In this episode, speech therapist, Karen Massey, explores autism and apraxia of speech, as well as discussing ways to support children with Down Syndrome. She also talks about her upcoming book, her plans for a specialist centre, and her new online programme.

Karen is CEO and Director at All About Speech Therapy Ltd. She empowers parents and educators to help childrenfind their voice. She specialises in complex speech, including apraxia of speech, and leads therapy sessions, where she provides face-to-face support locally. As a writer, trainer and speaker, Karen has also co-authored a book, entitled “Total Speech’, which is available to pre-order and is due for release later on this year.

You can find Karen at All About Speech Therapy and on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Karen recommends her book, Autism and Childhood Apraxia of Speech, as well as Overcoming Apraxia by Laura Baskall Smith.

She also shares three tips during the episode:

• Remember that although a speech therapist has specialist knowledge and training, you are the expert when it comes to your child.
• It can be helpful to identify and support any sensory needs before adding in speech and language therapy.
• Practising little and often, or embedding tips and techniques throughout the day, is the best ways to get results.

The My Family Coach podcast covers every aspect of children’s behaviour, all in handy 15-minute (ish) bite-sized chunks. Each episode features a new guest chatting about a different aspect of behaviour and leaves you with three handy tips to use at home.

In this episode, Jack Pattinson talks to Clare about understanding and supporting anger. He discusses the importance of separating the behaviour from the emotion, and looks at ways to respond, rather than react, when your child feels angry.

Jack is a Senior Team Teach trainer and developmentconsultant to a variety of education and care settings across the UK. He is passionate about the importance of inclusion and the impact it has on the experiences we have and hold onto growing up.

As Managing Director at Codevelo Training and Consultancy, Jack delivers a variety of training courses and workshops, helping staff to reflect on and further improve their practice around inclusion.

You can find Jack on the Codevelo website and on LinkedIn.

He also shares three tips during the episode:

• When you feel under pressure, take the time to pause, reflect, and choose your response.
• Nobody else’s opinion matters when it comes to your child’s behaviour.
• Try to separate the behaviour from the emotion and think about what the underlying cause might be.

The My Family Coach podcast covers every aspect of children’s behaviour, all in handy 15-minute (ish) bite-sized chunks. Each episode features a new guest chatting about a different aspect of behaviour and leaves you with three handy tips to use at home.

In this episode, Clare talks to expert guest, Allegra McEvedy MBE, about using food and cooking to help build connection and positive family relationships.

Allegra reflects on her own experience of cooking during childhood and how this shaped her approach to cookery as an adult. They also talk about helping children and young people become ‘kitchen-comfortable’ and the benefits of families spending time cooking together.

Allegra McEvedy MBE is a chef, writer, broadcaster, consultant, mum, and co-founder of LEON restaurants. She is also patron of the Fairtrade Foundation and has an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University.

You can find out more about LEON restaurants here. Allegra has also written a book called, ‘Chefs Wanted!’.

Allegra shares three tips in the episode:

• Cooking with children takes longer than you might think, so make sure you allow plenty of time!
• Children can tell if you’re not enjoying the experience, so try to relax and not worry too much about the mess.
• Choose recipes together that you know they’ll enjoy trying. The book, ‘Chefs Wanted!’ is a great starting place…

The My Family Coach podcast covers every aspect of children’s behaviour, all in handy 15-minute (ish) bite-sized chunks. Each episode features a new guest chatting about a different aspect of behaviour and leaves you with three handy tips to use at home.

In this episode, Clare talks to expert guest, Dr Sheila Redfern about parenting teenagers and taking a relational approach to emotional regulation support.

They talk about the concepts of ‘reflective parenting’ and ‘mentalisation’, and how these help us to regulate effectively and connect with other people. Sheila shares the analogy of parenting being ‘like a lighthouse’ and the challenges that parents and carers can face when trying to balance separation and connection with their teenager.

Dr Sheila Redfern PhD is Director of Redfern Psychology Ltd and Head of Family Trauma at Anna Freud, the world-leading mental health charity for children and families. She is a consultant clinical child and adolescent psychologist and the author of two books: 'Reflective Parenting' and 'How Do You Hug A Cactus?'

She has been in practice for over 30 years, and previously worked in the NHS as a consultant in CAMHS services, supporting children, young people and their families with various mental health difficulties.

You can find out more about Dr Redfern’s work at Redfern Psychology.

She also shares three tips in the episode:

• Try to be curious at all times, reflecting on your own behaviour, as well as that of your teenager.
• Being able to regulate your own emotions and understand your own relationships can go a long way to helping your teenager understand how to do this for themselves.
• Try to remember that, up until the age of 25, the brain is constantly growing, changing and developing, and this can impact teenagers’ behaviour, thoughts and feelings.

A little more about Dr Redfern:

Dr Redfern works within an evidence-based framework of assessment and intervention. She has extensive experience of supporting the mental health needs of children and young people from a wide range of backgrounds and with different abilities. She has a specialist interest and expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of autistic children and young people, and in working with attachment difficulties.

Her work includes supporting parents and carers in bringing about a closer connection with their child where there are difficulties in the attachment relationship. She specialises in working with fostering and adoptive families and has developed a model of mentalisation-based parenting (reflective parenting) and mentalisation-based fostering (reflective fostering), both of which she delivers as interventions, as well as training other professionals and teams to deliver.

The My Family Coach podcast covers every aspect of children’s behaviour, all in handy 15-minute (ish) bite-sized chunks. Each episode features a new guest chatting about a different aspect of behaviour and leaves you with three handy tips to use at home.

In this episode, Clare talks to expert guest, Dr Dean Burnett, about some of the challenges that parents and carers face around teenagers and mobile phones.

