Hi, my name is Jordan. I am a special education
teacher from the UK. I share my passion for everything
communication, sensory regulation and fun lesson
ideas for my classroom of disabled pupils aged
4 to 11. Each week I am joined by experts in
the field answering your questions and sharing
our knowledge and experience working alongside
our beautiful young people. Let's get started.
Hello everybody and welcome to the Sensory Classroom
podcast. My name is Jordan and today I'm joined
by a friend that you may recognize. It's Ali
Neal from episode 39 and she is here to talk
on behalf of herself and Laura Graham about,
yes, occupational therapy, but about a new system
they have developed to a five -step approach.
to whole class and school regulation. And I know
nothing more than that. So I'm really intrigued
to learn alongside you today with Ali. Hi, Ali.
Hi, Jordan. Thank you very much for having me
back today. Oh, so welcome. It's been a little
while since episode 39. So I wonder if you could
give us a little introduction into you and your
practice. Certainly. So I'm Ali Neal. I'm an
occupational therapist. I've been an OT for...
It's over 30 years now, which is time to make
me sound really, really old. So I'm not sure
I want to mention that. Or wise. Old or wise.
Old and wise. Let's go old and wise. Yes. Been
there, seen it. I've done all the usual sort
of NHS stuff before, but for the last 15 years,
I've been working on my own. I set up my own
company. And initially, there's a small team
that work with me. We are supporting. children
in schools, in homes, with their families throughout
the Midlands. But do you know what? COVID was
a terrible time, but there were... The odd good
thing that came out of it, and one of the things
that came out of it for me, was that I started
doing some online work to try and support people
while we weren't able to go out and do face -to
-face work. And that developed into an online
training business that I now run, particularly
for anyone involved with education. So teachers,
SENCOs, teaching assistants, but also anyone
else that works within the school environment.
alternative provisions, EOTAS, any of that. So
speech and language therapists, other occupational
therapists, psychologists, anyone else that's
involved. And I provide online training around
all OT related topics, but particularly sensory
processing, because actually that is my personal
favourite topic. I think I'm a bit of a real
sensory geek. I absolutely love it. But it also
seems to be the real hot potato for schools where
they are lacking support. And in my head, you
know, it comes back to me to that old saying
that if I give a man a fish, I feed him for a
day. But if I teach him how to fish, then he
can feed himself for a lifetime. And I know the
flaws in that one because I know that then he
needs to get hold of the rod and he needs to
have the time to fish, which are huge issues
for our schools. But at least we can do one part
if I can teach you how to do it yourself. Absolutely.
And you know what you're advocating for too.
If you've got the right language, you know what
to research, you know where you want to head.
When the magical budget does appear in your hand,
you know how you want to spend it if you've got
that knowledge. So I suppose you're giving them
those tools as well, aren't you? Absolutely.
And there's still a need for OTs to do the highly
specialist bits. But do you know what? I thought
if we could, the problems are so huge. If we
can meet the needs of a proportion of pupils,
a proportion of the time, then actually we've
achieved quite a lot. Absolutely. And you know
what to ask for. We have often had occupational
therapists come in, but they can't actually,
they don't have the skills or knowledge to support
with the actual, you know, child that we want
them to work with because, you know, there's
so many, OT is a huge umbrella. And I think that's
one thing maybe that people don't understand
that, oh, we need an occupational therapist to
support with sensory. Actually, you need a specific
occupational therapist or, you know, any other
things as well. Yeah, it's very like a doctor.
You know, you need, you've got a problem with
your bones. You need an orthopaedic doctor, not
a heart surgeon. Yeah, I think lots of people
don't realise that maybe. Lots of people in education
and parents wouldn't necessarily know that. So
having that course at least gives them that knowledge
of, oh, this is the kind of thing I need. This
is the kind of occupational therapist I need
to look for. And then maybe they're looking on.
you know, for the right website, the right therapist
for them and their needs, I suppose. Hopefully,
yes. We're all sensory beings, right? Sensory
is a great place to start. It's the fundamental,
I would say. So if you're starting there, then
I would say that's probably a good place to start.
Definitely. Absolutely. So let's get on to Brent
then. I don't know if you want to, first of all,
explain what it is or why it came to be. I don't
know what's better to start. Where do I start?
