Parenting Special Children provides a specialist service for children who have been through adverse childhood experiences, their parents, carers and professionals working with them.
Trauma in childhood, whether it is one-off or over a period of time, can leave a long term impact on the brain and body. It affects a child’s ability to form secure attachments with adults and their view of the world. If not supported by loving and trusting relationships, it can lead to a number of challenges with behaviour, emotional & mental health, education and social skills.
Parenting Special Children believes these children have special needs. They need therapeutic parenting, care-giving and teaching. If given the right support, they can recover from adverse childhood experiences and lead successful lives.
The Trauma and Attachment team consists of specialist practitioners, teachers, a counsellor, a trained mediator, a psychotherapist, trainers, experienced adopters, kinship carers and foster carers offering the following:
- Regular workshops on a variety of topics related to the well-being and care of children and young people with difficult early life experiences. These are delivered by in house practitioners as well as visiting guest speakers at a very low cost for parents and carers.
- Attachment Focused Parenting/Caregiving courses held over 7 weeks. These are delivered by Specialist Parenting Practitioners, who are also parents/carers of children with special needs.
- Attachment Focused Sleep courses and clinics totaling 3.5 hours. These are delivered by a trained Sleep Practitioner, who is also a parent/carer of children with special needs.
- Support Groups – PSC has set up a number of support groups in response to feedback about the lack of ongoing support available, and subsequent feelings of isolation experienced by many of our families, in particular Kinship Carers and Male Carers. We have recently established a Post Separation Parenting Support Group – a monthly group for mothers who have separated from their partner after domestic abuse. The child/ren may or may not have special needs. Further details can be found in this flyer: Post Separation Parenting Group. Support groups provide a safe platform for parents/carers to share experiences and establish social networks.
- Education Advocacy – Research shows that educational attainment for adopted and looked after children is often low and exclusion rates for them are much higher. These children can find school challenging as a result of their difficult early life experiences and insecure attachments with adults. Parents/Carers often tell us that their child is struggling at school and they lack confidence in representing them. If you have any such concerns, need support with any aspect of your child’s education or have an upcoming school meeting that we could accompany you to, please get in touch with us. We will work with you and the school to get the best support for your children. Please see this flyer for further information on our service to help support children with early life trauma in schools.
- One to One Support – We understand that some parents/carers are not able to attend workshops and courses due to various reasons. Other families may have very complex needs which will need one to one intervention over a certain period of time. If local authorities have funding to provide one to one parenting support for families, we can be commissioned to provide this through our team of specialist practitioners. Please get in touch to find out more.
- Training Opportunities for Practitioners – Generic as well as bespoke topic based workshops at a very low cost to professionals working with children who have experienced early life trauma and their families.
Parenting Special Children has compiled a list of useful links, organisations and reading material. Please click here to view and download.
The best way to make a referral is to use this online form. Or you can contact us via tas@parentingspecialchildren.co.uk or 0118 9863532.