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Teach Kids to Manage Big Feelings Through Effective Social Emotional Learning

Over 80% of U.S. public schools reported in 2022 on the negative impact of the pandemic on child well-being and self-regulation. Kids are:

Struggling to manage their feelings and mental health

More disruptive in the classroom

Needing additional social, emotional, and behavioral support

(source: National Center for Education Statistics)

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The Zones of Regulation is a complete social-emotional learning curriculum, created to teach children self-regulation and emotional control.

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The Sounds-Write App

The Initial Code by Sounds-Write app follows the Sounds-Write Initial Code sequence and provides a variety of activities to develop students' skills in the following areas:

Blending and segmenting

Word reading and writing

Sentence reading and writing

The app is available on the Apple App Store ( for use on iPads only). The free version of the app provides a sample of activities, with the full version available as an in-app purchase.

Download and try it free from the UK iTunes app store. Or from here if you're in Australia. Please remember to access the app from your iPad.

The Sounds-Write app:

Word building and word reading for the Initial Code

What do teachers and teaching assistants think?

At St George's we have used Sounds-Write for over five years and I cannot recommend it highly enough. We are a National Support School and have visitors from all over the UK and abroad visit the school each year. To a person, they are always astounded by the phonics and spelling they see.

Sarah Collymore, Headteacher, St. George's CE Primary School

I recommend Sounds-Write to every teacher and school leader I meet. At Floreat we teach Sounds-Write in structured lessons in Nursery and Reception as well as Year 1. We achieve consistently outstanding results and our parents are amazed at how well their children can read and spell.

Janet Hilary, National Leader of Education and Chief Executive Officer, Floreat Education

Sounds-Write has had a significant impact at Princecroft School and is transforming the life chances of our children. From very low starting points the children now make rapid progress in their phonics and by the end of Years 1 and 2 are decoding and reading at standards above their peers nationally.

Michael Park, Headteacher, Princecroft School

Sounds-Write is more than just a scheme for phonics. For Selby Community Primary School it has improved pupils' self-esteem around reading and writing. Sounds-Write has developed stronger spellers and pupils who transfer their phonics knowledge straight into their written work.

Ian Clennan, Headteacher, Selby Community Primary School

Teachers' subject knowledge and therefore their confidence with teaching phonics has vastly improved since the implementation of Sounds-Write. The skills taught through the programme are transferable throughout the curriculum with improved reading, writing and spelling from our children.

Lindsay Vollans, Headteacher, St. Michael's C of E Primary School

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Skip to main content The Sounds-Write App The Initial Code by Sounds-Write app follows the Sounds-Write Initial Code sequence and provides a variety of activities to develop students' skills in the following areas: Blending and segmenting Word reading and writing Sentence reading and writing The app is available on the Apple App Store ( for use on iPads only).

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mental health art therapy charity for children with chronic conditions

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In these uncertain times, positive mental health and wellbeing is more important than ever - 83% of young people with mental health issues have said that the pandemic has had a negative impact on their mental health. There are so many ways in which art can help alleviate stress and anxiety.

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If your child is anxious about going to school, or refusing to go to school at all, read our tips and advice on how you can support them and work with their school.

Get advice and updates directly to your inbox

Join our fight for children and young people's mental health. Sign up to the YoungMinds mailing list to receive our monthly e-newsletter, campaign updates, information about events and fundraising and other opportunities to get involved in our work.

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Guide Menu for School anxiety and refusal

Guide contents (jump to section)

Real stories related to school anxiety and refusal

School can be a source of support, belonging, learning and community for young people. It can provide roles and responsibilities that make them feel good about themselves, the opportunity to think about their own opinions, access to sport, drama, art, trips and other new things, a sense of progress and achievement, life-long friendships, and supportive relationships with teachers and other adults.

However, every child and young person will worry about things that happen at school from time to time - and that's completely normal. For some young people, school can become challenging, stressful and distressing over a longer period of time.

If your child is struggling at school, the important thing is to recognise there's a problem to be solved, and to work with them and the school to find the right support as soon as you can.

Signs a young person is feeling worried about school

Young people can feel worried, anxious or unmotivated about school for lots of different reasons.

Some will be worried about something that's happening at school, while others may find school overwhelming because of difficulties in other parts of their life.

Every child and young person will worry about things that happen at school from time to time - and that's completely normal.

Young people tell us their worries about school can include:

finding the work difficult, or having problems concentrating

finding school exhausting, especially if they are dealing with mental health issues

feeling pressure to get good exam results

difficult relationships with friends and friendship groups

not feeling accepted or that they 'fit in'

not getting on with teachers

feeling pressured to be the same and learn like everyone else

experiencing or witnessing bullying

feeling unsupported and not seen as an individual

additional needs such as dyslexia not being recognised

feeling average or no good in a class of high-achieving peers

Young people may show they're feeling anxious about school by:

not wanting to get up and get ready

being reluctant to go to school

getting very worried about relatively small issues, such as remembering the right equipment for
a lesson

feeling sick or having stomach or headaches

not doing schoolwork, or getting lower marks

being angry or upset, or acting out

exploding when they get home, even if they seem okay at school

withdrawing - seeming low, quiet or depressed

refusing to go to school at all

not going to school without you knowing

Helping your child with school anxiety

Share our Beano videos with younger children

If you have a younger child who's feeling worried about starting at a new school, making friends or fitting in, we teamed up with our friends over at Beano studios to make a series of fun videos to help them.

Helping your child with school refusal

Ask the school to arrange a reduced timetable, with only a few lessons each week - with the aim of building back up when it feels manageable for your child.

Discuss the possibility of changing forms, sets or tutors if your child thinks this would help.

Request a home visit from the school, where a staff member can check-in, show your child the school cares about them and discuss strategies for moving forward.

Think about small, achievable targets your child can work towards.

What will happen if my child doesn't go to school?

If your child is regularly missing days of school, or not going at all, the school's first step will usually be to work with you to try to solve the problem.

