Articles & Resources

Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: My Heart Checklist

Where our thoughts go…. our feelings flow…. When we get caught up in day to day life, if things are going wrong it can affect the way that we view all other aspects of our worlds. Suddenly, our hyperfocus is on the negative, rather than the balance. So, this week, we are looking at ‘heart

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Anxiety
Nicky Edwards

5 techniques to help calm down panic or worries

When we become overwhelmed, our brain can quickly signal to our body that ‘something is wrong’ or that we are ‘not safe’, which quickly triggers: Increased heart rate Increased blood pressure Sweating Trembling Short of breath Hot flashes Catastrophising Repetitive worries Fear of being out of control or unable to cope Sense of danger Sometimes,

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Easter Activity List

Easter Fun Sometimes, we just all need a little fun. When we do things, simply for joy, it releases serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin – which uplift our mood and increase our well-being. So, with the Easter break arriving, we’re sharing some fun activities, to increase the downtime and enjoyment. Easter Activity List We’re starting with

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Adult Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

3 mindset tools we should teach children

There are so many things that we need to teach children, from mathematics to reading and writing. However, the last few years have also shown us the importance of helping children to build self-esteem and resilience, to support their mental health and well-being. I work with hundreds of children every year in my therapy work,

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activities: All About Me Masks

Helping children to understand themselves and their identity is an important aspect of self-esteem. Supporting children to reflect on their thoughts, feelings, interests, preferences and things that make them feel uncomfortable, scared or worried supports them to express themselves and understand themselves. Having these conversations face to face can be uncomfortable for some children, however,

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School
Nicky Edwards

5 Things to Consider for Exams

The mere utterance of the word ‘Exams’, can often cause people to break out in a cold sweat. Whether it’s now or 10years ago, the concept of exams is often associated with a fight – flight – freeze response of some sorts. The pressure which is exerted, whether verbally or through association can often cause

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Feelings Wordsearch #2

We often talk about finding creative ways to talk about feelings can open new conversations. Sometimes, just sitting down can feel too confronting for some children, so activities can provide the perfect opportunity to explore what we are feeling and how it affects us. However, we also need to build on our feelings vocabulary as

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Neurodiversity
Nicky Edwards

Three things you need to know about girls and ADHD

ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is a disorder which is categorised into two parts: Inattention (concentration and focus) Hyperactivity and impulsivity Whilst most people with ADHD have difficulties in both areas, some only fall into one category. ADHD was first identified in 1846 by Heinrich Hoffman, and the scientific presentation by Sir George Frederic Still

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activity: Feel Good Jar

Feel Good Jar Children can sometimes find it difficult to recognise their strengths, whether they are skills, traits or behaviours. Helping children to recognise their positives supports them to raise their self-esteem and therefore their well-being. So, this week we are looking at ‘Feel Good Jars’ to help children record their positive traits and recognise

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Anxiety
Nicky Edwards

What is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition where a child, teenager or adult has reoccurring thoughts and negative behaviours which they cannot control. There are many misconceptions about OCD and frequently, people will refer to themselves as having OCD when they do not. Whilst frequently a throw away comment ‘I’m a bit OCD’,

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activities: Anger Strategies

Why do we get angry?? Everyone has a different response to anger, and the reason for this is that everyone interprets the environment, relationships and situations differently. This is dependent on previous experience, developmental stage and our understanding of our own emotions and triggers. As such, no response to a situation is right or wrong,

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Attachment
Nicky Edwards

What is attachment?

Attachment theory is a psychological theory, developed by John Bowlby (1977), that looks at the connections and relationships between humans. Attachments are those deep emotional bonds that we develop with another person, where we feel secure and close with them. In attachment theory, we examine the relationship between children and their parents, and the way

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activities: Self-esteem Mirrors

Valuing ourselves Supporting children to recognise their strengths and positive traits is a great first step to supporting them to develop their self-esteem. That can start with positive conversations, where we encourage children to recognise and validate their own strengths and positives. Helping them to build heir confidence in recognising what is wonderful about them,

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Anxiety
Nicky Edwards

Why supporting avoidance is not kindness

When children struggle with anxiety, it can feel like the kindest thing to allow them to avoid the situation that is affecting them. However, we quickly discover that the list of things that they need to avoid becomes bigger and bigger, and their world becomes smaller and smaller and smaller. Safety Behaviours When we use

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activities: Grow your own Garden

Self-esteem Self-esteem is the value we place on our own worth. It is the opinion we have of ourselves. The way we view our worth in the world. It can be positive or negative, and the level of our self-esteem impacts the way that we see the world and the events that occur in our

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Child Mental Health
Nicky Edwards

Why we need to teach children (and adults) self-reflection

So often, I meet children (and adults) who are caught up in a challenging thought process where they are angry with particular features of friends, teachers, parents or peers. One of the activities that we often take part in, is to consider: “How much of that characteristic exists in you”  All of us have mirror

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Activities
Nicky Edwards

Children’s Activities: How am I feeling?

How am I feeling? A step of emotional literacy development is being able to recognise what our emotions are. In order to do this, we first need to consider their names and what they feel like. For children, exploring characters in stories is a first step to understanding how people feel and why they might

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Anxiety
Nicky Edwards

Why we need to look beneath child behaviour

Previously, I spoke about the child behaviour iceberg (find it here), so in this article, I want to look at the ABC of behaviour. When I started my career working as an early years practitioner, later as a Nursery Manager and then a lecturer of early years, (before eventually finding myself as an inspector) I would

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