Let's do the why it came to be really. So bread
is a brand new approach that I've developed with
my colleague, Laura Graham, who is a longtime
OT colleague and a really good friend. We worked
out actually between us, we've got over 50 years
of experience of doing this. So yeah, we're long
in the teeth there. And what we found was we're
coming up with the same issues. again and again,
core themes that repeat themselves when it comes
to regulation, particularly in the school environment.
And what we thought was if we can come up with
the structure to help you meet those needs, actually,
coming back to that, we're meeting the needs
of a lot of pupils a lot of the time. Not everything,
because kids are just not that straightforward,
are they? They like to keep us on our toes. But
we're meeting a lot of the needs a lot of the
time. So we came up with the bread approach,
which is targeting the five main areas that crop
up again and again in regulation. And we're teaching
you how to meet pupils' regulation needs in each
of those areas. So you've got a five -step structured
process to follow through. And the idea is then
that that's the bread. That's your basic. You
need your bread before you can do anything else.
Then you can tweak it and you can add your toppings.
You can add your butter. You can add your cheese,
your ham, your marmite, whatever it is you might
like to really hone it for that people. But if
we get the basic bread there, we've got the foundations
that are going to help almost everybody. Amazing.
And I assume it's an acronym and you're not,
you know, asking us to use bread. Although bread
is a great regulating tool, I have to say. A
nice cake, food, a bit of toast. It always works.
That's why I thought that bread was such a great
acronym for it. Because, you know, when you're
working with autistic learners, bread is really
crucial in our classes. It allows us then to
add the toppings as well. So it's not saying
it does everything. It's your basics. Then if
you need more, you have the scope to add your
toppings. So yes, bread is an acronym. Took us
a little while to come up with it. And I have
to say, I do really like it. So the five steps,
the five letters of bread. We have B for breathe,
R for reduce. And I'll explain all of these in
a bit more detail later on. E is environment.
A is active movement. And D is deep pressure.
And they're the five key things that we need
for regulation. Amazing. Shall we go through
each one? I don't want to give away the course
too much, but can we go to each one a little
bit more detail and see what were you seeing
before this program started and why is it fundamental
that people understand more about each one? Okay.
So, yeah, to the B for breathe. The power of
deep breathing for regulation is incredible for
me. It just really works. And it's one of those
tools that if we do it as the person working
with. a dysregulated child. Actually, very often
they fall into our patterns and it just happens
for them. So even if you can't do anything else
in the moment, if you just do a big breath in
and let it out, the number of times somebody
will follow suit. Weirdly, my horse also does
this. It was a technique I was taught with her.
When she's a bit stressy, we stop and I do this
big breath in, big sigh out, and she does it
too. And we're OK. And then we carry on. So it
works. It really works with children. Co -regulation,
making sure you're regulated before you're supporting
them. A whole aeroplane thing where you have
to put your own mask on. It regulates you a lot.
It has a knock -on effect to the children that
we work with. And then, of course, there's so
many other ways we can do deep breathing, depending
on the child that we're working with. And in
the course, we take you through a number of different
options so that you can then pick out the one
that's right for that child. So we might do sucking
through a straw, sucking a thick drink through
a straw, sucking a... I don't know, cotton wool
ball up through a straw to carry it somewhere.
We might do blowing with blow football or a windmill.
We might with, and other people do more sort
of yoga type breathing where you do your hand
breathing or the square breathing. There are
lots of different ways that we can do this deep
breathing, but all of it taps into regulation.
It fits in with polyvagal theory for anyone that's
following that as being a very powerful regulator
for the brain. takes us into that rest and digest
that's really important for regulation and works.
And we can do it in so many different ways, so
many fun ways that are so easy to bring into
class. Amazing. Yeah, I love that. I definitely
see that. And I also see when we're taking them,
I mean, this comes into environment, when we're
taking them outside, I think not only is it changing
environment, but it's easier to breathe that
fresh air outside. It's less stale and stagnant
than that. I've noticed that makes a big difference
too. So in my own regulation, in managing whatever
crisis is happening or communication is happening
or dysregulation is happening, I'm managing it
better if I'm breathing slower. It slows me down.
