Health for kids - Walsall - Parents: Health for Kids - Everything You Wanted To Know About Health

Close Main Menu
Open search tool

Should you need urgent health advice please contact your GP or call NHS 111. In an emergency please visit A&E or call 999.

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust is responsible for the writing, publishing and updating of the content on this page.

Understanding Your Child’s Behaviour

Most of the time our children are well behaved however they all have moments when they become angry, perhaps shout or kick or hit. It is not uncommon for parents/carers to feel helpless or upset or too blame for their child's behaviour. These feelings and thoughts might get in the way of asking for help. However, It is important to seek support and advice as soon as you can so help can be put in place for your child and the rest of the family. Read on and we can tell you more about what support is available and how to access the support.

Who are School Nurses?

School Nurses are qualified nurses who have additional training in child and young peoples health and wellbeing. They work with other team members including nursery nurses who are trained in child health and development. The nursery nurses have additional training in a range of parenting programmes. These include Triple P and Understanding Your Child’s Behaviour. We also offer the Cygnet Programme which is for parents/carers of children who have been diagnosed with Autism. Our nursery nurses and nurses are also on hand on the telephone and our text number to offer you advice and support.

What can the School Nursing offer?

We won’t judge you, many of us are parents and have experienced our own challenging times.

The service offers workshops ‘understanding your child’s behaviour’.  This explores why children can misbehave and offers some helpful tips to try at home. These workshops are short sessions and last about 60-90 minutes. They are a good introduction to our other services and programmes. For many parents/carers our workshops are all the support they need. Parent/carers tell us that they are able to try out the strategies we share and they see an improvement in their relationship with their child and their child’s behaviour. For other parents/carers they report that the workshops are useful and they feel more confident and reassured to join one of our parenting groups and this is great too.

Whether or not you have been on one of our workshops you might want to join one of our parenting groups. Parents/carers who have attended tell us that they really enjoyed the group, found the staff really helpful and kind, benefited from meeting other parents/carers who were experiencing similar problems and took away  lots of helpful tips and ideas. We offer different types of parenting courses which are delivered throughout the year.

  • Triple P is delivered over 5 sessions. Then you have 3 phone calls with one of nursery nurses who will help you put the strategies in place at home.
  • Understanding Your Child’s Behaviour is delivered over 10 sessions.It includes finding out about your child’s brain development and how it affects behaviour. It helps you understand more about why your child behaves a certain way when they are angry, having a temper tantrum or trouble sleeping. You will also learn the importance of playing for your child’s development.
  • Cygnet Programme is for parents/carers of children who have been diagnosed with Autism. It helps further understand your child’s perspective and view on the world and develop a practical toolkit that can be beneficial to your child

 

How do you access our workshops and groups?

It is really simple. You do not need a referral from your child’s school or GP or any other professional. Instead you can just call or text us. If you want to find out more call us on 01922 423349 or text us on 07520 634 909. We are happy to talk to you about whether a workshop or group is the right support for you. Then if you wish to join a session we can book you a place.

 

Our workshops and groups are delivered between Monday to Friday 9am and 5pm and we know that sometimes this means it is difficult for parents/carers to join us. So, we also offer virtual webinars. Why not listen in your own time to our ‘understanding your child’s behaviour’ workshop. Click here to listen to one of our nursery nurses.

 

What if I need more help than a workshop or a group?

We want to try and offer you and your child find the type of support that best meets their needs. We know that some parents/carers might have been having difficulty in managing their child’s behaviour over many months or years. Other professionals may have been involved and offered support, these might include school staff, education staff or social care staff. We would still recommend that parents attend a parenting group because there is a lot of evidence that when strategies are implemented consistently and over a period of time then a change is seen in a child’s behaviour. However, we recognise that some children will require further assessment and support from more specialist services such as community paediatricians or Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). We work as part of a wider team with these professionals and can arrange for referrals to these services when it is appropriate.