Letting the school know what's going on as early as possible, sharing information, attending meetings and being open to trying new strategies will encourage them to take a supportive approach.

If the absence continues, the school may refer you to an Education Welfare Officer from the local council. This person will usually arrange a home visit to find out what's happening and work with you to try to resolve the problem.

If needed, the school and other professionals may also refer your child for other support, including for their mental health.

If your child cannot attend school for a period of time because they are not mentally well enough, it is likely that you will need to provide evidence from a GP or another professional.

If the school is pressuring you to get your child back to school and the communication doesn't feel constructive, a good first step is to re-emphasise to them why your child isn't attending - for example because they do not feel mentally well enough. It may also help to get advice and support from your Local Education Authority.

If the school or local council think your child is missing school without a good reason, you can face legal consequences such as fines.

Tips for working with your child's school

Depending on how difficult your child is finding things, you can discuss some of the following strategies with the school:

linking them with a member of staff, for example from the pastoral team, who they can chat to

linking them with a peer buddy or mentor

finding a way for them to feel more part of the school community, for example by joining a club

thinking of ways they can structure break-times if they are finding them difficult

offering them a new role or responsibility, such as library or book-corner monitor, or learning mentor

offering a flexible start-time or timetable

referring them for additional support such as counselling

What to do if you're unhappy with how things are being handled

If you are unhappy with the way a member of staff is responding to your concerns, escalate them to a more senior person - such as a more senior teacher, a deputy head, or the head teacher. If this doesn't work, you can contact the school governors (their contact details should be on the school's website), and lastly the Local Education Authority or the Academy Trust.

Finding professional help

A school counsellor or therapist can provide emotional support and help your child to express and make sense of their feelings. If this is offered by your child's school, you can talk to their teacher about making a referral.

If your child's school does not offer counselling, or your child would not feel comfortable seeing a counsellor at school, you can use our guide to help you access it elsewhere.

If you're worried about your child's mental health or wellbeing, speaking to your GP is often a good first step. They can discuss your concerns and, if needed, refer your child for more support - including to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

Your child's school can also refer your child to CAMHS. If you would like their support with a CAMHS referral, it might help to talk to the school nurse.

If you think your child may have additional needs or learning difficulties, speak to their teacher or the school's SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator) about whether they need to be referred for an assessment. They may then be able to access additional support through the school.

Children and young people under 25 who need more support than their school can provide are entitled to an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. EHC plans identify their needs and set out the support that will be provided. You, your GP and your child's school can ask your local authority to carry out an assessment for this. The process can take a long time, so it's often a good idea to try to get support through the school fist.

Your local authority's 'Local Offer' also outlines how parents of children with SEND can access information and local services. You can search for this on your local authority's website.

You can find out more about speaking to GPs, finding a counsellor or therapist, accessing CAMHS and finding local services on our guide to getting help.

Where to get further support

Useful helplines and websites

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School Anxiety & Refusal | Parents Guide To Support

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If your child is anxious about going to school, or refusing to go to school at all, read our tips and advice on how you can support them and work with their school. Get advice and updates directly to your inbox Join our fight for children and young people's mental health.

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Learn how to touch type with the BBC Dance Mat Typing game. It’s a fun introduction to touch typing game for kids and covers levels 1, 2, 3, 4.

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https://www.pinpoint-cambs.org.uk/

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The Parent Partnership Service providing Cambridgeshire's SEND Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS) offers impartial and confidential information, advice and support to parents and carers who have a child or young person with special educational needs (SEN) or a disability or have concerns that their child has special educational needs. They also offer impartial and confidential information, advice and support to young people and children with special educational needs (SEN) or a disability or who have concerns they may have special educational needs.

SENDIASS can help you with

Confidential support and someone to talk to in confidence

Advice and information about special educational needs

Independent Support for children, young people and families as Statements are transferred to EHC Plans

Preparing for meetings with your child's school or with professionals who are working with your child

Information on your rights and responsibilities as a parent, children's rights and SEN law and guidance

Information about local support groups and voluntary organisations

Childcare Specialist Information Adviser

If you need help with finding a childcare place for your child, contact the Family and Childcare Information helpline on 0345 045 1360. You may be put in touch with the specialist childcare adviser. The Childcare Specialist Information Adviser helps parents and carers of children and young people with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND) find childcare. Childcare covers things like nursery places, child minders, preschool and after school clubs as well as holiday clubs. Finding childcare can be more difficult if your child has SEND. The Childcare Specialist Information Adviser will work with you to help you find childcare for your son or daughter.

Videos, policies, reports and information leaflets

Four videos about the SENDIASS service

SEND Tribunal videos

Cambridgeshire SENDIASS, along with other SENDIASS in the Eastern Region, have been working with Suffolk to produce videos for parents providing information and advice about appealing to SEND Tribunal. The first two series are now available.

Where any reference is made to Suffolk SENDIASS or departments you should refer to Cambridgeshire SENDIASS - contact details are at the bottom of this page.

SENDIASS information leaflets

SEND Information, Advice and Support (SENDIASS)
Cambridgeshire County Council, ALC2630, New Shire Hall, Emery Crescent, Enterprise Campus, Alconbury Weald, Huntingdon, PE28 4YE

Email - sendiass@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Confidential helpline open during term times: 01223 699 214

Outside of term time please leave a message as a small number of staff are available to answer queries but it will take time for them to respond to your enquiry.

SENDIASS was previously called Parent Partnership.

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SEND Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS)

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The Parent Partnership Service providing Cambridgeshire's SEND Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS) offers impartial and confidential information, advice and support to parents and carers who have a child or young person with special educational needs (SEN) or a disability or have concerns that their child has special educational needs.

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What is an Information, Advice and Support (IAS) service?

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The Local Offer provides information to parents and carers of children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities, aged 0 – 25, to help them to understand what services and support, they and their families can expect from a range of local agencies within the local authority.

