Chronic Constipation: Could Your Child Have a Stressed Stomach?
Chronic constipation is not always just about diet or toileting. This blog explores how a child’s nervous system can affect the gut, why ongoing discomfort can reduce emotional control, and why parents should look beyond the behaviour they can see.
Before We Support the Behaviour, We Need to Understand the Child
We often notice the behaviour first. Interrupting, forgetting instructions, rushing, struggling with change or becoming stuck. But those behaviours can also give us clues about the underlying skills a child may be finding difficult to use. This blog explores why careful observation and cognitive understanding can help us build a fuller profile of the individual child.
The Abilities We Use to Learn Something New
Why can a child understand something one day and struggle with it the next? Learning something new relies on several underlying thinking abilities, including comprehension, memory, problem solving, evaluation and creativity. Understanding these abilities can help us look beyond what a child is struggling with and consider what may be happening underneath the learning.
PDA: Understanding the Reaction Without Removing Every Demand
What happens when a young person says no to something they actually want? This real-life example explores what can sit underneath a PDA response, how understanding can prevent unnecessary arguments, and why support shouldn't simply mean removing every demand.
Schools Are Being Asked to Identify Needs Earlier, Could SOI Help?
The SEND White Paper sets out an ambitious vision for improving support for children and young people. But could schools go further by identifying the learning abilities behind the difficulties? This article explores how Structure of Intellect (SOI) assessments could complement existing practice by providing a practical, measurable framework for targeted intervention.
“But What If Something Goes Wrong?” When a Child Cannot Stop Expecting the Worst
Some children constantly ask, “What if something goes wrong?” This repeated catastrophising can be an overlooked sign that a child is struggling with anxiety and uncertainty.
Why Does My Child Repeat the Same Word When They Feel Nervous?
A child repeatedly saying the same word may appear random, but it could be verbal stimming. For some autistic and ADHD children, it may be an important sign that they feel nervous, uncertain or overwhelmed.
Accountability and Executive Function: Why Consequences Are Not Enough
Children need to learn responsibility, but consequences alone do not teach working memory, organisation, task initiation or emotional regulation. Supported accountability helps children repair what happened while developing the skills needed for next time.
When School Takes Everything: Social Fatigue in Autistic and ADHD Children
A child may appear calm and settled throughout the school day, then come home exhausted, angry or overwhelmed. This blog explains social fatigue, masking and why behaviour after school may be a sign that a child has used all their energy trying to cope.
Exclusions, Risky Behaviour and “Bad Choices”: What Are We Missing?
When a young person repeatedly makes risky choices, we often focus on their behaviour. But what if they struggle to think of another response, judge the consequences or use what they know in the moment? This blog explores how SOI Learning Profile Assessments can identify and strengthen the abilities behind decision-making.
Could Early Thinking Skill Support Reduce Risk and Youth Offending?
Some children and young people are bright, creative and full of ideas, but still repeatedly end up in trouble. This blog explores whether early identification of thinking skill gaps could help reduce risk, exclusion, vulnerability and youth offending.
When Neurodivergent Children Are Misunderstood: The Hidden Distress Adults Keep Missing
Many neurodivergent children do not know they have ADHD, RSD, PDA-type demand anxiety, poor flexible thinking or sensory overload. They just know they keep being misunderstood. This blog explains why adults need to look beyond behaviour and recognise hidden distress before children reach crisis point.
Why I Leave Everything Until the Last Minute, And Why It Is Not Just Disorganisation
Some people are often called disorganised, impatient or last-minute. But what if the real difficulty is the uncomfortable gap between being ready and being able to go? This blog explores how executive functioning, waiting, time, transitions and emotional regulation can affect everyday life.
What Parents Need to Know: A Diagnosis Is Only the Starting Point
A diagnosis is important, but it is only the starting point. To truly support neurodivergent children, parents need to understand the skills underneath behaviour, learning and emotional regulation.
We Need to Stop Looking at Neurodivergence in Separate Boxes
Neurodivergent people do not live their lives in separate diagnostic boxes. This blog explains why sensory processing, executive functioning and co-occurring needs must be understood across autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and other neurodivergent profiles.
Where Did the Time Go? Time Management and Executive Functioning
Time management is more than telling the time. For some children and adults with ADHD, autism or executive functioning difficulties, judging time, planning ahead and getting somewhere on time can feel really hard.
When Every Choice Feels Too Much: Decision Making and Executive Functioning
Decision making is an executive functioning skill we use every day. For some children and adults with ADHD, autism or executive functioning difficulties, even small choices can feel overwhelming.
When Starting Feels Impossible: Task Initiation and Executive Functioning
Task initiation is the executive functioning skill that helps us get started. When this skill is weak, children and adults may look lazy or defiant, but often they are stuck at the starting point.
Is Your Child Really Aggressive? Or Are They Fighting Through a Day They Cannot Cope With?
When a child shouts, argues, lashes out or hurts others, it is easy for them to be labelled aggressive. But for some children, aggressive behaviour is a distress response to feeling overwhelmed, misunderstood or unable to cope. This blog explains reactive aggression and why we need to look beneath the behaviour.
What Does It Really Mean When Your Child Has Learning Difficulties?
Many parents hear terms like “learning difficulties” or “SpLD” but are never properly told what they actually mean in real life. This blog explains how learning difficulties are often linked to working memory, executive functioning, processing speed, sensory processing, ADHD, autism, and emotional regulation — not intelligence.