SEMH: Resources

• Anna Freud parents and carers resources offer advice and guidance to help support children and young people who may be struggling with poor mental health.
• Attachment in Common Sense and Doodles: A Practical Guide - M Silver.
• Beacon House provides assessments and therapies for people who are experiencing mental health difficulties, emotional and behavioural problems and relationship conflict.
• Colour away your worries – Leslie & Haia Ironside.
• Forensic CAMHs East Anglian FCAMH parents’ section for children at risk of criminal behaviours.
• Occupational Therapy NHS website – sensory difference and fine and gross motor training.
• Pinpoint helps parents who have children with additional needs and disabilities.
• SENDIASS provides advice and support to parents and carers who have a child or young person with special educational needs.
• Cambridgeshire steps [Size: 377 KB, File: PDF] guidance for parents.
• The new social storybook – Carol Gray.
• YoungMinds is a charity working for better children and young people's mental health.
• YOUnited help children and young people with their emotional wellbeing and mental health.
• Nessie Positive Mental Health offers support for parents/carers in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, which includes free online and face-to-face workshops, Parent Support line and Private moderated Facebook support groups.

• Mental Health Awareness Week 2023 Toolkit for Primary Schools
• Mental Health Awareness Week 2023 Toolkit for Secondary Schools
• A Therapeutic treasure box for working with children and adolescents with developmental trauma - Karen Treisman.
• AET training (specifically anxiety module). Promotes and supports partnerships throughout the education system to improve education for autistic children and young people.
• Anna Freud help support children and young people who may be struggling with poor mental health.
• Attachment and emotional development in the classroom: Theory and Practice - David Colley and Paul Cooper.
• Beacon House provides assessments and therapies for people who are experiencing mental health difficulties, emotional and behavioural problems and relationship conflict.
• Building positive thinking habits: Increasing self-confidence and resilience in young people through Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) - Tina Rae.
• DFE Mental Health in Schools document.
• Drawing the ideal self – Heather Moran.
• Emotionally-based school refusal [Size: 2.1 MB, File: PDF] guidance for primary and secondary schools.
• Growth mindset lessons: every child a learner – Shirley Clarke & Katherine Muncaster.
• Inside I am hurting - Louise Bomber.
• Know me to teach me - Louise Bomber.
• PACE articles - Dan Hughes.
• Punished by rewards - Alfie Kohn.
• Settling to learn - Louise Bomber & Dan Hughes.
• Skills-based learning for caring for a loved one with an eating disorder - Janet Treasure
• The incredible 5-point scale and other systems teach social and emotional concepts to children and adults who could use some extra support.
• The links between children's early experience, emotional wellbeing, and performance in school - Heather Geddes.
• The new social storybook - Carol Gray.
• The Zones of Regulation help develop awareness of feelings while exploring a variety of strategies for regulation, prosocial skills, self-care, and overall wellness.
• Think Good to Feel Good [Size: 1,552 KB, File: PDF] - CBT reading, strategies, and intervention.
• Understanding, nurturing, and working effectively with vulnerable children in schools – Angela Greenwood.

• Calm box or bags need to be resourced with appropriate items and teachers or teaching assistants should model how they can be used for the whole class and where necessary individuals or small groups.
• Opportunities to do additional art and drawing mindfully – there is a range of mindful drawing resources available. These resources could be made available at break or lunchtime for children or young people who need this.
• Friendship bench or friend bench for outside play. Some children or young people may need to be taught how to use this.
• Identified a safe, quiet area for children and young people to calm down which is easily accessible.
• Sand timers and stopwatches which can be used to help children and young people manage classroom or school expectations.
• Movement breaks – such as Go Noodle could be used to give whole classes a movement break
• A growth mindset approach (which was coined by Carol Dweck) can be used to help children and young people understand the things that they have overcome and to strive sometimes through adversity to achieve more. Developing a growth mindset activity.
• Access to regular class/group/individual mindfulness/yoga/stretching/music sessions.
• Access to Relationships and Sex education (RSE) curriculum which is delivered regularly and differentiated to meet the needs of most children and young people.
• SEAL resources help children or young people develop social and emotional capabilities.
• An inclusive physical education curriculum.

Forest school or structured outdoor or equivalent activities which give children and young people opportunities to access kinaesthetic learning activities alongside other children and within environments that they may enjoy. This approach can support with:

• resilience
• connectiveness to nature
• positive psychological well-being
• confidence
• relationship building
• problem-solving.

