Childhood Development & Additional Needs

• Home
• Childhood Development & Additional Needs
• Behaviour & Sleep

• Understanding Your Child
• Behaviours That Challenge
• Online Solihull Parenting Programme
• Positive Behaviour Support (PBS)
• Looking After Yourself

• Knowing more about how children develop emotionally, and how this affects their behaviour can make it easier to understand what a child’s actions tell you about how they feel.

  All behaviour has a purpose. It is a way of communicating needs and feelings, although it is not always easy to work out what that purpose is;

  • Watch out for patterns in the behaviour (keep a ‘behaviour diary’) – what do you notice makes things worse or better?
  • Try and predict situations and experiences that are triggers for your child. Avoid or distract if you can.

   

   

• When feelings affect behaviour all children will benefit from a calm and kind response;

  • Try and help them name the feelings that come with the behaviour; ‘I can see you are feeling angry / scared/ frustrated.’
  • Keep your own voice low and calm. Try and keep your breathing slow and steady.
  • Be patient and realistic – if your child is not managing a situation it is OK for you all to leave. You and your child have done well to give it a go. 
  • Choose a few rules that are important to keep your child and others safe. Having lots of rules can mean more conflict and be confusing for your child.
  • Try and keep to routines and family rules – most children and especially those with behavioural difficulties feel more secure when every day has an expected pattern.

  Your child may struggle to understand the ‘rules’ of playing and socialising with others it can be hard to see them making mistakes and being misunderstood. Give your child lots of ‘practice’ to help them learn how to join in.

  • Try and give your child the opportunity to watch other children and spend time with them. You may have to start very slowly – like watching children from a distance – you could walk by the park to begin with. Talk about what the children are doing.
  • Make your own story books using photos of familiar people and places. Use feelings words when you talk about them; ‘You are excited when you see Grandad’ or ‘You sometimes get cross when you have to share with your cousin.’ 
  • When with other children and young people keep watch for signs that your child is feeling overwhelmed and might start to act out. Giving your child the chance to take a few minutes break to calm down you might be able to avoid your child becoming distressed.

  There may be times when the stress gets to you – this is not surprising. If you feel your own frustration building ask someone to take over. If you are on your own make sure your child is safe, then give yourself a few moments of head space to allow yourself to feel calmer again.

• Dealing with difficult behaviour can affect your confidence as a parent. Understanding more about the roots of behaviour and how you can support your child can help. All professionals working with children in Norfolk are offered this training too.

  As well as understanding development the Solihull course talks about, play, styles of parenting, sleep, temper tantrums and communication. Learning is split into 4 sections:

  • Understanding your child
  • Understanding your baby
  • Understanding pregnancy, labour, birth and your baby
  • Teenage brain

  *Click here* to sign up and complete the course for free.

• Families who have been referred to a specialist team for assessment of their child’s additional needs may be signposted to the Positive Behaviour Course which is run by Family Action in Norfolk.

  In response to the COVID-19 outbreak this programme has been amended and offered online *here*. Although intended for families awaiting assessment and possibly diagnosis the strategies can be used with any child with additional needs.

• It can be exhausting supporting a child with behaviour difficulties.

  • Some days you will have more energy than others.
  • Take any moments you can to rest or relax – it might be 5 minutes looking at a magazine or try some relaxation exercises. There are some NHS audio guides *here*.
  • Support groups where you can talk with parents facing similar challenges can be helpful. There is advice on finding a suitable group *here*.

  Ask friends and family for help if you can. Sometimes others do not feel able to help with your child because of their extra needs, this can be hard. Ask them for help with other things like cooking, laundry and shopping. This can at least take some of the pressure off you to manage everything.

   

Need More Information?

Other Useful Pages

Scroll to previous cta

• 

  Parental Wellbeing

• 

  Older Child's Sleep

• 

  Anger

• 

  Baby's Sleep

Scroll to next cta