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OpenDyslexic is a typeface designed against some common symptoms of dyslexia.
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Welcome to ictgames. Here you'll find free to play educational games aimed at children between 5 and 8 years old; written by a UK teacher with 20 years experience. The games are linked to the UK KS 1 and 2 curricula. Here are some help videos to get you started.

&nbsp Number - number and place value

&nbsp Number - addition & subtraction

&nbsp Number - multiplication & division

&nbsp Geometry - properties of shapes

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Free educational games aimed at children between 5 and 8 years old. Made by a UK teacher with 20 years of experience in education.

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Dyslexia help, children, video clips, scribe, spellings, maths

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Help yourself to help others

If a fear of maths has you hiding from homework, we can help!

With a little help from us you can build your number confidence and skills, and begin to feel more prepared for when children come to you for help, and help pass your confidence onto them.

The free National Numeracy Challenge is designed to help you! It's a free, quick and easy way to check your skills and confidence with numbers, where you can go at your own pace, with learning resources tailored to you and your level. It helps with the maths we come across at work and in daily life - not algebra, or trigonometry. You can get started in just 10 minutes, and join the 390,000 others that have already started their journey to number confidence. Give it a go!

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With a little help from us you can build your number confidence and skills, and begin to feel more prepared for when children come to you for help, and help pass your confidence onto them. The free National Numeracy Challenge is designed to help you!

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Letter Reversals...they are a major cause for handwriting concern by most parent's standards. Here we are covering information about writing letters backwards and what is normal for letter reversals in development. We also have some great tips for addressing common letter reversal struggles and even reversal activities that can help with visual perception handwriting struggles. Read on!

Letter b and d reversals: These specific strategies cover letter b and d reversals.

Letter p and q reversals: You'll find more specific letter reversal information in this post on reversing letter p and q.

Also check out these activities to work on backwards letters.

Writing Letters in Reverse

Do letter reversals mean dyslexia? Not exactly! Dyslexia means problems learning to read, spell, and write. However, there is much more to reversals than what meets the eye, and should be assessed before jumping straight to the conclusion of dyslexia. Be sure to read our resource on Dyslexia and occupational therapy for more information.

One creative tool to support the skills needed for this area of development is our new color by letter worksheet. Just print and go and work on letter identification and matching skills.

Check out all of our letter formation worksheets for more free printables to target letter forming.

Letter Reversals Normal Development

Reversals are age appropriate up until 7-8 years of age!

That's right! Letter reversals are normal up to a certain age range. And when kids write letters backwards it is actually typical development in handwriting skills. Working on letter reversals in occupational therapy (and other visual perceptual areas) can be a common occurrence for school-based OTs...but just because kids are writing letters backwards, it doesn't mean there is a true problem indicating a need for intervention.

It takes our brains that long to integrate all the skills needed to form a letter correctly and automatically during written expression. Skills needed range from phonetic awareness, ability to imitate pre-writing strokes, automation of letter formation, and higher level cognitive skills for multi-tasking.

Some kiddo's develop these skills faster than others. Some kiddo's struggle with these skills and may receive support services such as occupational therapy or pull out services with their school's reading specialist before age 7.

Services provided before age 7 are typically preventative and because the child has shown struggles in the foundation skills needed for reading and writing, such as phonemic awareness, challenges with pre-writing strokes and shape formation (visual motor integration), poor fine motor skills, dominance concerns or underlying vision concerns.

What is a letter reversal

The term Letter reversals refers to several things related to reversing letters in reading or writing:

Writing a specific letter backwards, when they replace a letter with another such as forming a letter b as a d or a letter p as a letter q

Writing a letter upside down or flipped, such as forming a u as an n

Reading a letter backwards, as when kids replace a d with a b

Writing letters backwards as when kids write letters h, n, s, z, etc. in a mirror image

Transposing letters or switching the order of letters when writing

Reversing or writing numbers backwards

Common Letter and Number Reversals

So, knowing that it is quite common developmentally, to reverse letters and numbers up until age 7 or 8, it can also help to know which letters are commonly reversed in writing.

Letter Reversals List

These letters and numbers are often times transposed for one another:

It's easy to see why the letters and numbers listed above are often reversed. They all contain similar pencil strokes. For children that are just learning to write, spatial integration can be still developing. Kids are getting the muscle memory in place can replace one letter or number for another.

These letters are often written backwards:

Each of these letters has a starting point at the top and pencil strokes that then go into a different direction. Children that are still developing handwriting skills are establishing the motor plan for direction changes with the pencil. The can sometimes "guess" the correct direction which results in letters being written backwards.

Numbers that are commonly written backwards include:

Each of these numbers also have a direction change which could easily be confused.

In many cases, working on letter and number formation so the muscle memory is established with fix reversal issues. Using multisensory formation activities helps to establish that motor plan.

Phonetic Awareness and Letter Reversals

The current theory among the educational community is that reversals start with phonemic awareness. If a child is lacking phonemic awareness, they may struggle with letter identification and spelling needed for fluent written expression. Similar struggles may also be seen with numbers, resulting in a negative impact on math skills.

In my clinical experience, I have found that children with high rates of ear infections and PE tubes (ear tubes) struggle with sound awareness. If the kiddo is unable to hear the sound of the letter clearly and consistently, it leads to poor sound awareness.

I have also found that children with difficulties with attention and auditory filtering often pair the wrong letter sound with wrong letter. This is important to note in sessions as it may require remediation by a speech therapist or reading specialist if available. Here is more information and activities for auditory processing.

While phonetics play a large role in reversals, many other foundational skills may influence whether a child will struggle with reversals or not.

Hand Dominance and Letter Reversals

Hand dominance is typically fully developed by five years of age. Right at the same time most children are learning and mastering the formation of letters and numbers. It also coincides with the start of kindergarten, or formal education where children who are struggling may be noticed for the first time. Writing with both hands can be a common struggle and an indicator of hand dominance challenges.

