Magical Change - emotional support for kids

11/11/2025

Some very good advice here..............................

When a young person is in meltdown, their nervous system has moved into survival mode.
This means the thinking, reasoning, language-based parts of the brain are offline.

So phrases like:
“Calm down.”
“You don’t need to be upset.”
“Use your words.”
or “Stop it.”
aren’t just unhelpful — they can intensify the overwhelm.

Not because the child is choosing not to listen —
but because they are not able to in that moment.

This post breaks down what not to say at each stage of the meltdown cycle:

• Escalation
• Crisis (the peak)
• Recovery (the Blue Phase)

Because the timing of our response matters just as much as the words we use.

If you want a deeper understanding of what’s happening in the brain during these stages — and how to support each phase with calm, connection and safety — you’ll find the full Timeline of a Meltdown resource via link in comments below ⬇️ or via Linktree Shop in Bio.

FOLLOW for our next post - What to Say During a Meltdown

28/10/2025

DYSLEXIA NEEDN`T HOLD YOU BACK .......................................

She couldn't read, couldn't hear, and wasn't allowed to speak in class—so she invented a surgery that saved thousands of dying babies.
Helen Taussig's childhood was defined by struggle. Letters swam on the page, refusing to form words. Her dyslexia was so severe that reading felt like decoding an impossible puzzle. While other children breezed through books, Helen fought for every sentence.
Then, in her twenties, another blow: her hearing began to fade. The world grew quieter, muffled, distant.
When she finally entered medical school in the 1920s—after years of fighting for admission—Harvard told her she could audit classes but would never receive a degree. Boston University allowed her to attend, but with conditions: sit in the back, don't speak to male students, remain invisible.
Helen Taussig refused to be invisible.
She taught herself to lip-read. She studied harder than anyone else in the room. She memorized what she couldn't hear and understood what she couldn't easily read. And when doors slammed in her face, she found windows.
By the 1940s, Dr. Taussig was working at Johns Hopkins Hospital, specializing in children born with heart defects. She witnessed something heartbreaking: infants turning blue, their bodies starved of oxygen, dying within days or weeks because their hearts couldn't pump blood properly. Parents left the hospital empty-handed. There was no treatment. No hope.
Helen couldn't accept that.
She developed a theory: what if they could reroute blood flow around the defective heart structures? It was a radical idea—heart surgery was still in its infancy, and operating on tiny babies seemed impossible.
She brought her vision to surgeon Alfred Blalock and surgical technician Vivien Thomas. Together, this team spent years perfecting the technique. In 1944, they performed the first successful Blalock-Taussig shunt on a dying baby named Eileen Saxon.
The child's blue skin turned pink. She survived.
Word spread. Parents traveled across the country, bringing their blue babies to Johns Hopkins. The hallways filled with children who had been given death sentences—until Helen Taussig gave them life. Thousands of children who would have died went home healthy.
Dr. Taussig went on to become the founder of pediatric cardiology, the first woman to become a full professor at Johns Hopkins, and a fierce advocate for children's health. When thalidomide threatened to be approved in the United States in the 1960s, it was Helen who investigated, discovered its dangers, and prevented a tragedy.
She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. But perhaps her greatest achievement was simply this: she proved that the world's assessments of our limitations are often wrong.
A girl who couldn't read became a doctor. A woman who couldn't hear listened more carefully than anyone. A student told to stay silent changed medicine forever.
Helen Taussig didn't just overcome barriers. She turned every obstacle into a reason to push harder, see clearer, and care deeper.
And because she did, thousands of children got to grow up.

25/10/2025

READ THIS PAGE IF YOU HAVE A DYSLEXIC CHILD AND WANT SOME FREE AND EFFECTIVE HELP.............................

Thank you, Jamie. This is my complete 3-minute response to your petition. Hello, my name is Olive Hickmott. I lived with poor literacy for 50 years before discovering how people who are good at lit…

23/10/2025

AMEN TO THIS ...........................

My response to Bridget Phillipson’s announcement about year 8 reading and comprehension tests…

Not another test.
Not another tick-box dressed as care,
not another label handed out like salt in a wound.
Our kids don’t need more data,
they need people who see them.
Really see them.

Because every time a new assessment rolls in,
you call it progress,
but what they feel is pressure.
What they hear is:
you’re still behind,
you’re still not enough,
you’re still the problem we’re trying to fix.

Children with SEND have spent years
being measured, compared,
their brilliance trapped in boxes
that were never built for them.
And now another reading test,
another reminder of where they “fall short”
in a system that was never made to hold their kind of magic.

You say it’s to “close the gap.”
But your system creates it.
You say it’s to “raise standards.”
But what about raising understanding?
What about raising compassion?

Because you can’t test a child into confidence.
You can’t assess your way to inclusion.
You can’t measure joy or curiosity
or the quiet resilience it takes
just to walk through those school gates.

If you want to raise standards,
raise teacher training.
Raise funding.
Raise awareness that SEND support
isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.
Give us smaller classes,
specialist staff,
and schools that teach with hearts, not just handbooks.

We don’t need more data.
We need more humanity.
We don’t need more tests.
We need transformation.

Because the problem isn’t that our children are falling behind,
it’s that the system keeps running ahead
without them.

So no, Bridget,
we don’t need another reading test.
We need a system that reads our children right.
We need classrooms that whisper,
“You belong here, exactly as you are.”

Not another test.
Not another measure.
Not another wound disguised as progress.

What we need
is change.