It makes me think more rationally, calm approach,
think back to the behaviour plan that we spent
hours creating rather than rushing in and trying
to, you know, be superwoman. Yeah. So it definitely
helps me. as well take a moment breathe really
good for staff really good for the children fantastic
and simple and free yes and we can do resources
there yes and that's the point isn't it so often
when we need it most our best tools aren't with
us our squeeze machines and our you know exercise
peanut balls and trampolines and all those things
we can't bring those around with us everywhere
even though they're fantastic but our breath
and ourselves and our body, and I know that will
come up in D as well, deep pressure, is where
we've got it all the time. We have, yeah, it's
there. And it sounds really simple, but sometimes
we forget the simple things in the moment, don't
we? All of these five steps should be really
simple and easy to follow, but it gives you a
structure. It reminds you of the things that
we need to do. And easy to remember too. Right,
so we've done B, breathe. What about R then?
R is about reducing. reducing the stresses. So
that could be reducing the verbal. Drop the language.
Cut it right down. Sometimes when we, sometimes
I see when we're trying to help a child, we talk
too much. We offer too many solutions. You know,
do you want to do this? Do you want to do that?
And if they're already overloaded, it's a little
bit too much. We might reduce the task that we're
doing. Cut that down. we might reduce the audience.
If someone's having a really difficult time and
everyone else in the class is watching, that's
not a great place to be. So let's reduce the
audience. We're just going to reduce, we might
reduce the lights if the overhead lights are
a problem or the noise. And again, we're crossing
over into environment there because everything
weaves in and out of each other, don't they?
But we're reducing everything around that could
be a stressor there and just bring it all down.
Yeah, their shoes sometimes reducing that or,
you know, reducing the heat on them. Yeah, taking
stuff away, taking those dresses away. Visual
clutter sometimes, it might not be mess, but
sometimes just visual clutter is just too much.
Just closing blinds to stop the dappled light
or put something over the bookcase so it's less
visually cluttered can be a large reduction as
well, can't it? So you'll need to work out for
the child that you're with what it is that you
need to reduce. But I think it will become really
apparent through the course that people will
know. They'll be picturing a child and they'll
go, yep, do you know what? That's the thing.
If we take that away, give them their ear defenders
and we've reduced the noise in the environment.
As you say, put something over something. Reduce
the visual stress. We can do that. We can do
that really easily. And it will make a big difference.
Yeah, and I love that it's reduced because...
That's not on them. It's still on our responsibility
to make those calls because it's that moment.
They can't reduce their crisis behavior, reduce
their regulation. It's not asking them anything.
It's us. Again, just like the breathing, it's
on us to breathe. It's on us to reduce. And I
love that because then it's in our control for
one and it's something practical to do to support
that isn't putting any more demands and pressure
or responsibility on. Yeah. Yeah. It's us doing
that co -regulation piece to help them out. And
then we can move on to helping somebody recognize
their own patterns, move towards self -regulation.
Fantastic. But we need to start with that co
-regulation piece, first of all, of we're doing
work. Yeah. Which I suppose leads really beautifully
onto environment. Yep, the environment is full
of stressors, isn't it? And everybody needs something
slightly different in their environment. So under
E, we talk about all the potential stressors
in an environment, the lights, the sounds, the
smells, the movement, the touch, all those things
that are there in the environment. I give you
my own environmental audit and show you how to
use that so you can do an environmental audit
specific to... a particular pupil, or just let's
just audit the environment as a whole and have
a bit of a run through of where all the potential
stressors might be for anybody, as well as for
an individual pupil. And we look at what we can
do to then reduce those stressors, reduce those
difficulties in the environment and what we can
add to the environment that might be right for
that individual. So maybe it's that their environment
needs a chill out corner to go to. They need
a safe space to go to. They need to sit somewhere
different in class. What can we do to adjust
the environment to make it right for that person?
Yeah, perfect. Yeah, that makes so much sense.
Not, yeah, where could they do the thing that
feels safer for them? Yes. Maybe have the snack
or go to the toilet is such an environmental
trigger. It's glossy, it's bright, there's fans,
it's loud, it's public. You know, that environment
is not ideal for so many of our learners. So
looking at that environment and thinking, okay,
well, could we keep the lights down? Could we
make sure the doors shut so nobody comes in?
Could we change the whole toilet so it's then
the staff room, which is more private maybe?
I don't know. Can they go to the toilet during
a quiet time when there'll be nobody else there
and it feels safe? Yeah, exactly that. Putting
some furnishings around so it's less echoey.
