Not every child or young person who struggles in school has an official SEND diagnosis. Yet for the growing number being referred for assessment, the wait can stretch to many months, or even years. In the meantime, navigating a typical school day can be confusing and challenging for many pupils.
So, how can teachers and other professionals working with children provide the right support when they don’t yet have all the answers?
At Woodbridge Academy Trust, our specialist SEND team is the first in the country to be recognised as a Trauma-Informed UK education service. We work with settings across the North West to support the inclusion of children, young people, and adults with additional needs in mainstream education.
The strategies below are regular fixtures in our toolkit. They help pupils make progress and safeguard their wellbeing while they wait for an official SEND assessment.
Children and young people with additional needs often benefit from time and support to process difficult experiences and make sense of the consequences of their behaviour.
For example, if a child becomes angry due to clashes within a friendship group, it can be helpful to incorporate activities into their day that reflect the principles of restorative justice.
Guided conversations can be especially useful for helping children explore what’s going on for them. They can use questions such as “What happened?” “Who was affected?” and “What needs to happen next to put it right?”
These prompts can enable children to develop self-awareness, empathy, and a sense of responsibility. They also encourage the child to express their feelings about the situation and reflect on what they might do differently next time. This kind of structured, supportive dialogue helps children process social challenges and build their emotional literacy in a meaningful way.
There are some simple strategies to support children who struggle to manage strong emotions.
Sensory Circuits are useful when emotions run high, as they can help children return to a calmer state. These activities work well with all children, whether they are neurodiverse or not.
The set tasks should be done in order, and they include:
It can be especially difficult for pupils with communication delays or who are non-speaking to express how they’re feeling. Visual prompts can help children communicate emotions.
We often use symbols from Widgit, such as emotion cards featuring facial expressions. These give children a visual reference they can point to when they cannot verbalise their emotions.
The Zones of Regulation is another helpful tool. It groups emotions into four coloured zones:
Symbols can also be used to personalise the zones to suit each child. For example, if a child associates yellow with panic rather than excitement, using the standard colour coding may not resonate and could reduce the strategy’s effectiveness.
Customising the colours using symbols can make the approach more meaningful. A pupil might describe a good day as a ‘Lego Day’, such as when everything clicks into place. A brightly coloured building brick might therefore be the perfect symbol to use. If a sad day is regarded as a ‘Rainy Breaktime Day’ by the child, making a cloud with raindrops could be a powerful visual cue for them to communicate the emotion.
You don’t need a formal diagnosis of SEND to start making a difference to a child’s school or life experience. Many of the most effective strategies to support children with additional needs are simple, proactive and can be seamlessly embedded into regular daily routines.
With inclusive practices in place by design, schools and other settings can create an environment where every child feels safe, understood and supported, regardless of their needs or abilities.
Rachel Berry, Specialist SEND teacher, Ladywood Outreach
Cate Marsden, Director of external partnerships, Woodbridge Trust
