What I wish I knew about working with children with special needs with Melissa Stead

"Children with special needs bring so much joy, they’re so lovely, they’ve got so much to give and they are an important part of our society". So says Melissa Stead who always wanted to be a teacher of children with special needs. In her career she has been a mainstream primary school teacher, a special educational needs teacher and she is currently a special educational needs and disabilities coordinator.

Melissa has seen some distressing practice in different countries - adults chained to beds at night, babies stacked in cages, children slapped for touching toys, but she has only positive things to say about how lucky she is to work with children with special needs and to actually get paid for doing it! In short, you've guessed it, she absolutely loves it.  

In this podcast we discuss ...

• Why some people are afraid of the unknown and are unsure how to speak to children with special needs or how to react to them.
• Anyone who works with people with special needs deserves the total respect of society as they do great work even though it can be very challenging.
• The importance of talking to a child with special needs in the right way. We should never talk about the autistic child but the child with autism, just as we should never refer to someone as a naughty child but as a child who needs help to change certain behaviours.
• Trauma perceptive practice - a fantastic program that looks at where the children's behaviour is coming from so they can be helped to regulate their 'emotional pots' so they don't become overwhelmed.
• Every child has some form of special need. The teacher's job is to make sure that the most important needs for each child are supported in the best way possible.
• How the introduction of PECS (picture exchange communication system) transformed a 14 year old boy's communication so that he could talk in sentences having been non-verbal.
• The joy of seeing a boy in a walking race run as fast as he could to the end of the track whilst laughing all the way. His classmates cheered him on and, as he hadn’t always got on too well with them, it was lovely to see them do this.
• Taking a boy with cerebral palsy trekking in the Lake District in his electric buggy.
• The scary moment when a KS3 boy got so excited at the beach that he ran fully clothed into the sea and started swimming, whilst two teachers (also fully clothed) chased after him to pull him out.
• Staying calm is essential when problems occur. Although you might have a churning stomach, on the outside you must look totally unflustered so that everyone else stays calm.
• When the swimming pool was unexpectedly closed, one boy was so upset that he got changed into his swim shorts back at school and lay on the carpet swimming.
• How laughing with the students is essential. Make sure school is a fun place and, when funny things happen, enjoy them with the children - don’t take life and education too seriously.
• In education we rarely get moments to just consolidate our good practice as we are always looking for improvement. So make sure that you only change something you are doing because you think it will truly make the education better.
• As a young teacher it would have been so valuable to know more about the children’s individual needs.
• Focusing on reading and teaching children how to read should be the priority for every ECT.
• Managing other adults in a way that develops team work is hard but crucial. To work successfully as a team you have to share ideas and respect the views of others, even if you don’t always agree. LSAs can provide great support to a new teacher by sharing their expertise so make full use of this.
• Make sure the LSA works with all children not just those with additional needs. The teacher must work regularly with these children to accelerate their progress.
• If you’re not making someone else’s life better then you are wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other lives better.

You can connect with Melissa on

https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-stead-5088b8214

To find out more about Melissa's work visit

http://www.facebook.com/essentialsendconsultant