Children with handedness issues, whether it's mixed dominance or delayed development of dominance, are more likely to struggle with left versus right tasks.

This plays into reversal concerns as many of these children cannot consistently discriminate left from right, leading to b's and d's, p's and q's being flipped. Often times, they are unable to recognize that they have made the mistake as their brain is registering the letter as they meant it to be.

Letter Reversals and Visual Processing

Vision is can be one of the biggest challenges facing children who struggle with reversals. Chances are, they have had an underlying vision concern that goes unaddressed or unrecognized during the critical learning period of letters and their sounds.

You will find much more information on visual perception in our free visual perception lab series.

(Children in the U.S. typically begin to learn letters and sounds between 3 and 4 years of age when they enter preschool programs. Curriculums now expect children to know their letters, sounds and how to write them upon entering kindergarten.)

Due to their vision deficit, the child may not consistently see the same image of the letter each time, or may not see the letter that is being taught due to "wandering" eyes or poor abilities to focus on the letter. The kiddo now has a poor foundation from which to build on, due to difficulties with recalling from their visual memory what the letter looks like, and pairing it with the correct sound.

To add to vision deficits, vision is not just what we see, or how the eye's work together. It is also a motor task of taking information in with the eyes and reproducing an image, or in this case, letters on paper. This skill is known as visual motor integration and also plays a role in reversals.

Here are free visual perception worksheets that can address a variety of visual skills.

Visual Motor Integration and Letter Reversals

Visual motor integration allows us to write, draw and paint freely. To do all of these things, we go through a set development of producing pre-writing strokes and basic shapes in imitation to freely producing them from our memories and eventually becoming automatic. Here is more information and activities related to visual motor skills.

Most children learn to imitate these strokes and shapes at a young age from top to bottom and left to right. However, some children do not learn it this way or their brains are not "wired" to follow this pattern of development.

Children who deviate from this pattern may have difficulties with reversals as they struggle to learn and integrate letter stroke combinations in the correct order. When this happens, they struggle to write fluently and reversals may begin to appear.

Signs of poor visual motor integration skills that could lead to reversals include:

Segmental Drawing-drawing a shape one stroke at a time instead of integrated

Bottom to top orientation when drawing

Right to left orientation when drawing

Difficulties crossing the midline during drawing tasks

Rotation of the paper to adjust for angle execution

Failed attempts to imitate basic shapes after the child has stated what the shape is

Executive Functioning and Letter Reversals

Executive functioning skills refer to our higher level thinking that includes attention, multi-tasking and memory, among many other skills. Writing requires all of these skills to be working at their best. If a child is struggling with any of these skills, they may demonstrate reversals and poor overall handwriting.

Reversals and poor handwriting may be the result of the child being unable to recall the strokes of the letter, the sequence of the strokes, what the letter looks like, where to start the letter, how big to make the letter, what each letter sound is, how to spell a word and complete their thought.

Oh, and lets add in that they have to remember how to hold their pencil correctly. For a kiddo who is struggling, this is a CHALLENGE.

There are so many more things that go into writing that may lead to reversals then what I have listed, but are too many to list out.

The main concept of executive functioning is that if the child cannot make it all work together, from fine motor to phonemic awareness to visual motor, they are more likely to struggle with reversals in their work.

Letter Reversal INterventions

It is important to recognize that reversals may be the sign of underlying deficits with foundational skills and should be addressed when they are noticed. The sooner that these underlying deficits are addressed the better off the kiddo will be. Once a child has had a long enough time period to practice incorrectly, it will be that much harder to break the "bad habits" and correct the reversals.

You will find many letter reversal interventions in this blog post.

This resource on letter b and d reversals is a helpful read on how specifically to work on these commonly reversed letters. You'll find multi-sensory writing strategies to address b-d letter reversals.

2. Try "building" letters to establish the motor plan needed to create muscle memory. Use different colors to help children see the ways that the pencil moves when writing letters and numbers. This letter construction activity explains more about this process. This letter building strategy, paired with other forms of multi-sensory handwriting and teaching letters in groups based on the ways the pencil moves can make a big impact.

Addressing some of the other co-existing issues discussed in this article can be a start.

3. Address the motor planning in handwriting necessary for letter and number formation. Strategies that develop motor planning skills utilizing multi-sensory approaches can help with letter reversal.

With handwriting practice of letters with visual, auditory, and kinesthetic sensory channels at the same time, the weaker channel may be reinforced (Berninger, 2000).

Multi-sensory letter reversal strategies include:

4. Work on visual perception with toys and games, and activities to address specific visual perceptual skills or visual motor skills.

5. Use cursive writing in some cases. Here are creative ways to teach cursive and our entire cursive writing series.

6. Gain a better understanding of visual processing and all of the "pieces" of the vision puzzle that play into letter reversal and other concerns by joining thousands of other therapists, teachers, and professionals in the Visual Processing Lab.

7. Use this Vision Screening Tool to identify and address specific vision concerns such as letter reversals.

8. Try some of these activities to address visual motor integration and eye-hand coordination.

9. Try rainbow writing.

Have concerns? Talk to your child's teacher or occupational therapist to address your concerns.

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Letter Reversals and How to Fix Them - The OT Toolbox

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Try these letter reversal strategies to help kids who write letters backwards. Understand what's really going on behind letter reversals in writing.

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Free Text to Speech Online with Realistic AI Voices

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Convert text into ultra-realistic audio. Have any text read aloud with AI Voices. AI text reader for pdfs, books, documents, and webpages.

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Children are expected to be able to make predictions whilst reading. Here is a collection of questions that can be used alongside pictures to help develop the skill

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Once Upon a Picture - Images to Inspire - Teaching Resources

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All of our children are expected to make predictions while reading. Here's a look at the curriculum objectives:

KS1: Predict what might happen on the basis of what has happened so far
KS2: Predict what might happen from details stated and implied

So, this can be as simple as asking the question, 'What do you think is going to happen next?', quickly followed with, 'Why?'.

