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Making Sense Of It

Children with Learning Disabilities

Caring for a child/young person with a disability can be both rewarding and challenging. The needs of the family and the child, can be different and need a tailored or specialist approach. Depending on the level of a child’s learning disability, they may be attending a local mainstream school, a Special Educational Needs school, an independent school, or a residential school. We have experience working in and providing support to all of these educational settings. We aim to bring together all the different parts of a young person’s life to help it make sense to them and their family. We have links with a range of other specialist professionals.

At Making Sense Of It, we have extensive experience supporting families, children and schools in the following areas:

  • Understanding and managing challenging behaviour (including functional analysis of behaviour and the development of positive behaviour support plans)
  • Cognitive and adaptive skills assessments
  • Support in the community
  • Supporting young people with positive peer relationships, managing anxiety, relationships and sex education
  • Parent and wider family support – post-diagnosis support, managing behaviour, sleep difficulties, sibling support
child with paint on their hands
These children are part of our community, not external to it. They are our nieces and nephews, the children of our neighbours and friends. In a very real way they are our children too. We have a responsibility as a community to do the best for these children, to support them in the best possible way in order to allow them to thrive. We need to take that responsibility seriously and believe that our actions can make a difference
Christine Lenehan 2017

Working into schools or residential settings

We can offer a variety of support into educational settings and residential settings, including consultation to staff in relation to specific children/young people, whole setting training and therapeutic support packages for either individual children or small groups of children. We can provide services into:

  • Special Educational Needs schools
  • Local Authority Primary and Secondary schools
  • Independent schools
  • Residential schools
  • Residential children's homes - Local Authority and independent sector
Child blowing on a flower
Children and adults with learning disabilities are at least as likely to have a mental health problem as the general population. However, these problems often go undetected as the symptoms can be mixed up with the child or adult’s learning disabilities or challenging behaviour
The Challenging Behaviour Foundation 2017