Most children are educated in school and so Teaching staff are likely to encounter children and young people with a range of social, emotional (anxiety, low mood, anger and so on) and behavioural difficulties which will impact on their behaviour in the classroom and their ability to learn.
At the Cherrycroft Practice we work with young people and their networks experiencing these sorts of problems.
Services
Consultations
Consultations are a good way of reflecting on and gaining a better understanding of children and young people’s difficulties and functioning. There are several types of consultation packages:
- One-off consultations
- Ad hoc consultations
- Monthly consultation sessions for professionals or parents to consider the needs of children or young people and how to manage problem behaviours and difficulties
The topic of the consultations could range from how to deal with an anxious child in the classroom to how to deal with attachment difficulties in the classroom. Sometimes the difficulties that children and young people present with do not respond to the usual behaviour management strategies and if they have a difficult early history within their birth families it may be that they have attachment difficulties. Children and young people with attachment difficulties often need specialist understanding and strategies in the classroom in order to support their learning and behaviour in the classroom.
Training
Training can be one-off workshops on a particular topic, a block of workshops or a particular course. Topics include:
- Coping with anxiety and low mood in the classroom
- Building self-esteem and resilience
- Introduction to complex trauma/attachment difficulties (for professionals and carers/parents)
- 12 week attachment-based parenting course for kinship carers and foster carers
- How to manage young people with attachment difficulties in school
- Dealing with anger and aggressive behaviour
- Anxiety and attachment difficulties
Assessment
It can be useful to gain an understanding of a child/young person’s functioning and strategies to manage concerns or difficult behaviour. The shape of the assessment depends on what is needed, but they typically include
- Session with the parent/foster carer/residential key worker
- Sessions with the child/young person
- A family session (if applicable)
- Questionnaire measures
- Reading of background documents (if applicable)
- Professionals meeting (for Children in Care)
- Report
Therapeutic packages
There are a number of different ways in which children/young people and their families can be supported therapeutically, including:
- Parent support sessions: where parents can seek advice and management strategies for difficulties
- Parent-child sessions – sometimes parents and their children need some support in communicating with each other
- Attachment-based parent-child sessions which are more specialist sessions for parents and children who are having problems with bonding and attachment
- Therapy for the child or young person – the length and frequency of these depends on the difficulties. Sometimes families require one-off sessions while they are waiting for CAMHS or therapy can be weekly until the problem is resolved
Therapeutic packages may consist of one or more the types of therapeutic support listed above, depending on the needs of the child or young person and their family.