• The incredible 5-point scale and other systems teach social and emotional concepts to children and adults who could use some extra support.
• Alternative recording technology to improve self-esteem and confidence in learning.
• Resources that support children and young people to understand their anxiety and emotional wellbeing. Examples could include anxiety trackers, Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale or resources from the Cambridgeshire Steps like anxiety mapping, blob trees, or feelings diaries.
• Bereavement curriculum – Examples of helpful resources could be accessed through Nurture UK or Winston’s Wish.
• Sensory resources (chair bands, chewies, fidget toys, weighted blankets etc) to support children or young people’s emotional and sensory needs.

• AET competency framework support staff in meeting SEND policies, legal requirements and their equality duties.
• Social and Communication Descriptors [Size: 129 KB, File: PDF].
• Boxall profile, a resource for the assessment of children and young people's social, emotional and behavioural development.
• Scales or assessments that are readily available through social skills intervention resources.
• Elements of Cambridgeshire Steps.

• Anxiety mapping or similar approach which helps to identify children or young people’s emotional needs.
• Boxall profile, a resource for the assessment of children and young people's social, emotional and behavioural development.
• The Coventry Grid is an attempt to differentiate between autism and attachment problems.
• Readiness Scale for reintegrating children with social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties into mainstream classrooms.
• Cambridgeshire Early Years developmental journal.
• Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires are behavioural screening questions about children and young people.
• Spence anxiety scale assesses six areas of anxiety.
• Cambridgeshire Therapeutic Thinking provide necessary steps to ensure that every young person is given an equality of opportunity to develop socially and to enjoy community life.
• Resources from the Emotional Health and Wellbeing Services.

An Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) is any injury to the brain that happens after birth, following a period of typical development. It can happen to any child at any age. The term ABI includes traumatic brain injuries (e.g., falls, assaults, accidents), illnesses, infections, or other medical conditions (e.g., encephalitis, meningitis, stroke, and brain tumours).

An ABI is a ‘dynamic’ condition which may have long-term or lifelong consequences. The impact of the ABI is determined by its nature and severity, and partly by the age and developmental stage of the CYP at the time of injury. The impact of injuries to networks or pathways may only become evident over time as brains develop across childhood and adolescence.

An ABI can cause physical, cognitive, communication, social and psychological effects as the result of injury to specific areas or from damage to connections and pathways within the brain. For this reason, it is often referred to as a ‘hidden disability’ as many of the effects are not easily observed.

National guidance that may also be helpful for schools is linked below:

• ABI Return booklet [Size: 1,147 KB, File: PDF].
• N-ABLES signposting and resources [Size: 242 KB, File: PDF].

Cambridge Centre for Paediatric Neuropsychological Rehabilitation (CCPNR) leaflets are linked below.

The following pathway may be helpful for children who might be demonstrating Situational Mutism (SM). This is where there is a concern raised by the school or parent about a child or young person who:

• Is consistently unable to speak in specific situations.
• Has SM longer than one month beyond the first month in a new school.
• Has SM and is not due to lack of knowledge or confidence with the language.
• Has SM and it interferes with education or socialisation.

Using the Situational (Selective) Mutism Framework

To increase your awareness of what situational (selective) mutism is please do read through the framework in the Situational Mutism Framework file below.

Situational (selective) mutism is a severe anxiety disorder where a person is unable to speak in certain social situations, such as with classmates at school or with relatives they do not see very often. It usually starts during childhood and can persist into adulthood. The earlier the selective mutism is noticed and support strategies put in place, the less likely the anxiety will persist or worsen.

A child or adult with selective mutism does not refuse or choose not to speak at certain times, they’re unable to speak in certain circumstances. The expectation to talk to certain people triggers a freeze response with feelings of panic, like a bad case of stage fright, and talking is impossible. In time, the person will learn to anticipate the situations that provoke this distressing reaction and do all they can to avoid them.

However, people with selective mutism may be able to speak freely in specific “safe” environments or to certain people, such as close family and friends, when nobody else is around to trigger the freeze response. Selective mutism affects about 1 in 140 young children. It’s more common in girls and children who are learning a second language, such as those who’ve recently migrated from their country of birth.

Although not regarded as a common condition, it can be debilitating for the child or adult experiencing it. Therefore, parents and professionals must know what it is and how to support a person struggling with this condition, as early detection and help can make a huge difference.

This framework has been devised by health and education professionals within Cambridgeshire and Peterborough who have consulted with parent support services in order to ensure that it is easy to follow and offers clear guidance on how to support a child or young person.

View the first video about how to detect it early on, even if you are not concerned about a child at present. There may be children or young people that you encounter who are beginning to struggle with selective mutism and the earlier it is detected the earlier support can be put in place for them. The second video provides more detailed guidance around setting up an intervention where the mutism has become more embedded. The training is supported by supplementary information in the “Selective Mutism Manual” (Maggie Johnson) – it is strongly recommended settings invest in this resource.

A diagnosis is not needed for the adults around the child or young person to access the support recommended in the framework.