It's all environment, isn't it? Yeah, environment
has a huge impact. And it's something to consider
in the moment. If you have a pupil who is struggling,
who's dysregulated and you've already thought
about their environment, you can then get, OK,
well, maybe we know that the lights are an issue
for them and we've had the lights on for an hour
or we've got the lights on and we're asking them
to do something difficult and we can smell lunch
drifting down the hallway. So maybe we block
one of those and that's going to really help
us with our regulation. So often, whether we're
neurodivergent or not ourselves, so often we
can get so lost in the moment that we forget
to actually notice. We almost become blind to
the environment. And sometimes it takes either
going through something like this, like an audit,
or somebody else coming in to say, it's very
cluttered in here, or it's very bright in here,
or it's very loud in here, because you become
kind of lost in it too without actually stepping
back and realising. what you're asking of your
pupils within your environment, because it happens
gradually, right? It doesn't, you don't walk
in on a Monday morning and it's really loud.
There's smells, there's, you know, it's bright
and all that. It happens gradually. It bubbles
up throughout the day. But the thing is, our
learners are noticing it. They notice everything,
especially visual, but they'll notice everything.
So we need to too. We do. And like you say, you
don't notice it. You don't notice it in your
own home. You don't notice smells or clutter.
You know, thank goodness. Probably drive most
of us nuts all of the time because we do switch
off to it. But we need to take that step back,
look at the environment with clear eyes, go through
my audit tool if that's helpful for people. It
very often is because I put lots of prompt questions
on there for things to think about. So you can
hopefully hone where the potential issues are.
And then when we're having a difficult time,
we know what it is we need to change. Yeah, I
can imagine that would be incredibly helpful.
I'd love to see that because you do become blind
to certain areas of the room that, oh, that's
just how it is. And actually, it doesn't need
to be like that. There will be a solution to
make it more sensory friendly, I suppose. Absolutely.
Yeah. Great. Yeah. Environment's so important.
A. A. So active movement. Okay. Slight license
with the A there, but actually it's quite critical
because it's not just movement. It's active movement
where we are working our muscles and our joints
against resistance, which gives us that all -important
proprioceptive input. And proprioceptive input,
that sensory input we get when we work our muscles
and our joints, is always regulating. Almost
always. There's always one. Do you know what?
That's the one sense that you can pretty much
take as read is going to be helpful. Whatever
is happening for your pupil, that kind of input
is nearly always helpful to them, always helps
with regulation. So we're going to be looking
at the different ways that we can do active movement,
which is a much nicer word to use than proprioception.
When people are going, what's that P word? I've
forgotten what it is again. Active movement is
much nicer to remember. And we're going to look
at all the different ways that we can include
that in somebody's day -to -day life because
that will help them with their regulation. And
it's something we can put in proactively as well.
It may happen in the moment. You might need to
do your breathing and your reducing first before
we can get to the active movement. You can also
put the active movement in proactively. Because
as I know you know, but possibly not everybody
listening might know, sensory overload tends
to be cumulative. We build, it's like the straws
that break the camel's back. All the stresses
are a straw and they'll eventually be the one
that blows, that leads us to meltdown. We can't
cope anymore. We're dysregulated. And when we
put in active movement, what we're essentially
doing is taking a handful of straws away. It
doesn't matter when we do that because what we've
done is taken it down a level and allowed, I
guess, space for things to build up a little
bit more before we reach that overload situation.
So we can put this in proactively throughout
the day. And there are so many different ways
we can do it depending on the age of pupil, the
level that they're working at, their personal
interests, even staff interests. Now, if you
have a member of staff that's really into yoga,
it's like, right, yeah, let's use that. or they're
into something else. Yeah, we'll use that as
well. Yeah, it's so true that if you're learning
from somebody that's interested in their subject,
it becomes really inviting and irresistible.
And I suppose that's the key, isn't it? We've
got a teaching assistant who's a football coach.
She's fabulous. And yeah, why not utilise that?
She's clearly going to remember that she needs
to do that. She's going to be really motivating
and energising. And the kids, lots of the kids
will love that. And then dance is another one
and obstacle course and all of those things.
Being silly sometimes is a really great move.
