What is I Matter Training: Foundation 3: Child Development Matters

I Matter Training aims to bring lots of complex ideas into a practical useable whole for those who live or work with complex children.   One critically important idea that gets glossed over repeatedly in our educational and mental health practices is the issue of child development.   

Children develop.  The brain develops.   Child brain development is impacted massively by experience as well as by genetics.   However child development can be a very trusted guide if you are living or working with complex children.   

What may shock you is that when you start to look at the challenges that your child is facing through the lens of child development is that i) your child may have some very significant gaps in their social development ii) YOU have a very important role to play that cannot be replaced by any distant expert.  

There are a few interventions in the area of children with complex needs that take a developmental approach but not nearly enough.   A much greater understanding of child social-emotional development needs to be embedded into our educational systems not as an added after thought but as central to the way in which we think and plan provision.  

Social competence is one of the key factors in predicting a young person's success in work and adult relationships but we scoot over the fundamental skills involved and hope for the best.  

If you are living or working with a complex child, you need to make sure you gain a much greater understanding of how development proceeds and your role in it!

Fortunately, it is really fascinating and helpful stuff!