They discuss the impact of mobile phone use on young people’s mental, physical and emotional health, and the problem with the catch-all term, ‘screen time’. Dean shares some simple strategies to reduce friction when agreeing and implementing healthy boundaries.

Dr Dean Burnett is a doctor of neuroscience, former psychiatry lecturer, honorary research fellow at Cardiff Psychology School, occasional comedian, well-known science pundit/commenter, and, to most people, a best-selling author of books about the brain and mind.

As a father of two, he has turned his brain-based expertise to the problems experienced by parents and their older children/teens, and written two books for younger readers, to help them understand these dynamics: the international bestseller ‘Why Your Parents Are Driving You Up The Wall And What To Do About It’, and the newly-released sequel, ‘Why Your Parents Are Hung Up On Your Phone And What To Do About It’. This latest book takes a look at the science behind how modern technology affects us, and why there is often conflict between parents and teens.

You can follow Dean on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and TikTok, or take a look at his website to find out more.

Dean shares three tips in the episode:

• Include your young person in the conversation rather than imposing blanket rules.
• Model the type of behaviour you would like to see. For example, consider your own mobile phone use.
• Be aware of nuances; mobile phones are not necessarily ‘good’ or ‘bad’. A more important question to think about is how your teenager is using their phone.

The My Family Coach podcast covers every aspect of children’s behaviour, all in handy 15-minute (ish) bite-sized chunks. Each episode features a new guest chatting about a different aspect of behaviour and leaves you with three handy tips to use at home.

Listen in as Stefanie, an occupational therapist, talks to Clare about sensory support for children who don’t seem to feel the cold, pain, or hunger, or who seem unaware of where their body is in space, and may seek out sensory input by crashing into things. 

Stefanie is the owner of Sensationally Thriving Children Therapy. She has been an occupational therapist for twelve years and has worked in a variety of paediatric specialities including home care, schools, private practice, sensory integration, and outpatient rehabilitation.  

She has certifications in Therapeutic Listening, Astronaut Training, the SOS Approach to Feeding, and is an Advanced Mentored Clinician at the STAR Institute for Sensory Processing. Most recently, she has offered parental consultations to help parents better understand the complexities of sensory processing, so they can best support their child. 

Stefanie’s new course, Understanding Your Child’s Sensory Cues, will be launching in summer this year, and she is also in the process of writing a children’s book about sensory processing. You can find Stefanie at Sensationally Thriving Children Therapy, and on Facebook and Instagram. 

Stefanie recommends the book, Sensational Kids, by Lucy Jane Miller. 

She also shares three tips during the episode: 

• Sometimes, dysregulation can look like sleeping, shutting down or avoidance. 
• Often, children who are under-responsive may not feel pain, hunger, the need to urinate, or stress and anxiety as readily as others. 
• Heavy work (movement that involves pushing, pulling, carrying or jumping) is the best activity for calming. 

The My Family Coach podcast covers every aspect of children’s behaviour, all in handy 15-minute (ish) bite-sized chunks. Each episode features a new guest chatting about a different aspect of behaviour and leaves you with three handy tips to use at home. 

In this episode, Dr Tina Rae joins Clare to talk about how to support children and young people experiencing grief and loss. The topic relates not just to the loss of family members, but to family pets or even an important belonging. Tina shares practical tips to help process grief in an emotionally safe way.   

Dr Tina Rae has 40 years’ experience working with children, adults, and families in clinical and educational contexts within local authorities and specialist services. She is currently working as a Consultant Educational and Child Psychologist in a range of specialist and mainstream contexts. She also supports fostering agencies as a Consultant Psychologist working with foster carers, social workers and looked after children.

Tina is a prolific author and has over 100 publications to date. These reflect her ongoing passion for developing practical resources for schools which have an evidence base and enable practitioners to ethically deliver effective preventative mental health interventions in schools. 

Tina recommends her book The Bereavement Book 

You can find more about Tina and her work on Twitter 

Tina also shares three tips during the episode: 

1. Keep talking and sharing memories. 
2. Acknowledge that people grieve differently, especially children.  
3. The importance of having an emotionally safe space and showing affection. 

The My Family Coach podcasts covers every aspect of children’s behaviour, all in handy 15 minute (ish) bite-sized chunks. Each episode features a new guest chatting about a different aspect of behaviour and leaves you with three handy tips to use at home. 

Jamie Douglas joins Clare in this episode to share the benefits of the 5 Ways to Wellbeing. It’s an easy model designed to help people frame how to look after ourselves. It includes ideas about connecting with people, incorporating physical activity, taking notice of the world around you, learning new skills, and giving something back to society. Jamie describes the importance of wellbeing in the teenage years when young people are experiencing huge changes. Through Jamie’s book recommendation, he describes how brain development affects the way young people behave. Acknowledging this can help parents and carers to better understand what their children are going through.     

Jamie is Quality Improvement and Operations Manager in the Children, Young People and Families team at Response which is a mental health and complex needs charity that works across the Thames Valley. He manages a range of projects from supporting young people who have been hospitalised for their mental health, through to preventative community work. Prior to working for Response, Jamie was a secondary school English teacher and pastoral lead in a range of schools.

You can find out more about Jamie’s work via the  ⁠Response⁠ website.

Jamie recommends the book Inventing Ourselves by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore. 

He also shares three tips during the episode: 

1. Use the basis of the 5 Ways to Wellbeing to think of supportive activities to do with your child.

2. Consider the role of brain development and why young people behave the way they do.  

3. Work with your child to develop a wellbeing kit to support them when things are tough. 

The My Family Coach podcasts covers every aspect of children’s behaviour, all in handy 15 minute (ish) bite-sized chunks. Each episode features a new guest chatting about a different aspect of behaviour and leaves you with three handy tips to use at home.