Just Right State, Melbourne

The JRS programme is for working with school aged children and their parents, to enhance awareness of their own emotional states and behaviour, and how this impacts on parent/ child emotional states and engagement patterns. JRS looks at the use of sensory activities and foods, to help children learn how to self regulate their emotional states and behaviour. It also uses cartoon characters called ‘The Scared Gang’ which represents the different survival and attachment patterns of behaviour. The different characters tell the children how they react to situations and what each of them does to achieve the ‘just-right state’. The goal of the programme is to enable children become more emotionally aware of themselves and of others, to give them simple tools to enable them to self regulate and achieve the just right state, whether it is to engage in academic learning, interacting with their peers, or to be able to get a good night’s sleep.

Parents learn how to regulate their child from sensory and attachment perspectives. The aim of the programme is to enhance parents’ awareness of their own engagement patterns and how this impacts on their child’s emotional states. It also addresses the underlying reasons for behaviours. Parents first complete a sensory-attachment profile questionnaire that looks at the survival, sensory, and attachment behaviours of their child. They learn about; the different levels of self- regulation (physiological, sensory, emotional, and cognitive); the regulating effects of food and activities; and how to create an enriched environment that is tailor made both for them and their child’s sensory-attachment needs.

Children are seen in groups of four to six for one hour fifteen minutes once a week. Two facilitators carry out this programme due to the practical elements involved. Parents of the children attending the JRS programme meet together for two hours once a week for six weeks. It runs in parallel to their children’s programme. The children’s facilitators also lead the parents’ programme.

* This course is limited to 16 places * Attendees must have completed the Sensory Attachment Intervention: Level 1 (delivered by Compass in Aug 2015 or by SAI in the UK)