Family Buzz Winter 2016/17

Ask Alison...
Alison Waterhouse has worked with children with Additional Educational Needs for the past
22 years in both mainstream and the private sector. Initially, she trained as a Special Needs
Teacher and has worked in a variety of schools and educational settings. Alison now works as
an Independent Educational Consultant for Special Educational Needs and Emotional Well
being in both the Independent sector and mainstream. She is involved in staff training for Young
Minds and Releasing Potential and she has an Educational Psychotherapy practice.
For more information, please visit www.alisonwaterhouse.co.uk.
In her regular “question and answer” page, Alison uses her experience to help readers & their
children with educational concerns or problems. If there’s something you’d like to ask Alison,
email your question to : alison@familybuzz.co.uk
Dear Alison,
Ever since our daughter was small we have described
her as a fussy eater. She has always been healthy and
has developed physically. She is now in her teens and
is getting very upset as she is finding going out with
friends really hard and although wants to go and stay
with friends, is anxious about what she will eat. Is
there anything we can do to help her?
Thank you for your email. I have many enquiries about
children and young people and issues around food. As
a parent it can be terribly worrying if your child doesn’t
eat or eats too much. If you are ever worried about food
intake then you can always talk to your school nurse.
In my experience they are really easy to talk with and
support parents in a variety of ways.
I have worked with several children who I would describe
as being food avoidant. For some children this is linked
to sensory issues – how the food tastes, or feels in their
mouth or how it smells to them. For these children, food
sensitivity is often linked with other areas of sensory
processing – they may struggle with bright lights, noisy
places, itchy clothes or scratchy labels or pressure
of touch. For them it is though their mouth is hyper
sensitive and lumps or pips can feel unpleasant or
strong tastes can be just too much.
For other children food issues can be linked to how they
see their own body and how they are trying to manage
or control this. This is not on a conscious level but on
a non-conscious level. For some children they may be
able to talk about this for others they may not be aware
of what is going on for them. For children and young
people where this is an issue then talking to your school
nurse or GP can be the best place to start. They may
then refer you to your local CAMHS team (Child and
Adolescent Mental Health Team).
For other children and young people, they have avoided
certain foods or tastes or textures for reasons they are
no longer aware of.
It is obvious that for your daughter her inability to eat
a wide range of food has now become something which
she is fed up with and would like some help to change.
The first place to start is for both of you to write a list
of all the things she likes and why – is it taste, texture
or memory associated with it. Start to explore tastes
and textures and make her aware of them, try to find
and allow her to try similar things. If she likes crisps
then try crispy textures or salty flavours. Remember
that she is a bit like a young child her mouth is not use
to a variety of tastes and textures and this may make
her anxious. Let her share with you her anxiety and
what she is worried about. When trying new things do
it in stages. First stage is on the table, next is to touch
it, then smell it, then tongue on it and finally a small
piece in the mouth. Be interested in each stage and
talk about the tastes and the textures and remember
this is going to go really slowly. Play with the task,
enjoy the novelty of trying new foods and describing
them to her. Make it a fun thing to do together and not
a chore. Your daughter may have clear ideas of what
she would like to be able to eat – things she will find
out with her friends, pizza, Mc Donald’s etc. Don’t let
it cause a problem in your relationship you must be a
parent first and foremost. If working with your daughter
causes a problem then get some help from a therapist
who has supported children and young people with food
related issues before.
Dear Alison
My son is in year 4 at primary school and has really
poor handwriting. It means that he doesn’t write as
much as the teacher wants and keeps complaining
that his hand hurts. His class teacher says he needs
to practice at home. How can we help him?
Handwriting can cause some children great problems.
Many children who do not like writing or find it hard tend
to shy away from it. In so doing they do not strengthen
their muscles and thus find it hard work and tiring.
Any pencil work – colouring, mazes or drawing will
strengthen their muscles and improve writing. The first
thing to do is to get your son to write about something
for 5 minutes. Talk about the subject together and
so that he has lots of ideas to write. Then get him to
write on lined paper and time him. Tell him after he
has had each minute and put a mark on the paper so
you know how far he had got. At the end you can look
at how many words a minute he is writing. This then
can be your baseline.
Look with your son at how he sits and holds his pencil
and the paper. The pencil should be in a tripod grip.
Thumb and index finger holding the pencil with his
middle finger steadying it. The paper should be at a
slight angle and the edge should be parallel to his
arm. Look at the letters he is writing – are they formed
correctly? Is he joining up letters – the point of joining
letters is to make writing more fluid and quicker.
Once you have the answers to all these questions you can
start to support him to get better. Just like an athlete
or professional footballer he needs to practice and
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