SEND: Helping families cope with the stress and anxiety of change

This time of year is often difficult as we leave summer behind and get back to school routines. It always feels hectic as we catch up on meetings, work and those things that got left over the holidays. I’ve certainly been very busy so am delighted to have Jade from The Autism Page guest host this latest SEND Round-up.

Jade is a full time mum to her two boys aged 6 and 4. After her eldest son was diagnosed with autism she began blogging to share information and resources to help other parents. This month she’s highlighting the challenges confronted by SEND families at this time of year and discusses the impact of seasonal change on her autistic son.

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Does change stress out your SEND child?

Whilst many children struggle with change it can be overwhelming for our SEND kids. We all have bad days and some days we would rather forget. The Additional Needs Blog Father tells us of some great examples of these tough days in Life’s Not Fair.  However, while we have difficult days we do get through them and keep going. There are many days we feel like we have no control and are overwhelmed with stress. Hunters Life explores this is in their recent post on control (or lack of it). 

Helping SEND families prepare for school

Similarly, life is full of change as Sensational Learning with Penguin highlights in their post Turn-Turn-Turn.  Often we face changes that we cannot control. Whilst we cannot stop summer turning to winter or our kids having to start school, we can help prepare them for these changes. Starting school is a huge step for our kids and Mummy Est.2014 shares how they have been preparing for school in Big School Preparing to Start Reception. 

Should your child attend a mainstream, specialist or home school?

The Long Chain offers a thought-provoking post about school inclusion and if you should change from mainstream to specialist school in Trailblazing.  Whilst many of us are back to school not all SEND Kids make it back. Steph’s Two Girls post Not Back to School, Not Fine in School discusses how her daughter is not back to school and that there are many SEND families in the same situation.

Making positive changes for SEND children

Change is not always bad and we have some great examples of positive change from our SEND bloggers this month. Rainbows are too Beautiful’s talks about how for the first time in his life, her son didn’t cry about going back to school.  This a great example of positive change. Changing her son’s environment has made a great improvement to his mental health.

Martha Smith Parent Advocate talks about how our children change and develop over time in Ten. Purple. Hippo.  Whilst Faith Mummy changes the way she looks at learning difficulties following an insightful conversation with her daughter. 

For our SEND families Autumn is often full of change some challenging and others positive. Thankfully the challenging changes that we struggle with are brightened up by the joy of our positive changes.