My fiery deputy head mistress

Years ago I was sat in a staff meeting at a school which was being led by the deputy head.

It was a Thursday afternoon and the meeting was around an hour long, covering healthy and safety/ safeguarding.

As you can imagine most of us were not exactly over the moon at the idea of this as we all had a lot of other stuff to get on with.

Nevertheless there we were sat in this meeting.

The deputy head was a fiery lady, the type of person who liked things being done her way.

Around 10 minutes into the meeting she started talking about the staff giving off positive and negative energy.

She then suddenly began pointing out people’s body language and questioned if this was the body language of someone who wanted to work with special needs children.

She got pretty irate and really homed in on how people were sitting and folding their arms ect.

I must admit I thought the whole thing was completely ridiculous. Because insinuating that someone doesn’t enjoy working with SEN children just because they’re folding their arms during a meeting after a long day at work is just plain stupid in my opinion.

But this was HER perception of negative body language and she had her own beliefs of what this meant.

I’ll never forget that meeting because it made me think about how body language really is a minefield…

And if I realise that, how do children on the spectrum see it?

So many children with autism struggle to understand social norms and things like body language…

And this could be a barrier that holds your child back from making friends, being involved in games, social interactions and lots more.

So how can you teach your child about body language?

Well you can begin by teaching them basics of good vs bad body language. (positive vs negative)

And although, like my old deputy head, people may think slouching or folding arms are forms of negative body language, it’s important to teach your child a combination of things.

For example, if a person is slouching, but smiling and looking at you while you’re talking then it’s clear they are showing good/ positive body language.

Begin slow when teaching this as to not overload your child with information.

Role play is a great way of giving examples in your teaching. Try this out with your whole family as a fun way of teaching this together.

For more activities to involve your family in getting the best from your child, join ‘The Unlimited Autism Success Inner Circle’ where you’ll discover fun and useful tips for the whole family use at home that will work on your child’s social skills, communication skills, sensory needs and lots more.

Click here to join or to hear more

Speak with you soon until then,

Live every moment, Love beyond words and make a difference today

Emma Ottaway

The Ambitious Autism Ambassador