Solutions Educational Psychology

09/09/2022

21/12/2021

13/10/2021

10/10/2021

This week’s £20-a-week cut to Universal Credit will further exacerbate the feeling of instability that many families already face.

That’s why we’re calling on the government to reverse this decision this World Mental Health Day.

👉 https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/mental-health-unequal-world-impact-universal-credit-cut

10/10/2021

If you have concerns about your child's SEN support, Hertfordshire Sendiass is an independent service providing accurate and confidential advice to parents and carers. You can call for advice on 01992 555847 (Mon-Thurs 9:30am-3pm Fri 9:30am-2pm) https://hertssendiass.org.uk/home.aspx

10/10/2021

Today is world mental health day. It’s OK not to be OK. Please find a list of services below that you could reach out to if you are in need. And don’t forget you can still call 999 or go to A and E if you or your child are having a mental health emergency.

Samaritans - https://www.samaritans.org

CALM - https://www.thecalmzone.net

Youg Minds - https://www.youngminds.org.uk

Kooth - https://www.kooth.com

NSPCC - https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/childrens-mental-health/

Togetherall - https://togetherall.com/en-gb/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhqmDibC_8wIVV6jVCh1npw79EAAYASAAEgKKZ_D_BwE

See also a list of apps supported by the NHS - https://www.nhs.uk/apps-library/category/mental-health/

10/09/2021

If you are interested in becoming an EP Essex County Council are holding an open evening event to find out more about what an EP does:

'A Week in the Life of an Educational Psychologist in Essex'

07/07/2021

If you are worried about your child's emotional wellbeing and how this might be affecting their learning, the educational psychology advice line is open Wednesdays, 2pm - 4.30pm. It's an opportunity for you to get advice and discuss your concerns. Tel: 01992 588 574

30/06/2021

If you are interested in a career in Educational Psychology this might be of interest… 🧠

20/06/2021

☀️ Holding space is just that -- allowing what's beneath the surface to come into the light. To look at it for what it is -- to name it, process it, and release it. ☀️⁠

Children's behavior is an attempt to express and process all that is going on beneath the surface. To act on root needs, emotions, and impulses.

💫 Knowing what is beneath the behavior can help us have more empathy for our children's behavior -- when they have a meltdown we know it is them trying to express all of those feelings underneath. ⁠So, instead of trying to "control" that "behavior", we can empathize with their emotions and their needs.
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💫 We can also set limits on the behavior while ALSO holding space for what is underneath the behavior. ⁠
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Here is an example of what you might say to a child who is angry and lashing out (of course with pauses to hear what your child says to you):⁠
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"It is not okay to hit; I will help you stop hitting. When you hold your fists like that and scream it looks like you feel angry. Is that how you feel? It is okay to feel angry. Tell me how you feel." ⁠
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The amazing thing is that when you start to accept the emotion (and you stop trying to change or avoid it) you are giving them two things:⁠
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🌀 A way to define and express what they feel. ⁠
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🌀 Acknowledgment of how they feel. ⁠
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When children truly feel that acceptance, the need for some of these behavioral expressions starts to dissipate. With time and consistency, flexible emotion regulation skills develop.
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I go into much more detail about this (with real-world examples) here -- >>> https://nurtureandthriveblog.com/emotion-regulation-holding-space-kids/

20/06/2021

I'm spending the week posting about Autism and girls - because it can look very different and because it is often missed and because that can cause a whole lot problems for girls on the spectrum who often end up undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.

The issue is that nearly all the early research into ASD focused solely on boys - so we ended up with a good understanding of what it looked like in boys and then since we didn't see the same thing in a whole lot of girls everyone assumed that hardly any girls were on the spectrum.

More recent research suggests that it's not that hardly any girls are on the spectrum, it's that if you use criteria that were developed just from studying boys on the spectrum, you're missing a lot of information!

As a result, there's lots of checklists for ASD traits that were developed from researching males, and very little widely available on how else ASD might show up. So here's a check-list that looks at a different ASD presentation. I didn't make it (and I'm not sure who did) but I think it's time this information was more widely shared and understood.

NOTE: A checklist is not a diagnosis! There's lots of other explanation for many ASD traits (in all genders) - especially developmental trauma. If you are worried about someone and they seem to fit a lot of the criteria in this check-list, that means it's worth talking to a professional about it, not that they definitely have ASD.

Download the PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fLQM-871yLOJL-zFdkCYqxZYqcAEqfFo/view?usp=sharing