Relaxation using the Relax Kids Model Evaluation in Northamptonshire TaMHS Project

Transcription

1 Relaxation using the Relax Kids Model Evaluation in Northamptonshire TaMHS Project By John Fardon, Specialist Teacher Mental Health (edited by Mike Simons) Description of Relaxation Teaching in Schools Relaxation has been taught in Northamptonshire schools since 2007, using the seven points from Relax Kids; dance & movement, fun and relaxation games, stretching, massage, breathing, affirmations and visualisation. These exercises help children to release endorphins, which in turn help them to feel better about themselves and prepare them for learning in the classroom. Relax Kids relaxation exercises can be used for individuals, for groups, for whole classes and even during assembly time, taking-up only a few seconds or up to an hour. Rationale for Including Relaxation in TaMHS For some children who have difficulties with anxiety, anger, concentration and self esteem, relaxation helps them enormously. Relax Kids has been used as a multiwave model, using relaxation in different sized groups and with individual children. Various research has been carried out on different aspects of relaxation: for the effects of massage, for a case study from Sylvester Primary School, Liverpool and various contributors to Meditation in Schools Calmer Classrooms Ed Erricker & Erricker All of these studies come to a universal conclusion that relaxation skills combine to produce benefits for children. Staff have spoken locally about additional benefits for teachers using these techniques, contributing to their own wellbeing. Fenella Lindsell, the founder of Yoga Bugs (for children aged 2½ to 7) and Yoga d Up (for children between 8 and 12), report that children who may be over-stimulated are helped through yoga postures and meditations, to connect to that quiet space inside you which we all have, arguing that you can t relax and focus your mind until you relax your body. Provision of Training and Implementation In the TaMHS project, Relax Kids training was provided for half a day, attended by 11 representatives from three primary schools. The training within the TaMHS project built upon training carried out across the county for the previous three years. By 31 st December 2010 over 300 professionals in Northamptonshire had been trained to use Relax Kids exercises in over 65 schools. Relaxation exercises were being used in more than half the TaMHS schools. One Infant School ensures that all their children experience relaxation exercises every week, using Relax Kids and other resources. Relaxation techniques were incorporated in some of the Wave 3 work with individual children and young people and used successfully. At the TaMHS conferences, representatives from 58 schools indicated an interest in finding out more about Relax Kids or accessing training.

2 There was some additional relaxation training and demonstration work carried out at an Infant and Junior School by one of the Specialist Primary Mental Health Practitioners (SPMHPs) after consultation with the Specialist Teacher for Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing. The training was implemented in both the Junior and Infant school in collaboration with the SENCOs who devised a time table for the SPMHP to run the relaxation sessions with whole classes. Three 25 minute sessions were offered to each class teacher; the first session was a demonstration by the SPMHP, allowing school staff to participate and be a role model for pupils. The second session ran jointly with the SPMHP and class teacher to encourage the teacher to begin to feel at ease with the techniques. The third - session was run by the teacher, with the SPMHP in a supportive/encouraging role. TaMHS Evaluation and Results Outcomes from using Relax Kids exercises are purely qualitative in nature, although there is a very useful body of evidence from Sylvester Primary School, Liverpool, who used the NFER Nelson Emotional Literacy Assessment for the whole school. This evidence can be found on One child with high levels of anxiety receiving a Wave 3 intervention borrowed one of the Relax Kids CDs, took it home and found it amazingly helped her two year old cousin go to sleep, when previously his mother had spent hours trying to get him to sleep. It also helped the targeted child reduce her levels of anxiety. Evaluation of the Relax Kids training given to TaMHS schools indicate that it was highly valued in terms of presentation, relevance and shift in learning; demonstrating a shift on a scale of 1-6 from a baseline of 1 or 2, to over 5 s for each learning objective. The greatest learning shift was 3.9 for the first learning objective I begin to understand about the seven points of Relax Kids. The highest level of learning was for the third learning objective, I begin to understand the benefits of Relax Kids. The average shift was 3.6. The most important things that course participants stated they would like to take from the training included; the variety of activities; using the techniques to allow children to calm down; strategies to use in class; and the importance of relaxing. What has been learnt about the whole process of training and modelling relaxation skills to staff and pupils can be summarised in four points. Ensure that the trainer/practitioner is completely at ease and fully understands the different elements of relaxation. Take time to introduce the techniques, modelling relaxation, not striving to teach everything in a short space of time. Guard against making assumptions about what the pupils and staff already know about emotions and relaxation. Try to have all staff supporting what we are trying to achieve, so we are not just implementing the idea of one senior member of staff. This will help to reduce sabotage or non-participation from some members of staff in the classroom. The four points above are specific lessons learnt from experience in two schools and are valuable to bear in mind when developing this work in schools.

