SAMPLE PAGES copy of Fagus Interventions guide

If you would like to receive a FREE full copy of this guide please sign up via the Fagus website www.fagus.org.uk

Finding the right intervention

By Alastair Lidster and Becci Best

Contents Introduction

4

Essential Foundations

6-27

•

Unconditional Positive Regard

10

•

Authority

16

•

Excellent Teaching

20

•

Teamwork

24

Interventions Chart

2

28

•

Using the Chart

29

•

Terminology

31

•

Linking to the Guides

34

1.

Supporting regulation throughout the day

36

2.

Supporting children to understand and communicate their emotional experience

40

3.

Developing awareness and understanding of effective coping and stress management strategies

46

4.

Developing social skills

54

5.

Promoting positive relationships with peers

58

6.

Developing social understanding and increasing empathy

62

7.

Increasing motivation

68

Contents (cont’d) 8.

Supporting the child to notice their strengths and build resilience

70

9.

Developing interactions and relationships with adults to support development

74

10. Developing joint attention and play skills

78

11. Developing language skills

82

12. Other Interventions

86

a.

Developing motivation for independent tasks

87

b.

Supporting transitions

87

c.

Providing alternative learning experiences

88

References and Useful Information

3

89

Introduction Fagus was developed to help monitor progress and set goals. However, Fagus users sometimes ask us what they

should do in response to a certain profile or a developmental need that Fagus has helped identify. The following guide aims to address those questions.

We know that adults’ day to day interactions with children make a difference. These interactions influence how children understand themselves, their relationships and the community they are in. Teachers are expected to

deliver good quality teaching before providing an intervention to address a learning difficulty because we know that excellent teaching makes a positive difference to children with Special Educational Needs. Similarly, adults should ensure they provide what we could call “quality first interaction” with children as the bedrock of children’s social and emotional development. Our first section, Essential Foundations, covers this in some detail.

Sometimes more targeted work is needed to teach skills and enhance development. There are a growing range of interventions that professionals can draw on in their work with children. The main body of this guide describes approaches you could use, how they relate to a broad concern you may have and how they relate to the Fagus guides (and so to a child’s development). This section links to further reading online or the web page representing the approach we have described so you can easily access and apply it.

4

This is a working document. We will review and add to it to improve the range of approaches it describes. We hope you will help this process by providing feedback on what has worked well for you and by suggesting approaches that we have not yet included.

We hope you find this information useful and that it helps you to use Fagus effectively with the children and young people you work with.

5

Essential foundations The chart contained within this document describes a wide range of approaches that can be intelligently used with children who have social, emotional and mental health needs. By that we mean that their use must be informed by assessment, planned carefully and actively reviewed.

Review is the first step in planning what to do next. It informs teachers’ and teaching assistants’ decisions and practice. Even when planning a first intervention for a child, teachers will consider what they already know about

that child.

None of the approaches we have described will work to their full effect without the child’s experience being one of minute by minute good practice. This serves as the foundation on which all other work is built. Without this foundation many interventions will not work at all and some may even make the situation worse by adding to the child's confusion and uncertainty.

6

So, what does social, emotional and mental health good practice look like in classrooms and playgrounds?

We have organised our points into four areas:

7

•

Unconditional Positive Regard

•

Excellent Teaching

•

Authority

•

Teamwork

Authority

8

Authority Authority, as distinct from aggression or anger, is essential if adults are to maintain control and provide support for children in schools and classrooms.

Authority is entirely compatible with a relational approach to children.

It allows clear thinking, effective teaching and a thoughtful response to children’s needs.

While authority is not in itself control, it conveys control. Authority creates the space in which adults can be flexible in their response and make clear decisions. We take it for granted now that children require a differentiated learning experience to bridge from where their learning currently is to where the teacher would like their learning to be at the end of a lesson. Similarly, children require a differentiated response to how they behave in class. Children are not helped by a one size fits all approach, but they are helped by a sense that adults are in control.

Adults are often concerned that this is unfair or that other children will notice different reactions to a child’s behaviour and take advantage of it. In fact, children know who finds life at school easy and difficult and they can understand adult efforts to make things fair. They recognise that a lift in a school addresses one inequality for a

9

wheelchair user and, sometimes with the help of an explanation, understand why different people need different means of access. Adults may need to explain why they have different expectations of different children but will generally find that children will readily accept their approach. This becomes possible when

strong values guide practice to make it appropriate for every child.

Adults need to maintain authority over themselves as well as those in their care. In this respect, authority is the process of ensuring the influence of the conscious, cognitive thought is greater than that of unconscious or emotional thinking. Powerful emotions, such as anger or shame, undermine our capacity to think clearly and can trigger conscious and unconscious memories of our own experience which magnify negative thoughts and feelings.

