The 12 “Dos” of Christmas for special needs parents
Christmas is almost upon us and it seems like it’s been a long time coming. The retail hype seems to start earlier each year so it’s no wonder many parents …
Category: Mental Health
Supporting your child through the anguish of bullying
It’s almost the end of Anti-Bullying Week and as we started the week talking about bullying and SEND young people, I thought it would be fitting to end it with …
Anti-Bullying Week: Violent Bullying of SEND children widespread in England’s schools
It’s Anti-Bullying Week this week. New figures show that 40% of young people in an ongoing research study of English schools said they had been bullied in the previous year. …
World Mental Health Day – Some healthy thinking tips
Today is World Mental Health Awareness Day and I thought it would be a good opportunity to write about keeping your mental health in a good place. Time is often …
Teaching teachers and parents about social media safety
This post isn’t specifically about special needs, but it’s for all teachers and parents everywhere to help you stay safe on social media. Yes, not your kids. You. My day …
The importance of learning resilience
We have all to one extent or another, faced difficult times, whether in our family, school or working lives. We have had to learn how to find a way through …
Supporting Social and Emotional Development
I’m seen as a mum who is strong and proactive (some call this passionate, some call it bolshy, and others call it, well I leave that to your imagination). I …
Autism in Pink: Helping to identify undiagnosed girls with ASD
Autism used to be thought to be mainly a male preserve – “the extreme male brain” as described by Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen. Figures from a recent Prevalence Study by the …
Seclusion Rooms: What Every Parent and Professional Should Know
Sharon Paley is based in the UK at the British Institute of Learning Disability (BILD). She is currently undertaking a professional study tour of Australia and has received a Florence Nightingale …
Battling anxiety: Mental Health Awareness Week
It’s Mental Health Awareness Week and the theme chosen for 2014 is Anxiety, something that affects children with special needs to an extraordinary degree. All children are anxious on occasion, …
Staying sane in special needs parenting: Finding 15 minutes a day to be “just me”
When your family includes a member with special needs or disabilities, there is so little time for you, the parent carer. Almost none. Of course, parenting all young children can …
How to build self-esteem in your special needs child
[Tania’s note: We are welcoming Hayley from today as an SNJ co-writer as well as a columnist and we hope all our columnists will be starting to contribute through the …
Protecting education for children with medical conditions and life-saving heart equipment for schools
Much of the unhappiness with the draft Children & Families Bill, now Act, stemmed from its exclusion of children with disabilities or medical conditions who did not have a specific …
Your chance to improve children’s mental health services
Many parents contact us about their experiences with their local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, known as CAMHS. They’ve either had difficulty accessing it or when they finally get …
Anti-Bullying Week 2013: The Future is Ours. Safe, Fun and Connected
This is a post you need to read and share if you have children who are online, whether they have SEN or not. It’s about Anti-Bullying Week and while this …
School Refusal: won’t go or can’t go?
My second column for Special Needs Jungle and I am very excited! I suggested to Tania that I write my next column on school refusal. It is a subject that …
Mindfull: A new online mental health service for teens
Tania writes… A new online service for adolescents with mental health problems is being launched today (Friday 5th July 2013). The service at mindfull.org is aimed at young people aged 11 to …
A personal take on depression: Would you recognise it in your child?
Tania writes It’s Depression Awareness Week, although with the state of the economy and the weather, it wouldn’t surprise me if most of the country was painfully aware of feeling …
Teenagers and suicide- a growing challenge for our times
Mental health in adolescents with or without special needs is a growing concern and a particular interest of mine. I found an article on MedPage Today about a survey of …
What’s your experience of CAMHS?
Many of our children have to be referred to CAMHS – The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service – to help manage their behavioural difficulties or perhaps if they are …