3 There is more evidence of how Relax Kids interventions have been used with children from Northamptonshire schools who have been using the techniques learnt from earlier training sessions. At the TaMHS conferences, a Learning Mentor/Family Link Worker described how she had used Relax Kids exercises with a group of Year 6 boys with some behavioural and self-esteem issues, with positive results. She also used peer massage with targeted children from the Foundation Stage who were all having bad dreams. Parents reported much happier children who were able to sleep better, only a few days afterwards. A Headteacher reported how she used visualisations during assembly, observed by her School Improvement Partner, after play in class and organising a weekly lunchtime club from Year R to Year 6 for up to 20 children. For this Headteacher, Relax Kids has helped most with children who have self-esteem and anger management difficulties, describing the impact on those children as fantastic! Overall Impact Ratings for Relaxation " Where 10 is very highly useful and 1 is not at all useful, on a scale of 1-10, how useful do you think the following TaMHS interventions were/are a)for children who are vulnerable to experiencing difficulties with Mental Health or who are already experiencing such difficulties Overall Impact Ratings of Relaxation, according to senior staff from 5 project schools Average Median Mode Range to 9 b) Overall to the school 6 6 n/a 3 to 9 Capacity Building From input through TaMHS, capacity to provide has been built within at least 6 schools, with a reported 350 children across 6 of these schools accessing relaxation or massage on a frequent basis in the first quarter of Capacity has also been built in the SPMHP staffing to support schools and others in developing relaxation as useful provision. In order to build capacity in the future, training could be developed by offering individual schools training on any day of the school year, working with the children alongside the teachers and support staff, and running a teacher/parent session later in the school day. In order to contribute to this way of working, Specialist Teachers for Mental Health have created a short film to share with staff in schools, clearly demonstrating the seven points and the benefits to staff and children. This should help to build confidence and capacity for most staff in one school. If one person in the school was also able to attend an additional half day training event they would be able to support relaxation skills across the school.

4 Conclusion from the Results What has been important to discover about the training process in relaxation skills is that participants need to understand why relaxation is helpful for children and then to feel confident enough to use the techniques. Where confidence amongst staff is high enough, then the results are extremely positive, but when confidence is not sufficiently high, the impact on children and schools is less positive. It is also important to give time for staff to internalise the techniques and ideas about relaxation. In two of the TaMHS schools it was necessary to go into the school and demonstrate the techniques with the class, the teacher and support staff. This happened with 60 children in Year R and 20 children in Year 3. The staff then felt confident enough to use the techniques themselves and work is continuing in these schools. Indications are that Relaxation can be introduced successfully into Northamptonshire schools with a positive impact on children who are vulnerable to experiencing difficulties with Mental Health or who are already experiencing such difficulties, and on the school overall. In particular, children benefit in terms of self-esteem / mental health. Capacity has been built for further implementation of Relaxation in Northamptonshire schools, and the detailed results above need to be taken into account in further implementation. Because of the indications of the importance to children s mental health of physiological based interventions such as Relaxation, that it has been included in the Building Blocks of Provision for Building Mentally Healthy Schools in Northamptonshire at the Wave 1 / Universal level, as a recommended provision for all schools, as shown below: -

5 Building-Blocks of Provision for Building Mentally Healthy Schools in Northamptonshire As informed by Northamptonshire Targeted Mental Health in Schools Drawing and Talking KS1-4 Emotional Health / Wellbeing Team to support students in KS3&4 Home-Focused Practitioner Trained in ASD, 123 Magic, Solihull Approach Parenting More Targeted Programmes or Support - Wave 3 focused Peer Support KS1&2 Peer Mentoring KS3&4 Building Resilience thru: Zippy s Friends KS1 FRIENDS KS2/3/4 CBT based Group Work e.g. Growing Optimism or RESPECT Peer Massage or Relaxation Techniques Support for child experiencing Loss, Bereavement, Separation, ADHD, ASD, Selfharm & Domestic Abuse Whole-School Behaviour Management Approach Targeted Programmes or Support - Wave 2 focused Universal Programmes or Support- Wave 1 focused County PSHE Prog inc SEAL. Healthy Schools Anti Bullying Shoe Box & Mental Health Handbook Headteacher Wellbeing Programme Staff Wellbeing Programme Tackling Stigma Solihull Approach & or Protective Behaviours Solution Focused Approach Children s Workforce Core Competencies (from DCSF, ECM 2005) Mental Health Team or Lead Person in School Parent Engagement best Practice Essential Foundation Programmes & Approaches May 2011 Essential Underpinnings for work with children This Relaxation chapter was authored by John Fardon, Specialist Teacher Mental Health and edited by Mike Simons, Specialist Senior Educational Psychologist and TaMHS Project Manager and Programme Lead. The full document Northamptonshire TaMHS Project Evaluation of Interventions April 2009 is available on the Northamptonshire Shoebox Website For training opportunities re Relaxation and other interventions, please see For any further enquiries about Relaxation or TaMHS, please contact Mike Simons misimons@northamptonshire.gov.uk in the first instance