Parents

Woman sat at laptop with hand on head looking stressed.

Are you a parent of a SEND Child?

Does your child struggle at school? Are you constantly fighting the system to try and get their needs met?

Do you feel exhausted, isolated and overwhelmed?

You’re not alone. Having a child with additional needs means all the joys and challenges of parenting plus heaps of paperwork, fighting the system, more worry and less sleep! Things that other families do without thinking, take extraordinary planning or are simply avoided.

I get it. I’m a parent of 2 neurodivergent children and eating, getting dressed, going out, washing hair, brushing teeth, all cause distress and battles on a daily basis.

Like you I’ve struggled to get support. So far, it’s been 5 years of struggling to get support from services – asking for referrals for CAMHS, Speech and Language, Paediatricians, Dietician, Occupational Therapy only to have the referrals rejected and have to try all over again.

Like you, I’ve had countless meetings with schools and nurseries, trying to get them to see that my child isn’t ‘fine’ at school. They are in fact struggling with all the sensory, social, and learning demands but they mask. So all the big feelings come out at home.

Finally we reached the point were mainstream school just wasn’t working, and we had to look for alternatives.

Sound familiar?

How can I help you?

In this section are some of the things that I have learn over the last few years – as a SEND parent, and as a Children’s Occupational Therapist. I hope that some of these resources and blog posts are helpful tools for you.