I'm here for a fellow ta who has just starting working with a new pupil (for her) he is extrememly withdrawn.

does anyone have any experience with working with withdrawn children and helping to get them 'out of their shell'

any input would be appreciated

advice would be to build that all important relationship before she thinks about ways help the child open up, whilst building the relationship, try and find out his interests and use them as a way of engaging him.

Slowly, if a child needs time to get to know a new adult you have to give it to them. As Jay says try to focus on the things the child is interested in first to help build trust and a better relationship.

Has the child just moved house /area as they maybe didn't want to leave all their friends.

Try puppets I often find the child will relate to the puppet sometimes you need two so the puppets do the talking.Could be home life.Get her to have a word with the SENCO.

thank you guys that's great.

he been with us for some time but his behaviour has recently become so poor that support has been put in place for him.

as usual with these children the home life is not great.

Try the puppets he make talk puppet to puppet.Poor little lad some kids put up with a lot.

is someone monitoring him for possible child protection issues, senco, CP officer, often withdrawal is the sign of CP issues.

yes summertime we are watching for these and CPO is keeping a close eye.

I would have said puppets too but jack beat me to it!!!! Sorry no more ideas as this is not my area but best of luck.

How are things going with withdrawn child?

I am currently running a Pyramid club (nurture group) and within in the
group have 2 children that the class teacher has identified as being a point of this type of concern.

Before the club ran (I have 10 children for a PSHE session and we eat lunch together) I had to meet each child and record how they feel about themselves etc. It was a really difficult task because I was aware these children were already lacking in confidence and I had to 'interview' them.

Surprisingly they responded well. I find talking a lot helps. Fill their silences until they are ready to talk for themselves (but be always listening giving themspace to talk for themselves and never assuming). The questionaire had
3 faces - happy / straight faced/sad and then asked questions like....
How I feel about school
How I feel about lessons
Getting my work finished
Asking for help
Getting on with other children
Some children spoke well but others looked horrified so I bubbled along
- chat chat chat - "some people really enjoy everything about school and
never feel sad or worried aout it. If you are one of those people you'd probably tick the smiley face...now some people like somethings about school but not everything - which is OK - and if you were like that you'd tick the face in the middle - and some people aren't sure about school at all. It makes them feel unhappy at the moment. And if you felt like that - you'd tick this face....

Sorry to go on, and on....

There was also a picture (badly drawn stick figure of children playing,some alone (happily), some alone (sad). The children had to choose which one was them.

I learned so much from their choices. How they percieved themselves against the teachers observations and who they would like to be.

The group meets once a week. We have 2 volunteers. The children chose a name, made a logo and really have fun. What they don't notice is the
confidence building (in the chosen games) the social skills (in shared activities) the confidence building (heaps of praise and building on the positive).

Maybe some of this could be adapted for your child. Find out about him,
how he feels, how he sees himself. Then you will be able to see what you have to build upon?




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