A Circle of Support in Practice from an article in SEBDA News (Spring 2009)
Thu, Apr 9th 2009
This article in SEBDA News (Issue 17 Spring 2009) by Thora Grant and Liz Duthie, reflects on how a Circle of Support group was completed and evaluated in a primary school in Dumfries and Galloway. The overall feedback was very positive and the authors looked into what had made the group so successful.
The main instrument used was the book “They’re Driving Me Mad!” by Jenny Mosley and Zara Niwano – a hand book for running circles of support for children whose behaviour pushes practitioners beyond their limits.
“The book contains all the rationale, advice and strategies that are essential for running a small therapeutic circle for children “beyond the usual motivational strategies” (Jenny Mosley) and was the foundation of all the work we did.”
The group chosen consisted of children who required additional behaviour support and three other children who were thought could benefit from smaller group work but who would act as positive role models for the other children.
The group used session plans adapted to fit with the age and stage of the participants, and the five-step model was adhered to with the addition of each child making a positive statement at the end of each session about the contributions to that session of the person next to them.
The termination of the small group work was carefully planned, and four weeks before the end of the group, the rest of the class were invited to join in for two sessions. The last two sessions were spent back in the main class room circle time within facilitated sessions.
Importantly, evaluations showed that this method of group work was of particular benefit for each of the group members in the areas of: listening, contributing, turn-taking, developing positive relationships and, very importantly, building a more positive self-image. Those involved said they would heartily endorse Circles of Support as a means of working with children who display emotional and behavioural difficulties.
(This article was written based on the article by Thora Grant and Liz Duthie and contains paraphrasing from their article. Grateful thanks for forwarding the article to us.)
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