About Square Peg Kids
Rebecca Briggs
Your Child’s Biggest Asset Is YOU!
The World’s Greatest Teachers
As a Neurodiversity Expert, with 33 years of experience, I have worked with a diverse range of children, teenagers, families and communities from Central London to leafy Bath. My most recent professional experience is as Head of Secondary and Senior Mental Health Lead at a Specialist SEMH School, supporting children in a Therapeutic and T
As a Neurodiversity Expert, with 33 years of experience, I have worked with a diverse range of children, teenagers, families and communities from Central London to leafy Bath. My most recent professional experience is as Head of Secondary and Senior Mental Health Lead at a Specialist SEMH School, supporting children in a Therapeutic and Trauma-Informed classroom setting. In this setting, the children are all high need in terms of having ADHD, