Tag Archives: school

30 Jun

Thoughts from a Therapist: Gear Shift to Secondary

Originally published on Sensory Integration Education on 23 April 2024.

In this month’s Thoughts from a Therapist blog, Anna Willis takes a look at the challenges students with sensory needs face when transitioning from primary school to secondary school and the role therapists can play in helping students navigate their way through this major transition.

In the UK, the transition from primary school (age 4-11 years) to secondary school (11-16 years) is a big leap. Children go from having the same teacher for most of the day to having a different teacher for each subject. They need to find their way around a big, noisy and often confusing environment to get from one lesson to the next and take a lot more responsibility for personal organisation of belongings, homework tasks and schoolwork. Despite this, children often get given less help at this time, rather than more. Often they don’t even get the same level of support (which was already required in a much less challenging environment). 

Recently, speaking to a secondary school, a SENCO reflected that they often tend to take away the metaphorical rubber ring from primary schools and see who sinks and who swims. We reflected that perhaps it might be better to keep the rubber ring in place for this big transition and then gradually see what support can be taken away and what needs to be added in.

I’ve written before in a previous Thoughts from a Therapist blog about the differences I’ve observed between primary and secondary schools. This time, I’d like to focus on what we can do as therapists.

Something I’ve heard a lot about is the need to adapt strategies to secondary school-aged children: “That’s all well and good to have a big squishy fiddle toy/ ear defenders/ resistance band on chair legs in primary school, but what about now?”

At this age, children themselves often become a lot more self-aware (as well as in the upper half of primary school, aged 9 years +) and stop wanting to use the sensory tools that previously served them well. Equally, they can’t cart around a gym ball, wobble cushion and resistance band to put on each chair.

My approach in these situations is twofold. Firstly, find ways to meet the sensory needs that will absolutely still be there if they were there only a few weeks ago in primary school. Adapt this to what is now acceptable to the child. I talk about No Tool Strategies – things that can be done with no equipment. Examples include hand pushes and pulls, pushing down into the chair and arm stretches. All things that can be done in a seat without drawing any attention. I also spend time trawling the internet for age-appropriate fidgets (i.e., strategies that have Tools) that aren’t noisy or bulky, can fit in pencil cases, and don’t look conspicuous. Things like a black chew tube that fits over the top of a pencil, or a pea pod keyring that can attach to a pencil case and looks like a cute charm.

Secondly, I challenge schools to work on their culture. I discuss the concept of Equity versus Equality – making sure that staff and students alike all understand that we all have different needs and we all need different things. Just because one person needs a fidget toy does not mean the whole class has to have them, or that there should be a school-wide ban on them. Fostering a neuroaffirmative culture of acceptance and educating everyone about this is an important second strand here that works towards children with sensory needs being comfortable and able to express themselves. 

So, if you work with secondary schools or offer training where secondary staff attend, do look at adapting things. Obviously this will benefit the children but it’s also vital to get staff on board.

Keep fidgeting!

Anna

Thoughts From a Therapist is a regular series written by Advanced SI Practitioner Anna Willis about something that piqued her professional interest or inspired her in some way over the last month. Anna, an occupational therapist and owner of Active Play Therapies, has over ten years of experience working with children and adults with a range of learning disabilities and autism.

30 Jun

Thoughts From a Therapist: Magic Expectations

Originally published on Sensory Integration Education on 19 December 2023.

In this month’s Thoughts From a Therapist article, Anna Willis, Occupational Therapist and Advanced Practitioner in Sensory Integration, looks at setting expectations at this time of year.

Ah, the festive season is upon us! Everywhere looks different, sometimes smells different and there’s lots of different activities going on. At this time of year in particular, we often have high expectations of making magical memories, only to realise that perhaps all the magic may instead be creating overwhelm. 

For the families we support, often a large part of our role can be helping to reframe expectations. For example, if someone struggles with bright lights all year round, they may not quickly switch gears to enjoying all the sparkly lights at Christmas. 

Equally though, some children surprise us with how they do cope, leaving parents perplexed at why. Usually, the answer is ‘motivation’. Going into a bright supermarket is different from going into a Christmas grotto knowing you’ll get a present! 

Speaking of expectations, I visited a primary school recently who have reflected that their older students tend to regulate really well in the early years (reception, aged 4-5 years old) playground. So, we have been busy planning how to redesign their pastoral outside space with that in mind. 

The school system seems to have an expectation that, after reception, the majority of children quickly lose the need for sensory play and environments tend to reflect that. However, we know that isn’t the case! So we’re introducing a mud kitchen, a swing, loose tyres, water and sand play, and maybe even a floor-level trampoline, so that pupils can continue to access these fabulous sensory activities all the way up to year 6. Next stop will be getting secondary schools on board with a slightly more grown-up version!

I hope you all have the chance to rest and cosy up over this mid-winter break and meet your own sensory needs for comfort.

