New FREE online course - Words Matter: How to Communicate with Children so they Thrive
We’ve put together these simple resources which we hope you’ll find helpful. There are specific resources for parents and carers, teachers, and adults in general, all designed to help build children up, not knock them down. We also have a guide for adults who have experienced childhood verbal abuse themselves.
If you have any comments or suggestions, please contact hello@wordsmatter.org
Five practical tips for communicating with children
Five practical tips for communicating with children
Dr Fiona Pienaar
Fiona is a child and adolescent mental health specialist, coach, and a former teacher with over 30 years’ experience. She was most recently Senior Clinical Advisor with Mental Health Innovations (MHI)/Shout 85258 and was previously Director of Clinical Services at the UK charity Place2Be.
Fiona spent many years as a teacher in primary and intermediate schools, special needs education, and counselling in schools. She has also undertaken mental health research and developed educational and mental health resources.
Neurodiversity resource authors
Advisory Board member Jessica Narowlansky, a Psychotherapist who has extensive experience of working with children and young people with neurological differences and the parents, carers and teachers around them. Julia Avnon, a Chartered Psychologist, Senior Clinical Tutor and Honorary Lecturer at the Anna Freud Centre and UCL with 20 years of experience in working with children, young people and adults with psychological and neurodevelopmental conditions. Fin O’Regan, an ADHD and Neurodiversity Consultant for a number of schools and organisations, an associate lecturer for Leicester University, NASEN, The Helen Arkell Charity and the Institute of Education. Pete Wharmby who, having been diagnosed as autistic at the age of 34, is on a mission to improve autistic awareness, acceptance and make the world a more suitable place for the neurodivergent community.
The words our carers and authority figures say to us shape the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what we are worth. They impact how we expect to be valued and determine if we believe we can be loved by others. As significant as actions, words create the foundation upon which we stand in life – they craft the very essence of our emotional DNA.
