The subtitle of my recent book – Understanding, nurturing and working effectively with vulnerable children in school – is: “Why can’t you hear me?”
This is because one of the crucial needs of the very vulnerable children in our schools is the need to feel “heard”. They can sometimes be seen to unconsciously communicate this through their defensive behaviours or through their projections – leaving school staff feeling helpless or even ignored, which in turn often exacerbates our unhelpful expectations and these patterns of behaviour.
In the book, I constantly recommend “holding in mind” gestures and comments, as well as an on-going, committed and thoughtful relationship-based approach to working with such children.
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