I think it’s fair to say that being a special needs educator is a special calling. It’s not something most people think they’re going to be when they grow up. For many, it’s something that they realise over time, and then grow into. This could be due to their personal experiences with family members who have special needs, especially children. This could also be due to a deep desire to work with and help people who need the extra care and consideration.
Play is often seen as something fun for children to do, or something to keep children distracted. What often gets ignored is that play also serves an important purpose in a child’s development. It’s the primary way children first learn about their world, and also how they learn about the learning process. By playing with toys, with other children, with adults, children experiment, try new things, learn what to do and what not to do, what’s acceptable and isn’t. They learn about boundaries, socialisation, and develop communication skills.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a disorder that affects up to 11% of children between the ages of 4 – 17 years old and is more common than many people believe. While some people may see this as a disorder that just affects children, at least 4% of adults have been diagnosed with ADHD. It is believed that many more adults have simply not been diagnosed as diagnosis for ADHD was not as common in the past. ADHD is best diagnosed early, sometimes as young as 4 years old, so the child can receive the support they need to manage it. Simply waiting for it to improve or disappear over time will likely just mean the child grows up having to deal with their issues by themselves.
Play Therapy is an intervention strategy to help children safely communicate and express their feelings and thoughts naturally in order to deal with trauma, loss, delayed development, and other developmental and social issues. Play therapy is fun, free-flowing, non-directed, and effective. Play therapy allows people who are experiencing emotional or behavioural issues to open up their emotions in the safe space of the ‘playroom’, where they are allowed to face their thoughts and emotions nonverbally.
There is a tendency for people to assume that a child with poor attention span and an inability to focus has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s easy to see why people may automatically jump to this conclusion.
The holidays may be a very rough, chaotic time for children with special needs. There are a lot of non-routine activities happening all around them all at once, with familiar and unfamiliar friends and families showing up. For many children with special needs, this can be excess stimuli.
When you first find out that your child is diagnosed with special needs, a series of roller coaster emotions and worries can be expected. Panic might set in. How will I cope with this? Am I prepared to support my child’s development?
Play Therapy is a form of psychotherapy and counselling that uses play in a non-directed method to allow the Child to lead therapy sessions. This process reveals and reflect the child’s behaviour back in such a way that the child can confront their own behaviour, giving the therapist a powerful diagnostic tool to determine the cause for any issues.
Play therapy allows children and people who are experiencing emotional or behavioural issues to open up their emotions in the safe space of the ‘playroom’, where they are allowed to face their thoughts and emotions nonverbally. It is cited as one of the most effective treatments for children suffering from trauma or PTSD; with a number of articles and papers written about its efficacy.
Some of the benefits of Play Therapy include:
Helping children learn to develop a better sense of their abilities and increasing their confidence.
Helping children develop creative problem solving abilities.
Helping children learn about empathy and respect for feelings of others by giving them space to get in touch with their own thoughts and feelings.
PTUK’s Research has found Play Therapy to be an effective therapeutic approach for children.
Parents also reported pronounced improvements to their children’s emotional outlook, better overall conduct, and improved relationships with their peers.
College of Allied Educators offers the Postgraduate Certificate in Therapeutic Play Skills, training participants to effectively use therapeutic play skills to provide emotional and psychological support to children.
Children who suffer from communications disorders suffer emotional and social effects that may be a huge quality of life issue for them. Speech therapy is used to help improve your child or your students’ ability to communicate. Spoken communications is incredibly important to the development of the child, allowing them to express their emotions, needs, and thoughts.
Each of us have different handwriting styles. Some are neat while others are sloppy and misaligned, yet still remain legible. It is when the handwriting is illegible that you must take special note. Children who have trouble expressing themselves in writing may have a condition known as ‘Dysgraphia’. The term comes from the Greek words dys, which means “impaired”, and graphia, meaning “writing letter by hand”.