However, we need to make explicit the additional skills needed to be able to do this. To be able to predict, you need to be able to read and understand what has happened, and is currently happening. You need to be able to retrieve and infer ('details stated and implied'), combine this with your knowledge of the world, weigh up probability, and make a sensible prediction of the next outcome. It might come naturally to many, but it's worth breaking it down to look at what's involved.

I've selected these images because they are 'in the heart of the action'. They allow for discussion around what has just happened, to use inference to work out additional information, and then a discussion of what might happen next. Here's a useful resource (aimed at Upper Key Stage 2, but could be used with children of all ages to introduce the language) for thinking about possibilities: Making predictions - modal verbs and adverbs. After teaching children how to predict, and how to answer questions, move them on to doing this with text.

When teaching prediction, it really does come back to the simple question:
What do you think is going to happen next, and why?
Just remember what else is needed to answer that question.
Note: In SATs papers, this question will come in several forms, such as, 'Will Taylor change his behaviour on future visits to the field?' or, 'Based on what you have read, what does the last paragraph suggest might happen to the explorers next? Use evidence from this paragraph to support your prediction.'

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The Prediction Collection - Once Upon a Picture

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All of our children are expected to make predictions while reading. Here's a look at the curriculum objectives: KS1: Predict what might happen on the basis of what has happened so far KS2: Predict what might happen from details stated and implied So, this can be as simple as asking the question, 'What do you think is going to happen next?', quickly followed with, 'Why?'.

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Inference is a hard thing to teach children and sometimes just using pictures can build up a child's confidence and understanding, without worrying about text.

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Once Upon a Picture - Images to Inspire - Teaching Resources

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Inference is a tricky area of reading. Children don't always understand what it means to infer, and stumble on test questions demanding this of them. I've found that teaching the skill explicitly using a non-threatening stimulus has worked brilliantly. First, you develop the understanding of the skill, what is involved and what is required to answer questions. Then this is practised, and practised some more (justifying inferences, anyone?), before being applied to text. The joy lies in the depth of responses offered by all children taking part.

Here are some of my favourites for developing inference in the primary classroom. Let me know if you try any!

Click on the image to see the original post.
You can read more about the approach here, and ask me on Facebook or Twitter.

Note: Some of the questions below will include other skills, including prediction.

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The Inference Collection - Once Upon a Picture

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Inference is a tricky area of reading. Children don't always understand what it means to infer, and stumble on test questions demanding this of them. I've found that teaching the skill explicitly using a non-threatening stimulus has worked brilliantly. First, you develop the understanding of the skill, what is involved and what is required to answer questions.

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March 2020 -

We're making this free version available to support teachers and parents impacted by the pandemic. We'll keep in online for free for as long as possible. If we do have to start charging to support this edition we promise to post news of any changes here at least three weeks prior to implementing them.

Please contact us if you find errors, problems, or have suggestions for making this edition more useful.
If you are new to Reading for All Learners please spend a few minutes reviewing the Instructor Guide. The Instructor Guide is a very quick read and following this guide is vital!
If you are new to teaching reading take a look at the pronunciation guide to make use you are modeling sounds accurately. If you aren't sure which books to start with please consider running our free placement assessment series. Also you can find a correlation to leveled readers which can be useful in determining a starting point. Finally, visit the Reading For All Learners resources page to find progress tracking sheets, completion certificates and lots more.

Thanks for all you are doing to help kids learn during this challenging time. We are grateful for the opportunity to be able to support your efforts. Please help us with this effort by sharing this resource. As always, feel free to reach out to us using any of the methods found at the bottom of this page with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Andy Hofmeister
CEO
Academic Success for All Learners

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reading for all learners home education and school closure edition

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Reading for All Learners Home Education and School Closure Edition

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March 2020 - We're making this free version available to support teachers and parents impacted by the pandemic. We'll keep in online for free for as long as possible. If we do have to start charging to support this edition we promise to post news of any changes here at least three weeks prior to implementing them.

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The local offer will develop and improve over time in response to feedback and consultation with parents, carers, children and young people and partners.

Services included in our local offer are developed as part of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and joint commissioning arrangements. Please visit our joint commissioning page for more information, including how decisions about services are made.

What information is included in the local offer?

how early years providers, schools and colleges identify and support children with SEND

specialist services that support children and young people with SEND

childcare and funding

health services and support

Education, Health and Care assessments and plans and personal budgets

school and college transport

schools and college funding for children and young people with SEND

how local services are planned and delivered (joint commissioning)

strategies and plans for supporting children with SEND

Service and support directory

Young offenders and young people released from custody

Support for young offenders and young people released from custody with SEND is coordinated by the Youth Offending Service (YOS). If a young person is in custody, the YOS Education, Training and Employment Co-ordinator will ensure that a copy of their latest statement or Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan is sent securely to the relevant institution.

Prior to a young person being released from custody, the YOS team will contact the education department of the secure estate to ensure the right kind of support is provided for a good resettlement and smooth transition into education or training within the community.

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The local offer will develop and improve over time in response to feedback and consultation with parents, carers, children and young people and partners. Services included in our local offer are developed as part of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and joint commissioning arrangements.

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Practising growth mindset theory with children is a great way to get them engaged with subjects and activities that they try to avoid through fear of getting things wrong or "not being good enough".

In EYFS the key pillars of learning are literacy, numeracy and art. If a child starts to fall behind in one of these areas and believes that their abilities and talents are a fixed state, then they become easily discouraged.

In this article we'll begin to explain how fixed and growth mindsets affect children's thinking, learning and development.

What is a growth mindset?

Has your child ever said to you 'There's no point, I'll never be able to do it' or avoided doing something because they've failed at it in the past?

Feelings like this can be related to what children believe about what makes them 'good' at something - whether it's school work, sport, or even their ability to manage their emotions and behaviour.

