What is the This is Me profiling tool?
‘This is Me’ is a new tool being rolled out in schools/education settings that looks at a child’s strengths and needs, focussing on neurodivergence. It will help everyone to understand a child’s differences and meet their needs at home and at school.
A neurodivergent child’s brain processes information in a different way to others. They may have sensory differences, difficulty sleeping or adapting to a change in routine. They could find it hard to sit still, make friends or say how they feel. All of these things can make school very challenging.
Working with schools, families and children, a trained professional will complete a ‘This is Me needs summary’ after observing the child and talking to them. This will not result in a diagnosis but will help the child to get the support they need.
The professional could be a teacher, special educational needs coordinator (SENCO), family liaison officer or another professional who works closely with your school and has been appropriately trained
The tool is not an assessment. It is a tool to guide a collaborative conversation between a parent, professional and young person (if appropriate) that creates a visual record. The tool focuses on 9 neurodevelopmental areas to understand the challenges faced, what is and is not working and what else could be tried
The 9 areas explored are:
- Speech and language ability.
- Energy levels.
- Attention skills and impulse control (how we focus and how we stop ourselves from actions)
- Emotion regulation skills (how we express and manage how we feel)
- Motor skills (ability to make co-ordinated movements)
- Sensory needs (response to sensory input e.g. sight/taste/sound)
- Flexibility and adaptability
- Empathising and systemising (how we respond and interact with others)
- Cognitive abilities (how are brain processes and manages tasks)
We are working with Local Authorities so that you can access resources, strategies, and advice for each of the nine areas through your Local Authority Local Offer on their website. These are designed to be used with a 'This is Me needs summary' but you may find them useful even if you are not completing 'This is Me'.
It is important to consider other areas, such as sleep, nutrition, bladder and bowel control, mental health and trauma. These other areas will all form part of the conversation if needed.
The tool provides a holistic view of a child or young person's needs and helps to identify strategies or further sources of support to help manage those needs in different areas of a life, such as at home, at their early years setting, school or college, and in the community. The process of completing the profile is done with the family, and not for or to or by the family.
If the child/young person can be involved in completing the tool it can be an empowering process for them to learn about their needs and develop strategies to help themselves.
If a child is waiting for an assessment for autism or ADHD, they will not lose their place on the waiting list by taking part in ‘This is Me’.
When ‘This is Me’ has been introduced in a school, it will be the only method of referral for an autism or ADHD assessment. This means a child will get access to support long before they have an assessment, which may not be needed once the support is in place.