it’s important to still differentiate between vulnerable because of need and vulnerable because of risk, especially when talking about children with SEND
Care in a time of coronavirus (ii): Using health direct payments to pay family members for care
Some children and adults receiving direct payments for complex health needs will be avoiding all non-essential face-to-face contact during the Coronavirus pandemic, including minimising the number of carers coming in and out of their home. One potential solution to these challenges is for ‘direct payments’ to be used to allow family members to be paid to provide care.
Care in a time of Coronavirus: Using direct payments to pay family members for care
The current public health crisis will leave no aspects of our lives untouched. One of the most obvious consequences is the care and support which disabled children and young people …
Calming Coronavirus anxiety in children (and everyone else)
*Click here to go straight to latest information for education, health and social care. The Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is whipping up a storm of uncertainty and needless panic-buying across the …
Green light urgently needed for #RareDisease Red Alert system
SNJ note: It’s #RareDiseaseDay around the world. Today, CEO of Genetic Alliance UK, Jayne Spink, talks about a new “red alert” system that can help thousands of people. But it …
England’s children urgently need a new, accountable, speech and language strategy
With Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists chief executive, Kamini Gadhok MBE, and Caroline Wright, policy adviser for children and young people in England Ask any parent about the …
Celebrating #roarsome children with undiagnosed genetic conditions
It’s Undiagnosed Children’s Day. It is hard to believe that it was seven years ago that Lauren (now of SWAN UK) and I began Undiagnosed Children’s Day (It used to …
See Us, Hear Us: Supporting siblings of seriously ill children
As many parents who read our articles can tell you, when a child has a serious illness, their normal family life is hugely disrupted. Medical appointments, caring responsibilities and fitting …