But if people's teaching assistants are really
good at being silly, then that can really work
for some of the people. Just, you know, daily
mile, rolling over a peanut roll. getting inside
a body sock and having a push against it, all
of those things. There are so many different
ways that we can do it. But if we can put it
in proactively as a plan into somebody's day
and have identified what is their specific thing
that they really like doing or their range of
things they like doing, then great, we've got
that in, ready for somebody. Fantastic. And I
suppose it's worth mentioning that if you want
to learn more about propriocept, and the sensory
systems as a whole, do go back and listen to
Adi Nell explain the full sensory system. She
goes into great detail in episode 39 about every
single sense, what over and under responsive
looks like in those and how to support them.
So if this is kind of new to you and you're not
really sure about active movement, proprioceptive
and... you know, you've heard the word viscerally,
not really sure what it is, then episode 39 is
for you and then come back to this because this
will make so much more sense. And so we've done
active movement, which again makes so much sense.
And it's interesting that you said that actually
it needs to be drip fed in little and often because
sometimes if they're already in crisis or in
dysregulation, they can't really take in the
instructions or the change in the environment
to get to the place where they can do active
movement. It's never too late. It isn't. But
it's harder to get the response you need from
them because they are in complete fight or fright.
So yeah, if you're doing it little and often
before you're seeing those things, then you're
taking off the straws and hopefully you never
get to crisis. I mean, that's the ultimate aim,
isn't it? That we never get there because we're
doing those drip fed things in throughout the
day. Yes, that would be absolutely fantastic.
So it can be in there as part of somebody's bread
plan. that we know we get those things in. Say,
as you said, if we're in crisis, sometimes that's
really hard to do. You know, someone in crisis
doesn't want to be told, let's go out, let's
go and do some dance or let's go and roll over
the peanut roll. Yeah, it can be a bit tricky,
but then we've got our breathing and our reducing
and that might get us there. So then we can go
and do our active movement. It could be that
we put it in proactively. We take those straws
away from the camel's back regularly throughout
the day. It's going to be so helpful. Yeah, on
this, I suppose I had some training yesterday
with a school and they said, we've got five minutes
to do a movement break. How can we do that? And
I just said, like, you don't wait for the five
minutes. Your lessons have to then be the movement
break. You have to drip feed it. If you had only
got five minutes, then you'd have lots of five
minutes throughout the day. You know, I don't
think that's the answer that she wanted. I think
she wanted a magical wand of this magical five
minutes once a day that would just, you know,
fix the kids, I think. But ultimately, it comes
down to that. consistent regulation throughout
the day so it doesn't have to be other it doesn't
have to be extra you don't have to squeeze this
in as extra in your day it can be part of your
lesson so think about how you can add active
movement into your learning into your lesson
maybe the learners pace in and out of an area
to help them listen maybe they sit on exercise
balls rather than sitting on the carpet or wobble
cushions you know there's loads of resources
out there maybe they're lying on their tummies
and then they have to go up to the table and
then down again. Maybe there's a bit of movement
from floor to table there. You know, we need
to think creatively as educators. I think it's
our job not to see it as extra and actually to
be quite creative and have that in our lesson
plan, have that embedded in our expectations
of the learners, that they're not going to be
sat at tables and learning and focused and then
do their movement. It doesn't have to be set.
No, it doesn't. It doesn't. And we come up with
lots of ideas for you on the course. to help
you pick out what's going to work in your class
with your pupils. Because there's such a range
out there, isn't there? So I can't be prescriptive
and tell you, do one thing that will work for
everybody because I know it won't. So we're going
to give you lots and lots of ideas to take away
and have a think through and see what will work
for you. Amazing. Active movement. Love it. D
is for deep pressure. My favourite, I have to
say. I'm a huge fan of deep pressure. It's so
nice, isn't it? I did some training on Monday
and I was just reminding everybody that if we
have a bad day, we go home and we want a hug
from our loved one, don't we? Because it just
makes everything feel better. It's deep pressure.
It really works. It's amazing. It's what we use
with babies. We swaddle them. We cuddle them.
