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Winston's Wish is the UK's childhood bereavement charity. We support children and their families after the death of someone important.

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Welcome to CHUMS Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing support for Children, Young People and their families, with other services specifically supporting adults; Babyloss Bereavement Service and Bedfordshire Suicide Bereavement Service. We also offer a Specialist Bereavement Service in Kent and Medway

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An activity to help develop cognition and learning

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A website designed for parents providing information about different sensory needs.

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Sensory Processing Disorder - what is it?

Sensory Processing is the way in which the nervous system receives sensory messages and generates them into responses. Most people are born with the capacity to receive sensory information and organise it into appropriate behavioural and physiological responses. Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), or sensory integration disorder, is a term describing a collection of challenges that occur when the senses fail to respond properly to the outside world. Sensory information includes the things you see, hear, smell, taste, or touch. SPD can affect all your senses, or just one. SPD usually means you're overly sensitive to stimuli that other people are not.

How can it effect people with a vision impairment?

People with a vision impairment can often perceive information inaccurately or seek addition sensory input to focus or calm themselves. Poor sensory processing can make it difficult for a people with sight conditions to perform functional tasks. Some children tend to be 'sensory seekers' and they underreact to sensory input or need more of it to function. Others are 'sensory avoiders' and they can overreact to sensory input and become overwhelmed and hyperactive.

Sensory seeking and avoiding behaviours

Hyposensitivity (seekers)

Vision impaired children can experience hyposensitivity to stimuli, resulting in sensory-seeking behaviours. Instead of being overwhelmed by stimuli, they feel underwhelmed. Those who seek sensory stimulation may underreact to stimuli or simply need more of it to function.

Standing too close to other people

Touch objects or people often

Make loud noises or seek them out

Rocking back and forth

Chewing on non-food items (shirts, sleeves, pens, etc.)

Repetitive movements such as hand flapping, finger tapping, toe walking

Children with sensory seeking behaviours crave intense sensory input in different settings, exhibit strong sensory preferences, demonstrate socially inappropriate behaviours, and have little awareness of danger as well as difficulty in completing tasks.

Hypersensitive (avoidance)

Hypersensitive individuals may feel overwhelmed by loud sounds, bright lights, and certain smells or tastes. Because they can't tune the surrounding environment out, if they become overwhelmed, it may result in sensory avoidance. Common sensory avoidance behaviours include:

Avoiding crowds

Pulling away from physical contact

Covering their ears to avoid loud sounds

Avoiding certain foods (taste, texture)

Avoiding certain clothes (texture)

Avoiding rough and tumble play

How can we support our children who are displaying sensory processing disorder behaviours?

An occupational therapist is the professional to approach for support around this topic. They are the specialists that would design specific sensory based activities that are designed to help your child to regulate their sensory input. They can also make suggestions at home and in school that are practical but could potentially make a huge difference to certain functional tasks.

Sensory integration therapy, which it is sometimes called, aims to help young people with sensory processing issues. It does this by exposing them to sensory stimulation in a structured, repetitive way.

Below is an example of a sensory diet that can be used within the home. It is important to remember that the strategies detailed below are for a specific child who has her own set of sensory needs with individualised targets that are sought through this plan. As such, this plan is to be used as guidance only for the types of activities and equipment that can be used in order to:

1. Improve ability to self regulate

2. Improve poor registration

3. Improve concentration and focus

4. Improve independence and self care skills

5. Improve motor and fine grip

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The VICTA Parent Portal is a one stop information hub for all parents and carers raising a child who is blind or partially sighted.

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A powerful clip from children's perception to help understand behaviour.

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Cambridgeshire County Council SEND Service 0-25

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Cambridgeshire County Council's video 'Why I am rude' - a poem about our perception of 'behaviour'.

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Understanding support for children and young people with SEND

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A one stop shop for lots of resources and information.

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SEND tips and advice - BBC Parents' Toolkit - BBC Bitesize

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Activities, advice and personal stories about parenting and special educational needs and disabilities to help you support your family.

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This graphic helps support Pathological Demand Avoidance.

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A guide for parents and schools to support us to work together.

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Learning conversations: 3 to 5 years - Best Start in Life - NHS

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Help your child learn new words and build conversations by chatting about your day and talking together—they’re growing their language skills with every sentence!

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If you have concerns about speech and language, the NHS site gives guides, videos and resources to help you interact and know what milestone your child should meet.

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Learning conversations: 3 to 5 years - Best Start in Life - NHS

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Help your child learn new words and build conversations by chatting about your day and talking together—they’re growing their language skills with every sentence!

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Anna Freud have lots of guides and resources like this one about helping children who often feel worried

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This video accompanies the worksheet and skills cards that make talking about anxiety easier for parents and teachers

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These great cards are helpful for managing anxiety in children. Link them with worksheet

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This booklet helps teachers and parents have conversations about feelings of anxiety

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Never Too Young To Talk About Mental Health

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For families in Cambridgeshire, this site provides information about the local offer available for families and children.

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Cambridgeshire Online | SEND Information Hub (Local Offer)

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The SEND Information hub is a one stop site about the Peterborough local offer.

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Local Offer supports children, young people with special educational needs, disabilities (SEND) their families with information on services in Peterborough

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The Now & Next is a visual board which helps children know what is happening and what is expected of them.