P.s Bridget most SEND kids will be struggling to attend by year 8 …
You may want to bring this in earlier if it really is to identify those who need support. 😏🤔

Michaela
My lovely Miss S mug ❤️

17/10/2025

Another attempt to increase education standards ......... by more TESTING and targets ................. 😞

Today Bridget Phillipson announced that a new target will be set of 90% of 6-year-olds passing the phonics screening check at the end of Year 1. Currently 83% pass at the end of Year 1 and 89% at the end of Year 2.

They also announce a new reading test for children in Year 8 at age 13.

They say that this is because strong reading skills are the foundation for everything else in education.

These measures will backfire, and here’s why.

You can’t make children learn faster by setting more tests. You can’t help struggling readers by putting them under more pressure. You don’t allow teachers to teach better by making them teach to the test.

We are already putting too much pressure on our very young children. There is no evidence that pushing academic skills on them earlier leads to later success.

The result will be a narrowing of the curriculum, more anxiety about reading, and more children who start to see themselves as stupid and inadequate before they’ve even turned seven. How children think about learning is the real foundation for everything else. If they’ve decided that it’s boring and hard before they’re out of the Infants, then no one is a winner.

Yes, reading is important. No, more testing and early pressure isn’t the way to raise standards. It will create more of the problems the government say they want to avoid. Our children need something better.

14/10/2025

A LOVELY STORY .................

My 6 year old son, Grant, has a large Port Wine Stain birthmark on his face. His birthmark has not bothered him that much over the years, however, in the last year (Kindergarten) it really has and he's said he wishes he didn't have it. He isn't bothered by what it looks like...his pain comes from strangers constantly asking him 'what happened to his face' or 'what's wrong with his face.' etc. He has his canned response 'It's just a birthmark' that he used to say very matter of factly, but lately he's been saying it in an exhausted manner because he's just tired of having to explain it to everyone he comes in contact with, and people saying things that maybe they don't realize, but are incredibly hurtful (like a medical tech at the doctor's office who after Grant said it was a birthmark, said 'Oh, I thought you got punched in the face.'

This past school year, during class, he got a bathroom pass and went to the bathroom. A kid who he's never met before was in there and per usual, asked what happened to his face. Grant did his usual response. But this kid did something different. He then said, 'well, your birthmark is really cool.' And then asked Grant if he gets hurt feelings from people asking about it or making fun of it. Grant said, yes, he does. The kid then looked at him and said, 'Stick up for yourself, kid.'

And just like that, Grant felt supported, cared about, and that this random stranger had something "nice" (his words) to say about his birthmark, and this made Grant so happy. He had the biggest smile on his face telling me this story.

This kid has more kindness, empathy, and emotional intelligence than many people quadruple his age. With all the challenges in dealing with mean kids that hurt others feelings, wow, does this kid give me hope.

I was determined to find this amazing kid (he didn't get his name or grade level), so that he (and his parents) could hear about his compassion and kindness (and frankly, I just wanted to give him a giant bear hug because I was bawling tears of joy for about 3 days after this happened.) It took us several week to figure out who he was, and I reached out to his parents to share what happened.

I thought for sure this kid had to be in 4th or 5th grade by his maturity and social confidence in reaching out to Grant. Well, was I really, really, wrong. His name is Tucker. Tucker is in 1st grade. Yup. 1st grade. According to his teacher and his parents, (who are amazing, by the way, and just as touched by this entire thing) he's *incredibly* shy....a gentle, introverted and reserved little boy. A boy who felt compelled to break his shyness to reach out to Grant, because he has experienced sad feelings too when kids have made comments about him. A kid who told his parents he made a new Kindergarten friend that he met in the bathroom, and described him as having "white hair" (he didn't even describe him as the "kid with the birth mark"). A kid who is in the before-school care with Grant, whom Grant never noticed because Tucker is so shy. And now? 2 boys, new friends, and play dates being coordinated. Tucker is excited to have Grant over and splash in his pool. Grant is trying to negotiate meeting at a park since he's scared of dogs and Tucker has one. Regardless of where or when they get together, my heart is happy seeing these two boys together...a friendship that started with empathy, courage, and sincere kindness from one kid to another. Let the fun begin!

Credit : A Love What Matters via Facebook
Author : Madeline Schmidt

05/10/2025

For Grief by John O’Donohue

When you lose someone you love,
Your life becomes strange,
The ground beneath you becomes fragile,
Your thoughts make your eyes unsure;
And some dead echo drags your voice down
Where words have no confidence
Your heart has grown heavy with loss;
And though this loss has wounded others too,
No one knows what has been taken from you
When the silence of absence deepens.

Flickers of guilt kindle regret
For all that was left unsaid or undone.

There are days when you wake up happy;
Again inside the fullness of life,
Until the moment breaks
And you are thrown back
Onto the black tide of loss.
Days when you have your heart back,
You are able to function well
Until in the middle of work or encounter,
Suddenly with no warning,
You are ambushed by grief.

It becomes hard to trust yourself.
All you can depend on now is that
Sorrow will remain faithful to itself.
More than you, it knows its way
And will find the right time
To pull and pull the rope of grief
Until that coiled hill of tears
Has reduced to its last drop.

Gradually, you will learn acquaintance
With the invisible form of your departed;
And when the work of grief is done,
The wound of loss will heal
And you will have learned
To wean your eyes
From that gap in the air
And be able to enter the hearth
In your soul where your loved one
Has awaited your return
All the time.