Nikki Preston Educational Psychologist

We’ve been gifted Julia Donaldson’s books over the last two years for my son’s birthday and have built up a little collection.

Her books are a firm favourite in our house. I’m now starting to use them with the kiddies I see to foster important skills like language development, creativity, and emotional understanding.

My personal favorites include:

📚The Gruffalo
📚The Gruffalo’s Child
📚Snail and the Whale
📚 A Squash and a Squeeze
📚Stick Man
📚The Smartest Giant in Town
📚The Go-Away Bird
📚Welcome to the World (my absolute fave!)
📚Monkey Puzzle
📚Day Monkey, Night Monkey
📚Super Worm

Her rhymes and repetition make language fun and accessible, her characters capture children’s imaginations, and the emotional themes in her stories—like friendship, bravery, perspective-taking, theory of mind and empathy—are so useful for social skill development.

What’s your favourite Julia Donaldson book?

The idea of connection before correction aims at shaping positive behaviours from a preventative stance. Approaching parenting from a curious and compassionate perspective helps us aim to create safety and security during dysregulated times, rather than punishing it. We want to try encourage the behaviours we want to see, rather than highlight the negative ones… watering the flowers, not the weeds.

Studies have shown the positive impact BDNF has on children’s’ availability for learning and development.

In the classroom: Movement breaks are more powerful than just jumping their sillies out. 5 minutes of intense gross motor before academic activities will boost their working memory and concentration.

Does anyone else relate? 🤣😅🤪😍

Anxiety, inattention, and auditory processing often go hand in hand, or can look fairly similar within a classroom setting. This makes it difficult to pinpoint the cause of struggles for some children. Detangling the interplay between these factors often can indicate the interventions required to facilitate learning and development

Society often creates such unattainable or contradictory expectations. Sometimes the most useful thing we can do is filter out the noise and focus on our parental instincts.

In a world full of noise and warped expectations, I’m constantly inspired by the love and advocacy I see from parents. Moms and dads who, despite the pressures, are pushing back and making decisions that truly serve their children’s best interests.

Across different parenting styles and approaches, one thing is clear: everyone is trying their best. I see it personally, I see it professionally, and it’s nothing short of brilliant.

To all the parents out there—thank you. You are doing amazing work, and it shows in the love and care you give your children.

Simple strategies for teachers to support students with ADHD ADHD can make it difficult for students to focus, stay organised, and control their impulses, which can impact their learning.

Join our WhatsApp community of like-minded parents. This group is a safe space for parents of neurodivergent children to connect, share experiences, and support one another. You're not in this alone!
https://chat.whatsapp.com/BQCUBR43acY0fU9A0IuUfS

In most cases anxiety is a functional human response to stress. It serves an evolutionary purpose to protect us. It helps kickstart us into gear to “survive” or cope with a situation. It doesn’t always have to be thought of as problematic.

Anxiety becomes a dysfunctional when it is disproportionate to the trigger, persistent or ongoing, consistent worry or fear, interferes with day to day life, feels impossible to manage, physiological symptoms become too difficult to control.

Research is showing us that anxiety is often genetic and is life long. But management and coping strategies are effective when accessible.