Mental Wealth Festival, London, 2016, featuring Ruby Wax, and Alastair Darling.
Tag: Mental Health
SEND magazine – November issue
In this latest issue of the SEND magazine there are articles on Girls with Autism Spectrum, and Mental Health in children with SEND.
https://issuu.com/sendmagazine/docs/send_november_2016_v04_digital
Mental Health – Who are the children?
In this briefing paper, Barry Carpenter looks at who are the children whose mental health are particularly vulnerable, and discusses how the creation of a curriculum around Emotional Well Being, may reduce this significant barrier to achievement. The paper also looks at Mental Health as a pervasive Complex Need in children of all abilities.
Understanding, Emotions and Books Beyond Words: A neuroscience perspective
These companion articles from the SEND journal , written by Barry Carpenter, Jo Egerton and Stas’ Samagala, are relevant to schools and settings in this time of evolving educational approaches and interventions to support children and young people’s mental health and emotional well being. As the title suggests current thinking for neuroscience is applied to the rich range of narrative based resources in the ‘Beyond Words’ series of books and on line materials.
Click the thumbnails below to open each article.
Figures for Self Harm amongst Girls (UK)
Figures for Self Harm amongst Girls has doubled in the last 4 years in the UK.
This new article from Dr Tina Rae, gives some terrific insights into this issue.
Mental Wealth Festival 2016: Book your place now
Book Review: Bouncing Back & Coping with Change – by Tina Rae
Bouncing Back & Coping with Change:
Building Emotional & Social Resilience in Young People aged 9 – 14
Author: Tina Rae, 2016
Publisher : Hinton House – www.hintonpublishers.com
ISBN:978-1-906531-68-3
Price: £29.99
This is another rich resource from the prodigious Tina Rae. Complete with CD, this book is packed full of ideas and strategies for building emotional resilience. The age range focus is helpful too, 9 – 14 years. It targets the awkward transition into adolescence, and does not lay responsibility at any particular age phase of education.
The introduction sets out the need in children for direct intervention; such shocking statistics as self-harm has increased by 68% in a decade. Rae then builds the case for resilience as a key tenet to help young people cope with change. She considers a ‘Whole School Approach’ to developing resilience and why it is important. Key approaches such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and Mindfulness are explained in straightforward, accessible language.
The real strength of this book, which will appeal to classroom practitioners, is the 20 sessions around ‘Bouncing Back and Coping with Change.’ The objectives for these sessions are laid out in full and clear guidance, including success criteria, given for the sessions. Each session plan is carefully constructed and accessible. As I read each one I could envisage how to teach it in practice – a true test of their viability . There are photocopiable resources to support each of the sessions.
At every juncture in the sessions there is ample opportunity for the young person to engage deeply, and reflect personally. The sessions take emotionally complex issues and bring them to daily reality in tangible, viable and practical ways. I have often wondered in recent Government proclamations on Emotional Well-Being in Children, what was meant by grit; now I understand thanks to the activities on ‘developing grit to succeed.’
At a time when the mental health issues of our young people are at the forefront of society and awareness, when schools are addressing new policy responsibilities in this area and building curriculum responses to the new designated area of Social, Emotional and Mental Health (Code of Practice on SEND, 2015), this book is both timely and welcome. It is a treasure trove of ideas and resources to create Mental Wealth in our young people.
Professor Barry Carpenter, CBE. May 2016
Dealing with children’s mental health issues as a teacher
A new article for UKEdChat at GL Assessment:
http://ukedchat.com/2016/03/06/dealing-with-childrens-mental-health-issues-as-a-teacher/
Understanding Pica
Pica is often a misunderstood, or as a little known condition in children with developmental disabilities, but it can have a devastating effect on their learning and quality of life. The article below raises some of the key issues in an informative and relevant way.
Click the thumbnail below to open and download the full article.
Anxiety & Autism
Even though mental illness can be more common among autistic people than the general population, the mental health of people on the autism spectrum is often overlooked.
The National Autistic Society provides a range of information and advice on dealing with mental health issues and anxiety, which can be found on our website.
