Early Years SEN

Fantastic post. All of this. The wiring matters.

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It sounds dramatic, but it's the plain & simple truth. PLEASE READ.

When we talk about the challenges we are seeing in early childhood, delays, sensory seeking or sensory avoidance, difficulty cooperating, regulation struggles, trouble following directions, weak frustration tolerance, limited focus, difficulty initiating and sustaining play, we have to be honest about what has changed.

Children are not playing the way they once did. Not in the volume, the depth, or the intensity their developing brains and bodies require.

In infancy, movement is increasingly contained. Walkers, bouncers, seats, swings, activity centers. A baby who should be rolling, pivoting, pushing, crawling, and coordinating both sides of the body is often propped and positioned. Those early months are when the sensory systems are wiring rapidly. The vestibular system, which supports balance and spatial orientation. The proprioceptive system, which gives the brain information about joint position, force, and body awareness. The tactile system, which shapes body boundaries and emotional security. These systems build the foundation for regulation, attention, motor planning, and executive function. When whole body movement is limited, that foundation is weaker.

Then toddlerhood arrives, and we increase expectations for sitting, waiting, table tasks, prolonged circle time. When toddlers do run, climb, or explore, they are often met with constant correction. Be careful. Too high. Not like that. You will fall. Go play over there. Use it this way. The child who has already had limited sensory freedom now has limited autonomy. Instead of expansive movement and experimentation, they receive redirection and containment.

By preschool, the expectations intensify. More structured days. More controlled behavior. Often more extracurriculars layered on top of already full schedules. All of this unfolds alongside a significant rise in screen exposure, which again keeps the body still and quiet while reducing real world sensory input.

We have slowly and systematically reduced authentic play. And whatever remains, we tend to manage and direct.

Children need to run, climb, jump, swing, roll, carry, push, pull, fall, and get back up. These experiences stimulate the brainstem and cerebellum, which are critical for balance, coordination, and automaticity. They strengthen neural pathways that later support focus, working memory, impulse control, and academic learning. Physical play is not separate from cognition. It is a prerequisite.

But children also need creative autonomy. They need to invent storylines, negotiate roles, build structures, solve problems that do not have predetermined answers, tolerate frustration, and try again. When adults constantly hover, correct, or script the experience, it may look like play, but it functions more like a controlled activity. True play requires ownership.

Extracurriculars have a place when children are developmentally ready and genuinely interested. But they cannot replace daily unstructured time. A child’s day is already heavily organized. Without protected space for free, child led exploration, there is almost no opportunity for the kind of deep play that wires flexibility, resilience, and independent thinking.

Across intelligent species, play is a biological drive. Rough and tumble play calibrates force and builds social awareness. Risky outdoor play strengthens motor planning and emotional regulation. Highly sensory play integrates the nervous system. These experiences refine the connections between lower brain structures and the prefrontal cortex, the area responsible for reasoning, decision making, and self control.

We have taken over childhood in ways that feel productive and protective, often with the best of intentions. But intention does not erase impact. When expectations do not align with development, children are labeled, shamed, diagnosed, and sometimes medicated for behaviors that are, in many cases, adaptive responses to environments that do not meet their biological needs.

Of course some children require intervention and targeted support. That is real. But there are also many preventable circumstances rooted in environment, not pathology.

If we do not speak to this with urgency, the cycle will continue. Play in early childhood cannot simply be valued in theory. It must be fiercely protected in practice.

I was working today at a particularly wonderful setting where the staff are on a never-ending mission to improve their SEND support for their children year on year. This year they have been supporting a number of children they identified with speech and language development needs, and have been working on not only helping the verbal, listening and communicative aspects but also lots of sensory play for feet to boost the sensory cortex and balance/coordination skills which play a part in listening and speaking.

Today a child who was having difficulty putting two words together with significant sound clarity challenges in September had chosen to spend much of the session exploring in a truly wonderful foot sensory circuit the team had set up, in which he'd enjoyed all the varied activities. Towards the end of the session, he excitedly showed me a picture and told me slowly but distinctly with all the sounds, 'it's a beautiful butterfly!'.

I love my job. 💕 Getting to see these moments of huge child, staff and parent success together is a joy.

Last chance to book onto the First Aid for Behaviour training in Northampton on the 30th January 9.30-12.30

If you're looking for a way to help your team become more confident with managing behaviour needs, and managing the consistency together that they need, this is for you. Take away a resource book that will help you draw up an effective plan for a child in need.