Some children will tend to give up on challenging tasks easily, or avoid tasks they've failed at before. They tend to believe that being 'good' at a particular activity is a fixed state, and is something they can't control. In psychology, this way of thinking is called a ' fixed mindset'.

Others might bounce back quickly from failure and be more likely to explore how they can get better at doing something. They tend to be children who believe that you can improve your abilities by practising, or by finding a different way to achieve your goal. This way of thinking is called a 'growth mindset', and developing it can help make children more resilient for life.

There are lots of small things you can do every day that can help your little one develop a growth mindset.

Is ability something innate?

Professor Carol Dweck, an American psychologist, found that we all have different beliefs about the underlying nature of ability.

Children (and adults!) with a growth mindset believe that intelligence and abilities can be developed through effort, persistence, trying different strategies and learning from mistakes.

On the other hand, people with a fixed mindset believe that our intelligence and abilities are fixed traits; something that you are born with and that you can't really do anything about.

How do the different Mindsets develop and why are they important?

Most babies are excited to learn. However, as soon as children are able to compare themselves to others, some will stop focusing on learning and will instead focus on performance; they want to look good in front of others and more importantly, they want to feel like they are the best.

According to someone with a fixed mindset, if you fail at something, make a mistake, or even have to put effort in, it must be because 'you're just not good enough'. Because of that belief, children begin to avoid challenges and choose activities that they find easy.

People with a fixed mindset feel as if they have no control over their abilities, and are helpless in the face of difficulties and setbacks. They begin to feel disheartened if they find something difficult, which can lead to low self-esteem and a developing sense that there is 'no point' in trying.

Over time, children who feel like this may decrease their efforts and sometimes even engage in disruptive behaviours (anything that will detract from the fact that they are struggling).

Children (and adults!) with a growth mindset think very differently. They believe that they can get better at something by practising, so when they're faced with a challenge, they become more and more determined to succeed, wanting to persevere and overcome knockbacks. They tend to feel as if they're in control, and are not threatened by hard work or failure.

Although no one likes failing, children with a growth mindset do not let failure define them; instead, they use setbacks to motivate them. Children encouraged to adopt a growth mindset enjoy challenges and the sense of achievement they get when they succeed.

Researchers have found that building a growth mindset helps children at school; making them more motivated, more engaged in the classroom and likely to receive higher marks and greater rewards from their work.

Lots of research has been conducted in America (this approach is really popular in schools in the US), and our team at the University of Portsmouth has found that developing a growth mindset has a positive impact on children's learning, attainment and, more importantly, understanding of the learning process in UK schools too.

But it's not all about educational outcomes. Research also suggests that having a growth mindset increases children's ability to try all sorts of different challenges and problems that they might not have otherwise tackled.

And because children no longer need to engage in various self-protection strategies, developing a growth mindset also appears to improve behaviour, increase life satisfaction, and help children to control their emotions.

How can I help my child to develop a Growth Mindset?

The exciting thing about the growth mindset approach is that it is not just about ability. It focuses on what people believe about ability - and there are lots of ways that we can help our children to develop a growth mindset.

Research has shown that Mindsets can be changed relatively quickly and there are plenty of things that parents and families can do to help. Below are a few tips and ideas that can help promote a growth mindset in children.

Set high expectations for your child:

It is commonly believed that lowering our expectations promotes self-esteem in children (e.g. "never mind, let's try an easier one"), but this is not the case. Having high expectations works like a self-fulfilling prophecy. It shows that you believe they can do it, which in turn has a positive impact on their own beliefs, behaviour and outcomes.
Encourage children to be resilient and not give up, even when they find something difficult or frustrating:
We now know that the brain adapts to new information and practise by creating new connections, so help your child to believe that challenge is a positive thing because it means they are growing their brains! This can help them to be comfortable with the times that they struggle and means that they see this as a sign of learning.
Celebrate mistakes!
The fear of making mistakes and associated shame can stop children from giving something a go in the first place. We all make mistakes, so try to embrace these mistakes and use them as learning opportunities, rather than feeling embarrassed about them. If we are not making mistakes then we are not stretching ourselves.
Use inspirational role models:
Think about your child's favourite athlete, musician or teacher and talk about their journey to success. We call this unravelling the talent myth. If someone has done well we have a tendency to think they were born that way. We need to show our children that this is not the case. Rather than focusing on somebody's 'natural talents', focus on their early efforts, strong work ethic, and the mistakes and learning that led them to where they are now.

How can the way I praise my child help develop a Growth Mindset?

It's natural to want to praise children when they do something well, but we need to do this carefully. Research suggests that the type of praise that we use can have a big impact. It's all a matter of context in fact and even positive praise can encourage a fixed mindset.

Praising our children by saying things like "you're a natural!" or "you seem to be able to turn your hand to anything!" without clarity of the process by which they got to that point can lead to the belief that being good at something is out of their control. In other words understanding how they got there is the key.

This focus on being good at something might lead to children feeling happy in the short-term, but confused when the reason they were praised is not evident. If children believe that they succeeded in something simply because they are gifted, they can end up re-evaluating their abilities if it doesn't go as well next time.

Instead the grown-ups around the child can focus praise on the effort they've made to get to that point of triumph, the strategy they used or the outcome itself, saying things like "you've worked so hard on this, well done!" or "you get better every time because of all the practise you've been doing" or "you have found a great way to do that, it worked out really well".

This kind of feedback helps to develop children's resilience to failure as it teaches them what to do when they are challenged or fail - try again, try harder or try a different way, all things that are within their own control.

This type of praise is sometimes called 'process praise' and Dweck's research found that children were more motivated when their parents used more of this kind of praise.

That's not how I've praised my child so far - is it too late to change?

It's never too late to change our mindsets. We've worked with children from the age of three, right up to university students and adults, and we've seen that anyone can develop a growth mindset.

It seems that the trick is to be open with children. If you are going to change the way you praise your child or the type of behaviours that you encourage, let them know why you are doing it. Tell them all about Growth Mindsets.

