Shahana Knight - EPISODE NOTES
In this episode, Claire talks with Shahana Knight: founder and director of Therapeutic Teaching. Shahana is at the heart of this mental health and wellbeing service supporting children all over the UK with both complex and lower-level needs.
Shahana discusses the importance of helping children to recognise their emotions and shares some tips and advice for teachers and school staff on how they can support this by making conscious yet subtle changes in their approaches with all of their pupils.
 
KEY TAKEAWAYS

Focus on feelingsChanging our language and how we speak to children can make a significant difference in how they learn to deal with their emotions. It’s a skill educators should practise with all children - not just for those who might be struggling - and involves picking out feelings, identifying them and reflecting on the situation. The dialogue supports children in recognising what is going on for them and why they are feeling this way. If we avoid going into the automatic ‘teacher response’, for example highlighting what has occurred and the consequence that will follow, and instead reflect back on how the child feels, it makes all the difference. Language such as ‘you were really anxious’, ‘you’re feeling overwhelmed’ and ‘I can see this is really heard for you’ is really powerful.
Influences on learningMany children come into school dealing with a range of challenges. These may be related to abuse or neglect, families being separated, or even associated with spending too much time on technology and social media: all of which can affect children’s ability to learn.
Become more aware of, and acknowledge, the scienceWe may be aware of children who experience difficulties with friendships or who may be distracted in the classroom and not be able to maintain attention. We possibly know of children who become angry, disrupt the environment and leave the room. We, as educators, are missing the point if we purely focus on academic outcomes. There is so much more we need to do surrounding emotional intelligence. Encouraging children to explore and understand feelings and behaviours helps them to learn how to self-regulate and helps them to understand their triggers. Practitioners acknowledging children’s feelings and explaining why they reacted in a certain way helps them to develop an awareness of themselves and goes a long way in shaping adults of the future.

BEST MOMENTS
“We’re seeing a rise in difficult behaviour, or a rise in anxiety in children, or hyperactivity in children, or really emotional children and we’re not skilled enough yet to really be able to approach that and guide them through that.”
“We’re still in a society, we’re still in a pattern, where we often don’t give children the skills and awareness about their own mental health and wellbeing and insight into their feelings and why some of their experiences might be affecting their behaviour and their thoughts.”
“When children have been through any type of trauma, low-level or high-level, or they’re struggling with anything emotionally, they cannot actually physically learn. It shuts down the learning part of the brain and it fires up the survival part of the brain.”
“Let’s try and stop rejecting children for having difficult feelings. I think we’re so stuck in this pattern where we send them out, or we give them time out, or we ask them to write down what’s happened, or they get told they’ve got to go the headteacher’s room, or whatever our strategies are. That’s all about rejection and what children need is connection.”
“We have to start teaching children that we’re there to guide them through what’s hard for them. Not punish them for having difficult feelings because that’s part of being human.”
“Trauma comes in all shapes and sizes and I think we cannot forget the impact of children’s experiences as they’re growing and how much they need to be guided through those.”
“I just think we’re getting it wrong in education. I re