Tickets are available here

First Aid for Behaviour Training Get hands-on tips to tackle challenging behavior and make a positive impact in real-time!

First Aid for Behaviour Training Get hands-on tips to tackle challenging behavior and make a positive impact in real-time!

First Aid for Behaviour Learn quick tips to handle tricky behaviors and keep cool in real-life situations—first aid for your mind!

Tickets for the Childminder friendly Saturday First Aid for Behaviour training are now on sale!

This training involves you taking away a resource book with you that will support you in analysing what you can observe in behaviours, identifying underlying and unmet needs, using the strategies and resources to meet those presenting needs, and putting together a support plan to help your child.

I will be delivering this training on Saturday February 28th, 9.30-12.30 at Lodge Farm Community Centre in Northampton, and I look forward to seeing you there!

First Aid for Behaviour Learn quick tips to handle tricky behaviors and keep cool in real-life situations—first aid for your mind!

There are still some places left on the First Aid for Behaviour Training which I will be delivering in Northampton on the 30th January!

This resource was written when room leaders and SENDCos asked me, often, how they helped their staff with confidence in meeting behaviour needs, analysing and understanding them, finding the right activities to help the child move forward, and in helping the team achieve the consistency the child needed.

This resource also aims to provide teams with a thorough first response to behaviour needs that leads to a quality behaviour plan you can track the progress of, and gather evidence as needed if the child and their family is likely to need the help of outside agencies and referrals.

Tickets available here!

First Aid for Behaviour Training Get hands-on tips to tackle challenging behavior and make a positive impact in real-time!

I've heard many Early Years practitioners say lately that they would really like some support for themselves and their teams in understanding and meeting behaviour needs. So here you go! I will be delivering this First Aid for Behaviour Training on the 30th January 9.30-12.30 at
Lodge Farm Community Centre Crestwood Road
Northampton
Northamptonshire
NN3 8JJ.

This 3 hour training is designed to support Early Years SENDCos, managers, room leaders and practitioners with assessing and planning for challenging behaviour, to identify and understand underlying and unmet needs, and to create plans to support the behaviour. It includes a resource book to take away with photocopiable tools, and is particularly intended to support staff teams in building up their confidence and consistency with behaviour support.

Cost of training: £35 including the resource book
15 places are available

Tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/first-aid-for-behaviour-training-tickets-1979867351545?aff=oddtdtcreator

Childminders - I am aware this is a very difficult time of the day and week for you and will be looking at offering a Saturday morning training in February which I hope will be more accessible!

I look forward to seeing you there.

First Aid for Behaviour Training

Love these ideas!

Being able to pull/push and manage the co ordination with hands and whole body to put shoes and socks on does so much for little ones: their balance and their attention to name just two really important ones!

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Before expecting toddlers to get dressed independently, I build the skills underneath it. Strong hands. Two hands working together. Pulling, scrunching, stabilizing, and coordinating movements through play first, then we apply it to clothes. If getting dressed feels hard right now, you’re not behind. Dressing isn’t one skill, and it doesn’t happen overnight. Break it down, practice through play, and confidence will follow. 👉 Save this for later and tell me in the comments: Does your toddler help with dressing yet, or not at all? Follow for more OT-approved toddler tips 💛

Love this, especially the 'space without abandonment'. Sometimes the most calming thing anyone can do for someone struggling to regulate is to stop talking and just be there for them. With the time and patience to let things take as long as they take, and the sort of personal space your person prefers.

Sometimes what looks like chaos is simply a nervous system asking for help. Big emotions are not a failure of character or a lack of effort. They are signals of overwhelm, fear, or unmet needs. When a child escalates, they are not choosing to be difficult. They are showing us the limits of their current capacity. In those moments, calm is not taught through control but through presence. Regulation is borrowed before it is learned.

Gentle de escalation reminds us that safety comes before lessons, rules, or explanations. A lowered voice, a slower movement, a simple acknowledgment of feelings can do more than long speeches ever could. When demands are reduced and space is offered without abandonment, the child’s body begins to understand that the storm will pass and that they are not alone inside it. Trust grows not from compliance but from being met with dignity when things feel hardest.

After the storm, connection becomes the bridge back to learning and growth. Repair is where meaning is made. It is in these quiet moments of reconnection that children learn something far deeper than behavior. They learn that emotions are survivable, that relationships are steady, and that they are worthy of care even when they struggle. Gentle de escalation is not just a strategy. It is a philosophy of seeing behavior as communication and responding with humanity first.

Perfectly expressed!