If your child has additional learning needs, you may be finding it challenging to homeschool your children and provide them with the support they may have been receiving in a classroom environment. We don’t expect you to teach your child a full curriculum, and what’s most important during this time is our health, safety and wellbeing. However, you may be looking for things to do with your children and there are plenty of activities and resources we would like to share with you.

During this time, your child may be anxious at the changes going on around them. You may be anxious yourself, or overwhelmed at the thought of learning from home. What’s most important during this time is alleviating both you and your child’s stress. Firstly, limiting time reading the news or going on social media will help with this – the news may be adding additional stress. Next, focus your activities on learning through play. Focus on sensory activities (which you can find some ideas for here) and get creative! Not all learning experiences are academic. It’s important to explain to your children what’s going on and expect lots of questions. You may not have all the answers, but your tone and body language can help to calm your child’s worries.

Routine is important to for any child, even more so for many children with additional learning needs. Scope recommend that you create a homeschooling routine and give your child a choice of 2 educational activities each day. Routine is incredibly important to help the transition back to the classroom flow more smoothly, so make sure that bedtimes and wake-up times are adhered to and try to mimic the structure of a school day in terms of meal times and designated time slots.

Swansea Council's ALN team have put together a page of resources you can find here. On this page you can find a variety of different resources that cover a range of additional learning needs, including educational tools, advice for parents and even stories to help children to understand what’s going on. BBC Bitesize also has a toolkit for parents with resources, activities and support. This is a great website that will help with your child’s wellbeing, as well as lessons with special guests such as Mr. Tumble. You can also find resources on our website, such as tips and activities.

Don’t forget that you are not alone. Our brilliant staff at LPS are here to help wherever we can, so please feel free to reach out to us.