As adults, yeah, we want that hug as well at
the end of the day. I don't know, my dog lying
on my lap gives me... I was going to say, sound
pets, like cats on laps and things. There's something,
or a blanket on lap, even cushion on laps. There's
something about that squeeze and deep pressure
that is so regulating. Even just your winter
duvet. I sleep better in the winter than the
summer because the weight of the winter duvet
is nice. Deep pressure is great. It's part of
our tactile system. this one because if we're
just getting that squeeze and we're not doing
the active part, it becomes part of our tactile
system. It's really calming and regulating. And
again, there are so many different ways that
we can do this from hands on where we're giving
the deep pressure with our hands to hands off
where we're perhaps using a peanut roll. We could
be using a body sock. We could be lying under
a weighted blanket. Yeah, rolling up and squeezing
between cushions. We've done it. Yeah, squeezing
even against between the wall and a bookcase.
You can have a little hidey hole, a little tiny
space to squeeze into. I find that sometimes
that my learners in crisis do that themselves.
Like some of them run away to a space and they
want to get in something really small. So sometimes
it's, and sometimes it's disproportionate to
what they can actually get into because they've
kind of lost sense of reality in that crisis
moment. But they'll like try and get in a cupboard
or get in a box or like there's that feeling
of I need to be squeezed, but I don't want people
around me. So teaching them skills and ways of
proactively doing that. independently i can see
would be really important to do it safely and
effectively as and when they need it i think
it'd be really helpful there is a reason people
throw themselves to the floor because the floor
is hard and we get some deep pressure from doing
that so let's read somebody's signals understand
what it is they need and picking up on what you
just said i worked with somebody a few weeks
ago who described very clearly that they really
wanted to squeeze but they didn't want people
to touch them and it's like right we can do that
there's a way of doing that yeah let's identify
it let's have it in your plan as to what it is
that you like absolutely yeah because otherwise
that could be more triggering even though it's
what they need and then you've got this kind
of yeah opposing stuff going on there which could
be really confusing for the adults trying to
do the behavior planning and i thought that's
what they needed but it could also be really
confusing for the learners while thinking i thought
that's what i needed and it doesn't feel right
for me yeah I don't want you to touch me because
I'm in crisis and I don't want you to touch me.
And that's when you get the dropping to the floor,
the hiding, the running away, the maybe curting
behaviours because they're wanting that pressure,
but they're not knowing how to do it effectively
or safely. Yeah, I've got a bit of a reputation
actually. In special education, it's very normal
to squeeze children. But now I'm visiting lots
of mainstream schools. I need to remember not
to squeeze the children. Because my first point,
of course, is where I whip their shoes off and
squeeze their feet. Like that's my go -to, to
squeeze the feet. It's so calming, so often.
But then I've got these mainstream teachers looking
at me like, why are you squeezing our people?
So I need to kind of, I'm such a huge fan of
deep pressure, but it is about educating why
it works, why we're doing these things. what
it's giving to the learners and why we're squeezing
the children. Yes. Yeah. And different ways we
can do it when squeezing the children becomes
inappropriate. Exactly. Either for age or environment.
Exactly. Yeah. And we don't want our learners
going up to a stranger in the street and asking
them for a hug because that can be really inappropriate.
So sometimes we need to teach different ways.
So squeezing, fantastic. Other ways, also fantastic.
So good. So true. I've had those who squeeze
their friends as well. You know, you can see
they just want to squeeze something and their
friend is a bit terrified. So it's giving them,
you know, other ways of getting that without,
yeah, terrifying their friend, I suppose. Yes.
Yeah, absolutely. In the course, we'll give you
lots and lots of ideas of the different ways
that you can do it. And we will show you how
to do it as well. So that you feel really confident
in going away and doing those things. Even doing
the squeezes. I'm sure you get the same people
ask you, how do you do it? We'll show you. Fantastic.
Oh, I'm so pleased you created this because as
you're explaining it, I'm like, yeah, these are
the fundamentals. These are, this is your baseline
of a... accessible environment for all learners
let's just say that as well not not autistic
learners not just those in special education
all learners benefit from this all staff members
will benefit from remembering to breathe active
movement you know deep and knowing that about
ourselves I feel like if you're in mainstream
schools This is for you. This is for all of your
learners, not just those ones that you pick out
that maybe have dysregulation and crisis openly.
But this is for your masking learners. This is
for all learners to help them focus. It's for
your staff team to help them focus. We're asking
an awful lot of children and teenagers in school.
