Strengthening relationships around additional needs or neurodivergence

Log in

Home

> About Us

> Togetherness impact stories

> All impact stories

Strengthening relationships around additional needs or neurodivergence

Exploring the impact of our parent pathway, Understanding your child with additional needs.

Parenting a child with additional needs can be a unique pressure for parents, who often experience poorer emotional wellbeing than those families of a non-disabled child. We understand the importance of nurturing relationships and the value of growing and protecting those important connections during early intervention support for families, helping to reduce conflict, improve behaviours and strengthen mental wellbeing.

Supporting parents on their journey

We designed Understanding your child with additional needs for parents of children who may be neurodivergent, have a disability or face other additional challenges, supporting them to feel more confident and supported in their parenting journey.

Offering space for reflection, expert insight from practitioners and other parents’ experiences, the pathway helps to build strong, attuned relationships in the family. It explores how a child’s brain develops and what this might look like for neurodivergent children; emotional regulation and behaviour; sleep and sensory needs and, crucially, considers the parent or carer’s own wellbeing.

Through self-guided learning, we hope to make parents feel more equipped to support their child’s emotional health, better able to manage stress and conflict, and become more connected to their child’s unique way of experiencing the world.

Evidence of closer connections

A recent evaluation conducted by Emma Taylor, ESRC-funded PhD student at the Intellectual Disabilities Research Institute (IDRIS), University of Birmingham, indicated that there is some evidence to suggest that the pathway may support parents on their journey and improve their relationship with their child. Learners who completed the pathway reported small improvements through a closer relationship with their child and less conflict in the parent-child relationship.

Whilst other factors may have contributed to these improvements between pre- and post-course feedback, 93% reported finding the course helpful and would recommend it to others, suggesting its value as a widely available, complementary tool for parents of children with additional needs.