In classrooms up and down the land *we have all seen young children working hard to express themselves, we have seen them working hard to understand what is being asked of them and we have seen them working hard to maintain their attention on the task at hand, we see children in the playground working hard to make and maintain friendships and we know how hard this work is for some children.
With an ever-growing body of evidence suggesting high and increasing levels of mental health difficulties in children, alongside the significant majority of children with clinical levels of mental health need not being seen by mental health services, schools are under increasing pressure to provide mental health support themselves.
I started working at Market Field School as an LSA when I was 17 with no awareness of what I was walking in to. I had no knowledge of SEND and the only experience I had of ‘mental health difficulties’ were my own.
Evidence shows that across the UK, mental health issues in children are increasing while child wellbeing is deteriorating as children today are having to navigate a complex and ever-changing world, facing challenges and pressures in numerous aspects of their life.
Jules Whicher, winner of the Communication Champion of the Year Award and the overall winner of the Pearson Outstanding Achievement Award at the 2019 Shine a Light Awards, outlines what communication means to her.
'For ten years we’ve been trying to get our son to understand that 3+2=5. I'm so relieved that he finally knows it and doesn't count it up' is the response I got from a very relieved parent of a teenager diagnosed with Dyscalculia.
Following on from my previous post, part 1 of 'Why can’t my child excel and have a difficulty/disability at the same time?' where we explored what Dual Multiple Exceptionality (DME) and identification was. As a continuation, this post will consider case studies and reflective questions for practitioners on DME.
Bercow: Ten Years On is a national, independent review of the state of provision for children and young people’s speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) in England being led by I CAN and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapist.