And if we can create a more regulating environment,
related bodies, then they're going to focus and
learn better. Absolutely. Yeah. The learning
will be better. Their participation in just general
school life will be better. And all of these
things, they're things we do. We do them as adults.
You know, if you think about yourself, everyone
listening, think about themselves. They will
be doing all of these things. Come the evening,
I dim the lights in the lounge. I sit on a comfy
chair. I've changed the environment, haven't
I? We're doing all of these things throughout
our day. We just... don't always notice that
we're doing them because we do it instinctively.
But for the children and young people that we're
working with, we can't. They can't do it instinctively
or they can't do it when they want to because
of the structure of the school day. So we need
to help them do that. And I'm hoping if we can
then have a bread plan for everybody, a document
that has their plan of what they need. then that's
simple and easy for everybody to follow. Yeah,
absolutely. Is that why you chose school colleagues,
people that work in school to focus on more than
parents? Because so often at home, children maybe
don't have that structure and expectations put
on them in the same way that they can meet their
regulation needs maybe more easily, maybe more
freely than school. Because I feel like the bread
plan as a whole could work. In a home and school
setting, there's nothing you said there that
was particularly school, but is it just in school
settings that you see those rigid structures
that might not enable children to be able to
access those things? I agree with you. It works
school and home. And the plan will be to roll
this out for parents. And the plan will be a
book as well. We'll have strategies for home
as well as strategies for school. I've focused
on school at the moment just because... I'm seeing
more difficulties in school and I think we can
help more children. I give upskilling school
staff with some of those regulation skills, probably
particularly in mainstream schools where I'm
just seeing as the years go by, I'm seeing ever
increasing needs with ever more complex pupils
that are in mainstream schools and the staff
really want to help, really want to do the right
thing, but they aren't sure. what to do because
this isn't their typical cohort of pupils and
absolutely fair dues you know we all know we
all know our specialist areas don't there's no
way i could teach a class of 30 i wouldn't have
a clue where to start they'd just walk all over
me it would be a disaster we all have our specialist
areas so i'm just hoping that we can reach more
children improve school days for children and
for the staff who want to do the right thing
aren't entirely sure where to start and who perhaps
might like to do additional training because
I offer a sensory champion course as well that
really helps you understand the whys, but maybe
we don't have the time for that. School staff,
they're so busy. So let's just give you a straightforward
plan to follow. Get this done. And you know what,
we're going to reduce a lot of the problems that
you see. But yes, it would be great to roll it
out to parents. And I'm really excited about
getting a book done out of this as well. Yeah,
absolutely. It's a fantastic approach. And I
love how memorable it is. You know, you've got
five fingers, you can remember bread wherever
you are. And it's almost like a checklist in
the moment of thinking, right. have I done this?
Have I done this? Have I done this? You could
work through it. Whereas I think before, maybe
even special education teachers, we know all
these things, but do we actually systematically
go through them and think, is that done? Is that
done? Is that done? I don't think we do. I think
certain things, depending on who you are and
what your expertise is, get missed. Or they're
not done as effectively as they can be, or they're
not done as individualised and bespoke as they
could be. So having a plan, having that structure
to fall back on. Having that accountability to
fall back on, I think, is important for everybody,
I would say. Yes, I think so. Just something
you can use in the moment that isn't, oh, well,
I need to do a sensory profile and investigate
their needs more. Yeah, that's great. And there
is definitely a place for that. But there's also
a place for a straightforward plan of we do these
five things. And do you know what? It's going
to help. Yeah. And on that, have you heard about
the impact it's having from those that you've
already trained? No, because we're just starting.
So the course actually starts next week. So I
don't know when that will be with when this podcast
comes out. This comes out at the end of March.
So, you know, not too long. So it's already out.
People can sign up. It will already be out. How
we're structuring it for running it for the first
time is it's running live one evening a month
for five months. So in February, we're doing
the B. In March, we're doing the R and so on.
Those sessions are recorded. So if you sign up,
they sit in the online learning space. You can
watch them wherever you want, whenever you want.
And of course, once it's finished, it will all
be there for you to watch and access at any time.
So you can join at any time. If you like the
idea of coming along live and listening to it
online, on Zoom, but it's live and you get to
ask a few questions at the end, then that's great.
Come and join as soon as you can. But it's...
there anytime for you to access at any stage.