We're not saying that everyone is born with the same abilities, but what is clear is that practise, effort and finding the best strategy are crucial in determining how successful our children are in life, perhaps even more so than the natural abilities that they were born with.

By Dr Frances Warren and Dr Sherria Hoskins, University of Portsmouth

Get more parenting help from CBeebies Grown-ups

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Wussywat The Clumsy Cat - Growth Mindsets: help your child try new things

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Practising growth mindset theory with children is a great way to get them engaged with subjects and activities that they try to avoid through fear of getting things wrong or "not being good enough". In EYFS the key pillars of learning are literacy, numeracy and art.

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A collection of free web-based maths tools

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A collection of free web-based maths tools

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Cick Here to access

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How to help a struggling reader | Oxford Owl

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Helping your child to spell when writing

As well as learning their spelling words, your child will need to remember these spellings and attempt to spell other words when writing. When we can spell well, we can concentrate on what we want to write, rather than how to write it. We are also more likely to use interesting words when we can spell them.

Here are some strategies you can use to support your child:

1. Encourage your child to 'have a go'

Encourage your child to have a go at spelling a word. This will build confidence and practise spelling skills. Making mistakes is a natural part of learning, and if your child is comfortable knowing that they're not going to get spellings right all the time, then they will be more likely to try out more adventurous words. Keep positive and upbeat.

2. Keep reinforcing phonics

Remind your child to use phonics as their first port of call for spelling a new word - even in Key Stage 2. Help them to really hear each individual sound in the word and choose a suitable spelling pattern.

3. Check your spelling

Remind children to read through their writing and check for spelling errors. They need to develop a feel for whether a word looks right. Help them to check words in a dictionary.

4. Encourage your child to read

When we read, we see words spelled correctly. The more we read, the more words we see.

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Everything you need to know about spelling at primary school from early years to Year 6, with fun activities and advice to help learn at home.

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Parenting and mental health - Beyond Blue

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Find parenting information and resources to support mental health and wellbeing for children, young people and families.

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Typing Club and BBC Bitesize Touch Typing are both free to use

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Learn touch typing online using TypingClub's free typing courses. It includes 650 typing games, typing tests and videos.

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Supporting your child with spelling difficulties at home

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Supporting your child with spelling difficulties at home

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A great way to develop fine motor skils. There are lots of other clips on YouTube

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Dough Disco for parents

Looking for ways to combat boredom with your children at home? Dough Disco is a great activity for children and parents. It combines learning and playful fun with loads of YouTube follow along videos to get you going from scratch up to some of our more advanced moves.

Encourage creativity, develop the muscles needed for early mark making and writing and make some wonderful memories for the whole family - Dough Disco will help you with all these things!

Here are some of our "at home" Dough Disco videos that use our basic moves to get you started with your Dough Disco journey:

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Dough Disco is a popular fine motor skill exercise created by Shonette. Can be used to improve brain and muscle development.

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We would always want a child to hand write and build their skills as much as possible until at least the age of 8 years old as this establishes many necessary skills. Handwriting involves forming and putting letters together in an organised way to produce words and make sentences. The reason we write is to be able to show and share our ideas and understanding with others.

Handwriting is only one of a number of ways we can do this but it is a very important one.

Handwriting helps us to develop how we hold a sense of a letter sound and shape in our minds and bodies- it actually helps us to learn to recognise letter sounds and the physical act of pencil on paper forming letters improves spelling and reading.

As children start to control a pencil more they bring many skills together to produce new shapes and the beginnings of letters and numbers.

Children will be likely to start showing a preference for a particular hand. Children need to have enough strength, stability and control of their hands and bodies to write. Producing shapes is also linking what we see to our physical movements and our ability to form ideas of what we want to do and plan.

In the first stages of writing:

Use chunky crayons and felt pens that are easy to hold and make bold marks.

Carry on with interactive drawing, a story adds great interest to drawing (see pre-writing page for details).

When learning early writing skills make sure it is all about fun and practice and beginning to see letters be formed out of marks!

Use plain paper as it is more about getting the shapes of the letters rather than neatness or size at this stage.

Children want to learn to write their names. Teach them the capital for the beginning of their name and the individual lower case letters. Some names are much easier than others so focus on the easy letters first.

Talk about them pencil actions and make them into stories or images.

If your child has learnt their letters and is ready to start using handwriting to get their ideas on paper there are a number of tips which may help them. The first section has fun ideas and the more technical side of writing is below. Remember to discuss your child's writing with their teacher if you have concerns.
Keep writing fun, here are a few ideas... sometimes you may be sitting, sometimes you may be lying down, it could be inside or outside... Try cave writing, see image above.
If you want to know more about how your child sits please see our page.

Keep a diary when on holiday with pictures, tickets, brochures etc and your child adds drawings, titles,writes what they did etc.

Try writing shopping lists together or write out a menu for supper.

Make up a story together and then take turns writing bits.

Try spy writing - Use a candle and some black paint or you can buy an invisible pen that only shows under its own ultra-violet light.

Write a secret message and hide it to be found and the action done by the finder.

Make a treasure hunt.

Try cave writing - with paper stuck underneath the table - this is great for shoulder stability.

Do funny writing - Try a shaky pen, triple colours etc.

For more ideas see the pre-writing page

Please click on each of the challenges below to find out more information .

Many children need more structure to help them know where they are on the paper and handwriting paper, double lined paper or squared paper can all play a part as well as a visual prompt to distinguish left from right.

Double lined paper is used to teach and practise consistent size, shape and position.

Squared graph paper can help with numbers.

Putting a star on the page where you want the child to begin writing can often help

Teach and practice one letter at a time

Some handwriting paper is raised so children can feel when their pencil touches the line.

Some paper has definite zones for taller letters and zones for those that go below the line (see below)

Standard two lined paper and lines can give enough guidance for some children

This paper gives a clear boundary for middle sized letters, taller and below line letters then go outside the lines

This paper offers a good guide for letter size and can be a good introduction to working smaller writing.