10

Authority involves: •

Consistently held values which influence thought and action

•

Appropriate expectations, clearly conveyed to children

•

Maintaining a positive and respectful emotional tone when managing behaviour

•

Using reasoned persuasion rather than coercion or shouting

•

Excellent management of classroom processes (i.e. starting and finishing lessons on time, fluent knowledge of procedure etc.)

•

A non-threatening and yet assertive presence in the classroom and school

•

Where necessary, sanctioning the behaviour, not the child and never inducing shame

•

Confidence built on professional skills and knowledge

11

Interventions Chart

12

Using the chart Fagus was developed to help monitor progress and set goals. However, Fagus users sometimes ask us what they should do in response to a certain profile or a developmental need that Fagus has helped identify. Fagus helps us to think carefully and deeply about an individual child and the situation they are in. It is vital to avoid routine practice in which we respond to similar presentations in the same way every time. Conversely, it is important to recognise the range of positive effects many approaches can have.

Fagus guides the user from a broad sense of a child’s social and emotional needs toward a more detailed understanding which is described in terms of specific aspects of social and emotional development. The process is unique to each child because it brings together knowledge of child development with the adult’s knowledge of the individual child and their circumstances. Users will also want to include knowledge of the setting the child is in when selecting interventions to ensure they have the necessary resources to implement the approach. We hope the framework will help users to consider a variety range of approaches before making a selection.

13

We hope it will help users to:

•

Become aware of the wide range of approaches and actions they can take to support

children’s social and emotional development •

Select a helpful intervention following the use of the Fagus checklists

Understanding of the individual child

+ Knowledge of Child Development

14

Knowledge of the setting and its resources

=

The approach you use

15

1

Supporting regulation throughout the day Regular, scheduled opportunities for regulating activities

Most relevant Fagus Guides:

16

•

Coping

•

Self-Control

1. Supporting regulation throughout the day

Fagus Guides: Coping, Self Control Specific Approaches

Bruce Perry’s 6 R’s approach to regulation

Resources/Further Info

Bruce Perry recommends that for an activity to be regulating it should include the 6 Rs: •

Relational

•

Relevant

•

Repetitive,

•

Rewarding

•

Rhythmic

•

Respectful.

See links: The 6 R’s of Healing Brain Stem Calmers (Beacon House Resources) Lakeside 6 R’s Adoption Learning Partners: Rhythm Regulates the Brain

“Regulation Stations”

An area in the classroom that has displays and activities which support emotional regulation. These cue children to use taught strategies (ie: breathing exercises) and provide sensory or fidget toys

17

1. Supporting regulation throughout the day

Fagus Guides: Coping, Self Control Specific Approaches

Mindfulness

Resources/Further Info Mindfulness means knowing directly what is going on inside and outside ourselves,

moment by moment. (Definition from Professor Mark Williams, former director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre) For a more detailed definition on Mindfulness see: NHS Mindfulness One minute meditations for both adults and children Mindfulness: A guide to finding peace in a frantic world- Mark Williams & Danny Penman Zen Den - Mindfulness for kids- Youtube video Mindfulness Apps: Headspace, Smiling Mind, Calm

Quiet the Mind by Matthew Johnstone (book) Sitting Still Like a Frog- Eline Snel (book) Mind up or .B programmes Class Dojo website

Mindfulness Ninja (Spotify) Go Noodle Mindfulness videos 18

1. Supporting regulation throughout the day

Fagus Guides: Coping, Self Control Specific Approaches

Theraplay ÂŽ

Resources/Further Info Theraplay is a child and family therapy for building and enhancing attachment, self-

esteem, trust in others, and joyful engagement. It is based on the natural patterns of playful, healthy interaction between parent and child and is personal, physical, and fun.

Theraplay interactions focus on four essential qualities found in parent-child relationships: Structure, Engagement, Nurture, and Challenge.

Ideas and activities based upon Theraplay can be built in throughout the school day (lists of activities available online) See Link: Theraplay

Box of calming activities

Accessed first with the support of an adult, building to independent use (i.e. coregulation developing into self-regulation).

For support in creating a calming box, see: A Therapeutic Treasure Box for Working with Children with Developmental Trauma (Karen Treisman)

Therapeutic Treasure Deck of Calming, Regulating and Soothing Cards (Karen Treisman) Brain Stem Calmers (Beacon House) 19

If you would like to receive a FREE full copy of this guide please sign up via the Fagus website www.fagus.org.uk This is a Beech Lodge School Production Beech Lodge School Stubbings Lane, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 6QL

T: 01628 879384 W: www.beechlodgeschool.co.uk

Noun: Latin Fāgus (“beech”)

- The Tree of Learning

E: info@beechlodgeschool.co.uk Follow Us: @beechlodge @beechlodgeschool

© Copyright Beech Lodge School Ltd. All photographs used in this document are pupils and staff and are the property of Beech Lodge School and must not be used without permission

20