And then we'll see how the impact goes. Yeah,
I'm sure it will have a great impact. I think
so. I think it will be great to track it and
study it. And I'm going to be rolling it out
in the schools that I work in as well. And then
I'll be able to personally sort of measure the
impact of that with the staff and get their hands
on feedback because they're schools that I'm
in week on week. And case studies are so important
for these kind of things, aren't they? However,
even though it's a new approach, these five things
aren't new. They are well -researched. They are
well -documented in their impact. All evidence
-based. Yeah, absolutely. But the newness comes
in the structure, helping us remember to do it,
the audit and all of those things. The five steps.
Follow those five steps. We are there. Absolutely.
And it's lovely that it's a pre -recorded course
as well, because it means whatever your responsibilities
are, whatever your timetable is, you can access
this. It's fully accessible to all. And if you
go, oh, I've forgotten, I've forgotten what the
B was. I know there were some breathing techniques
and I can't remember what they were. You can
go back and watch it. You have access to it for
a year. So you can go and watch it anytime you
want over and over again. You also, because one
of the things I find sometimes difficult with
a recorded course is if you've got questions
or you're like, I don't quite get that bit. Or
maybe you think, well, I get that, but I can't
see how that's going to work with Freddie. Then
what you have the option of is a half -termly
cuppa and a chat online session with me. And
you can come along and ask your questions and
we can troubleshoot any of those little issues
to just help you really. pull it into your work
environment and make it work for you. So alongside
the recording course, you get a year's worth
of access to me as well. Amazing. I mean, for
those that are saying they have no access to
occupational therapists, look no further than
Ali Neal because she makes herself so accessible.
And it really is that. It's a lovely tie in whilst
you're waiting for hands on occupational therapy
in your setting, which can take a really long
time. do this because at least you're already
putting in those systems, those audits, those
approaches to better support your pupils whilst
you wait. Yes and your occupational therapist
is very likely to tell you to do these things
in the first instance anyway and then will want
to review. So if you've already done them and
you can feed back on what you've done and how
it's working then your OT can help you tweak
it. They can help you put the toppings on your
bread. if you need them, which you may well need
them. Not everybody will, but some will. But
then we can go straight into the topping stage
with that specialist OT that's coming to help
you and you don't have to wait and then start
from scratch. That reduces the impact on the
learner, the adult, the class as a whole, whilst
you're waiting. Because often the crisis just
bubbles up and bubbles up until you're in desperate
crisis. the majority of the time, which can be
detrimental to everybody. So if you've got a
structure, you've got things in place to follow,
then hopefully you don't reach that point before
you get that hands -on input and support. You
should at least be steady. Even if we need to
tweak it to make it succeed, we should be there
and it should be okay. It's going to make a big
difference. So I know that your website is school...
sensory solutions .co .uk is that also where
people go to find out this course and yes it
is yes if you pop onto my website you will see
the bread course there you will also see i have
a sensory champion course which is a two -day
course 14 hours that includes half a day on sensory
circuits that gives you all the underlying knowledge
and some of the shared knowledge with bread so
there is some overlap because there are only
so many different ways to say the same thing.
So there is some overlap. There's also a day's
course on sensory circuits, if you wanted a deep
dive into sensory circuits. And there are some
bite -sized additional practical trainings about
dyspraxia, feeding, attachment and trauma, handwriting.
It's quite a few of those as additional modules.
And you can sign up to do an individual course
or you can get gold access, which gives you everything
if you want access to everything. It's entirely
up to you. Ali, I love podcasts like this because
I get so many DMs and of like asking questions
like this and I'm literally just going to send
them this now, which is just great. You've saved
me so much time. So thank you. Thank you so much.
Everything you say makes so much sense and you
are always welcome on this podcast. I love to
hear what you're working on. You come with so
much wisdom and just clear understanding of the
learners that we're working with on the ground.
Everything you say is incredibly realistic and
feasible for support staff to implement, which
is everything we need. We don't want a magical
wand. We want realistic and accessible implementation.
That is always what you offer. So thank you for
that. Thank you for having me. You're so welcome
and if anybody wants to follow Ali on her journey
it's School Sensory Solutions and Laura Graham
as well as Laura Graham Therapy and then the
website again is schoolsensoriesolutions .co
.uk. Thank you so much Ali. Thank you Jordan.