I AM IN AWE OF THE MOST IMPRESSIVE and engaged attention given by a complete team; Practitioners who work with children from three – fourteen within a London Education Trust.

A highly participative day focused on Understanding and Responding to sexualised behaviours in children. There were big surprises for Practitioners in that quite often behaviours might not look overtly sexualised in nature at all, but behaviours to draw attention:

• The child who is always in trouble
• The child who seems tuned out, perhaps viewed as a daydreamer
• The child who is self-harming or harming others, including animals
• The child who freaks out when they find themselves cornered or confined
  ……..all for no apparent reason

Melonie Syrett, my Associate and I, encouraged Practitioners to expand their capacity for ‘questioning behaviours’ …. including their own internal thoughts and feelings around children.

We looked at what might get evoked in us, how we might turn off our emotional responses to children, disregard our thoughts and feelings….. at a cost to children.

They are all valid thoughts and feelings though. Trusting ourselves to pick up on a feeling may just be our starting point.

A few comments on evaluations from this training event included:

“It made it more real. I have a tendency to put my head in the sand”

“I feel better informed and more confident. I know better how children can communicate through behaviour”

“It has helped me to understand what normal development is and what is cause for concern. It heightened my understanding of what these behaviours look like”

“It’s important to be aware of your own personal issues but you need to make sure you put them to aside when dealing with certain situations at work; we need to really listen to children”

If you think that this might be an area of training that you and your team would like to look at, please contact us on 0208 123 5099 or .