This paper gives a clear boundary for middle sized letters, taller and below line/hanging letters should aim to reach the red lines. It is often found it school handwriting books.

There are many handwriting schemes or programmes which can help and lots of apps for tablets that they can use for fun ways to learn letter shapes. Many of these programmes are used within school time, discuss with your school if they have any they recommend. All schools will have selected their own handwriting program. In addition therapists have developed some that focus on particular aspects of writing.

Here are some examples:

If you child is left handed learning to write may be harder, as they tend to cover their writing as they move across the page and writing can become untidy and smudged.

If your child tends to write from right to left a coloured star at the left margin will help to remind them where to start.

Seat you left handed child on the left side of a double desk, or next to another left-hander to avoid elbow clashing. The same applies at the dinner table.

Make sure they can see the blackboard without twisting round. .

Make allowances for clumsiness, smudging and untidiness and emphasise their achievements with lots of praise.

At the same time if handwriting is not working well as a tool for your child to get their ideas onto paper then it may well be sensible to use other ways to produce work whilst still building on and using handwriting alongside this.

If you think your child may need different ways to get their ideas on paper, this is a good time to talk to school and they may want to involve other professionals including occupational therapy.

Other ideas for producing work could be -

Speaking ideas for an adult to write/draw

Typing on a computer

ICT such as Clicker software which has visual and written words for selection

Low tech - magnetic visuals (pictures or symbols)and words

Voice activated software that enables dictation

Using a key board is part of a longer term plan - at this stage it can be good to practice finding letters for letter recognition and key board familiarity if movement difficulties are such that handwriting is very frustrating and showing very slow progress.

If your child is in year 2 or above and their handwriting is not developing as it should, speak to your child's teacher to find out what they have done to try to help. A referral to occupational therapy would be appropriate if they are not making progress despite extra teaching and practice.

Ask your child's school, nursery or health professional to complete a referral form and send it to us. For professionals forms can be found on the 'contact us' page. Include a sample of their handwriting as this will help us to decide how we can best help them.

The National handwriting Asssociation has lots of useful information and resources for home and school. Click here to find our more.

Useful resources for teaching handwriting and activities to support the development of writing for teachers and parents can be found here.

Click here for great art ideas - for school age too!

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We would always want a child to hand write and build their skills as much as possible until at least the age of 8 years old as this establishes many necessary skills. Handwriting involves forming and putting letters together in an organised way to produce words and make sentences.

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Supporting students with reading, writing and research

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Your subscription means everyone can enjoy the benefits of Read&Write across all platforms including Windows, Mac, Google Chrome, Edge, iPad, and Android.

Once you have purchased, a customer relationship specialist will be appointed to your account. This person is your go-to contact through the duration of your license. They'll help you get up and running at the start and then check in with you every now and again to make sure everything is going well. They'll be on hand for any questions over email or phone during business hours.

Our Learning and Training resources for each product can be accessed at any time on our website. Get up to speed with our software through our learning resources, then verify your expertise by taking part in our certification program.

Our support site gives you access to lots of common questions that other users of our software have about the technical stuff. If you can't find what you're looking for there, then our Tech Support team is on hand at support@texthelp.com 9-5pm every day to help with troubleshooting or technical problems.

We're always working on making our products better, so any improvements or enhancements are pushed out automatically to you, there's no upgrading to do on your part.

Plus, coming soon you'll get free access to the Texthelp Academy for how-to information, video tutorials, product webinars and lots more.

All of this is included as part of your subscription. We do not charge any extra for these services.

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assistive technology for special education

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Read&Write For Education - Reading, Literacy & Assistive Software

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Your subscription means everyone can enjoy the benefits of Read&Write across all platforms including Windows, Mac, Google Chrome, Edge, iPad, and Android. Once you have purchased, a customer relationship specialist will be appointed to your account. This person is your go-to contact through the duration of your license.

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Share some of Charlie Mackesy's drawings with your child and talk about them together. 

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Share some of Charlie Mackesy's drawings with your child and talk about them together. 

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https://www.charliemackesy.com/

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Immersive Reader is a free tool that helps improve reading and writing for people, regardless of their age or ability. Immersive Reader can improve reading comprehension and increase fluency for English language learners. It can help build confidence for emerging readers learning to read at higher levels, and offer text decoding solutions for students with learning differences such as dyslexia.

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Improve Reading & Writing - Microsoft Education

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Microsoft Learning Tools are free tools that improve reading and writing for learners regardless of their age or ability.

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Coloured overlays for your computer - for free

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Coloured overlays for your computer - for free

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For any children working at home who usually use coloured overlays and may not have them at home/for use on a computer, a free screen colour filter that can be downloaded for free here:

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ColorVeil: Reduce eye strain, help with Dyslexia and Visual Stress

A screen color filter over any application you are using

Helps users with Dyslexia and Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome

Reduce eye strain along with screen brightness

Easily customize the color and opacity of the filter

Match the prescription from the optometrist

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Dim screen brightness, reduce eye strain, and save energy. It helps with eye strain, Dyslexia, Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome, or Visual Stress.

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If your child is a relucatant reader or has dyslexia, these books are great. The text is spaced which makes the text easier to read and you can filter books according to reading age and actual age to match interest with reading age.

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We know it can be daunting and stressful when reading is a challenge, and there can be many reasons why a child might struggle. At Barrington Stoke we believe that every child can be a reader, and our super-readable books are expertly designed to help dyslexic and reluctant readers unlock a life-long love of books.

We're here to support you and have included some resources and recommendations below to help kick-start the reading journey.

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We know it can be daunting and stressful when reading is a challenge, and there can be many reasons why a child might struggle. At Barrington Stoke we believe that every child can be a reader, and our super-readable books are expertly designed to help dyslexic and reluctant readers unlock a life-long love of books.

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You will need to create a free account to access the books online. They also have some free activities on their site.