Support & Information during COVID-19

Information and support available for families who have a child with additional needs.

 

SCOPE - Stay at Home Survival Guide

Scope is a service for families with a disabled child or young person in Leeds. They provide advice and information on exciting short break activities and for a host of disability matters. They challenge and support mainstream activities to meet needs of disabled young people through our quality standard. Scope offer and advise lead professionals working with disabled children in a variety of settings.

1. Top Tips

• Social story: of the virus for children - click here
• Positive passport
  - Encourage your children to think of positive thoughts throughout the day and note them down and then at the end of the day share them together and give your child a stamp (or any alternative) for an “abundance of positive thoughts.”
  - Get your passport - here  
• Pinterest
  - An abundance of ideas for activities with children.
  - Create an account - here
• Twinkle
  - Free parent resources. Apply code PARENTSTWINKLHELPS
  - Create an account - here
• PE Lessons
  - They will focus on the learning objective and transferable skill that would be covered in that week's #SPIRALPE lessons. They’ll also be posting lots of ideas for Physically Active Learning.
  - For children, available by subscribing to PE partners YouTube Channel
• Daily Structure
  - It is a good idea to keep the daily structure that your child is used to, you can do this by using a visual timetable to show them what they are going to do today.
  - Top tip - get your child to make their own squares.
  - Examples of timetables - here
• Helping around the house
  - Make a list of the jobs around the house (age appropriate) and next to each job put a price, once they have done that job, they receive the money. For example: putting toys in a box 10p.
• Tuck Shop
  - Create a tuck shop for snacks, open it in the morning and in the afternoon with a price list, give your child an amount per day to spend.
• Reward, reward, reward!
  - Keep the positivity by rewarding your child for good behaviour. Use a medium/large sized box/tub/jar with the aim to fill it to the top, put handfuls in at a time, not just one, so your child can watch it filling up. You can use any household items to fill it, once it is full, they receive a reward.

 

2. Support Services

• Scope helpline
  - 0808 800 3333
• Scope Navigate Service
  - Navigate is a national mentoring service, that provides online emotional support for parents and carers of disabled children who are finding out about their child’s additional needs - click here
• Scope Online Community
  - ‘Our online disability forum is a vibrant and supportive space for disabled people, parents and carers to get disability advice and information, and talk to people with similar experiences’ - click here
• Scope Mindful Monsters
  - Focusing on 4 key areas the Mindful Monsters subscription aims to boost creativity, improve concentration, inspire positivity and aid relaxation. It’s a subscription service - sign up here!
• Scope Parents Connect
  - louise.gillard@scope.org.uk / chloe.anderson@scope.org.uk
• Scope Sleep Right
  - Sleepright.leeds@scope.org.uk
• Scope Activities (short breaks)
  - leeds@scope.org.uk
• Made with Music
  - Virtual classes - click here

 

3. Family Support Groups

Zig Zag

SNAPS

Louise Parents Connect

Sunshine and Smiles

ABC

Little Hiccups

 

4. Mindfulness

• Remember self-care is KEY! 
  - Take some time for yourself, unwind and relax.
  - Easier said than done (we know!) but even if its stopping for 5 minutes every few hours, you need that break too!
• Mindfulness Books for working with Children 
  - Sitting Still like a Frog – Eline Snell
• Mindfulness activities for children
  - Blissful Kids
  - Calm for Kids
  - Kidsrelaxation.com
• Free Mindfulness course

 

Other Useful Links

Here are some additional links that offer support, information and resources.

• Leeds City Council - Essential Support
  - City unites to help those in need - click here
  - There is also a helpline number from Leeds city council for anyone in need of help with essential support such as shopping & healthcare - they can match people with a local volunteer - please ring 0113 3781877.
• Chatterpack - Multiple Resources
  - This link is full of amazing resources for children with additional needs - Speech & Language, sensory ideas, visual timetables, reward charts - loads of printable & mostly free resources.
  - Click here for resources
• Speech & Language
  - Resources created by the Down Syndrome Association.
  - Leeds Community Healthcare's CSLT website and resources.

 

What does the Coronavirus Bill mean for disabled children - Disabled Children's Partnership
- Click here to find out

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