How to Be Heard as Your Child or Young Person's Expert Advocate

What is this webinar about?
If you would like to be able to speak up more confidently in meetings about your child’s needs in a way that will influence outcomes, this is exactly the Workshop you need.

Why meetings can be so hard for parents
When a child has an additional need, parents often feel that important decisions are taken out of their hands. When this happens, families often have genuine concerns about their child’s needs not being met. Additionally, when a child’s needs are not always visible and cause behavioural issues, parents often feel judged and blamed. That means that you can feel wrong-footed before the meeting has even begun. Add in the whole cocktail of mixed emotions that any parent is likely to feel when their child’s well-being and future is being discussed, and it is sometimes hard for parents to speak up because they do not want to let the tears flow or for their frustration to sound like anger in their voice.

What we will cover during the workshop
This Workshop is all about how to counter those misunderstandings and assumptions, and to empower parents to confidently communicate in a more effective and collaborative way, so they can be regarded as an equal and expert member of the team around their child.

The strategies we will discuss will work equally well across a range of settings and situations including in school meetings; with service providers; on the phone; in writing; at medical appointments; during hospital admissions; in person or online and in large or small meetings.

​​​​​Some of the issues we will cover include –

• How to decide what your child needs you to ask for.
• Planning and Preparation.
• How to communicate more effectively.
• How to be heard clearly, confidently, and assertively.
• How to be regarded as your child’s expert.
• How to work with professional staff in partnership and collaboration to get the best decisions for your child.
• Meeting Dynamics – what else might be going on in the room?
• How to harness your emotions so they have a positive impact on how you successfully advocate
• After the meeting – useful follow-up strategies.