Behaviour Barriers and Beyond: Practical Strategies to Help All Pupils Thrive

This practical resource helps school staff to reframe behaviour as a means of communicating a need, ensuring they can sensitively and effectively support children with a range of Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

With case studies and examples woven throughout, the book focuses on relational and strength-based approaches to improve mental health and wellbeing, self-esteem, sense of safety and, in turn, behaviour and educational outcomes. All advice is carefully designed to have the maximum positive impact on the child and minimum impact on teacher time and resources.

Key features include:

• Accessible explorations of a range of difficulties and their effects on school life
• A variety of supportive strategies, tips and advice, designed to be easy to implement effectively within a busy classroom
• A focus on building and maintaining positive relationships, making the classroom a safe learning environment

Small adjustments can make a huge difference to wellbeing, whether they are for those with a diagnosis, with SEND, with SEMH needs, with anxiety, or just those having a hard time.

Behaviour Barriers and Beyond will be an essential tool for teachers, SENCOs and school leaders in both mainstream and specialist settings.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Pooky Knightsmith

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction
2. Behaviour is Communication
3. Self-Regulation
4. ACES, Trauma and Attachment-Aware Approaches
5. Anxiety
6. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
7. Autism
8. Bereavement, Grief and Loss
9. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD)
10. Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
11. Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA)
12. Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD)
13. Tourette Syndrome (TS) and Tic Disorders
14. Appendices

"From the very first pages, I could imagine what a huge impact that this book could have on the lives of the children and young people lucky enough to be supported by a practitioner who reads it and lives it. Rachel has been so generous in her curation and sharing of ideas and has done tremendous work to translate research into practice, to test out that practice, and to refine her ideas into a wide range of simple strategies that we can all build into our day-today to help us better understand and respond to the behavioural needs of children, and in turn to help them better understand and respond to those needs themselves, too […] It’s fantastic, I love it, I’ll live it. I hope you will too."
- Dr Pooky Knightsmith, Specialist in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Keynote Speaker, Lecturer, Trainer and Author