Warmest regards

Anna Willis

PS You may also be interested in one of our recent Sensory Snapshot blogs which takes a look at what schools need to be doing to become more sensory-friendly. You can read the full blog here.

Thoughts From a Therapist is a regular series written by Advanced SI Practitioner Anna Willis about something that piqued her professional interest or inspired her in some way over the last month. Anna, an occupational therapist and owner of Active Play Therapies, has over ten years of experience working with children and adults with a range of learning disabilities and autism.

30 Jun

Thoughts From a Therapist: An Update on My Autism in Schools Project

Originally published on Sensory Integration Education on 24 May 2022.

Thoughts From a Therapist is a regular series written by Advanced SI Practitioner Anna Willis about something that piqued her professional interest or inspired her in some way over the last month. Anna, an occupational therapist and owner of Active Play Therapies, has over 10 years of experience working with children and adults with a range of learning disabilities and autism. This month, Anna reflects on an Autism in Schools project she is working on: 

I’m halfway through the Autism in Schools project, which I wrote about last month, and it’s been an interesting and eye-opening experience. Before I started the project, I was wondering how I’d manage the demand from schools for support around individual students. As this project is to work at an environmental level with the school rather than individuals, I wondered if there would be a conflict – as typically whenever I go into schools for observations of students, there are multiple other students whom staff want me to see too.

Instead, I’ve been surprised to find that the main things schools have been asking for is support to create sensory friendly environments and ideas for strategies. I’ve had such a fabulous half-term liaising with SENCOs and Inclusion Leads, giving advice on how to create calm spaces and movement spaces, Calm Toolkits and reframing ‘bad behaviour’ as dysregulation.

One challenge is the physical space constraints some schools have. The contrast is stark between schools that have enough space to create new environments and those which are struggling to find room for their pre-existing nurture and pastoral activities. To manage some of this, I’ve been working with mainstream secondary schools on creating a Calm Toolkit that includes discrete calming strategies that can be done with no or minimal sensory equipment within the classroom. This approach has the triple advantage of providing age-appropriate strategies that the students don’t feel self-conscious about; keeping students in their lessons rather than needing to leave for a break; and managing tight demand on space.

Next week is half-term here and I’m setting up a pilot Movement Space in a school – I’m separating ‘calm spaces’ and ‘movement spaces’ as I find it helps create more purposeful use of space and fosters understanding of the different types of regulation children need at different times. I’m off to chop up some foam to make a big crash pad and inflate some inner tubes now – I can’t wait to see the room come together!

30 Jun

Thoughts From a Therapist: The Chasm Between Primary & Secondary Schools

Originally published on Sensory Integration Education on 26 August 2022.

I’ve been reflecting on my time in schools over the summer. As I think lots of us have been, I’ve been shifting away from behaviour based strategies for a while now (such as recommending the use of reward charts, praise, stickers), shifting to a more relationship based approach using curiosity, labelling emotions and collaborating with young people.

What filled me with hope is seeing this being embedded in primary schools (5-11 years), with staff developing trusting relationships with the children in their classes and taking a wider view of ‘behaviour’ to truly see what is being communicated. This was, on the whole, a stark difference to secondary schools (11 -16 years). For young people on the SEN register, accommodations were often made for them so they didn’t have to follow the rest of the school’s behaviour policy. But – I was left feeling that there’s some missing piece here – for those children not on the SEN register but still struggling.

In my cosy therapy bubble world, lots of us have shifted away from behaviour-based strategies to more attuned, nurturing approaches. It was so reassuring to see this in practice in primary schools. But the leap to secondary school entailed things like lining up for uniform checks, walking in silence, ‘no tolerance’ policies with being sent out of classrooms and very strict rules with very little room for flexibility. I was left wondering if this approach is necessary? Perhaps a vital part of growing up and learning to follow rules to be able to be successful in wider society? Or is there some middle ground that we need to find?

Building relationships between staff and students in secondary schools is so much harder. Teachers have hundreds of students they see for 1-2 hour a week, rather than a class teacher that they spend the majority of their time with. I don’t have any answers but I do have questions. Is a culture shift needed here? What would that look like? How quickly can staff establish trusting relationships with young people who are finding it hard to follow the rules?

For those of us specialising in sensory integration, we often see the children who are falling between the gaps. Who may not have any diagnoses but, for a variety of reasons, struggle to keep up and fit in. Maybe increased rule following is just a developmental shift that needs to happen at this age? Or maybe there’s an environmental issue here that could be setting some young people up to fail?

Thoughts From a Therapist is a regular series written by Advanced SI Practitioner Anna Willis about something that piqued her professional interest or inspired her in some way over the last month. Anna, an occupational therapist and owner of Active Play Therapies, has over 10 years of experience working with children and adults with a range of learning disabilities and autism.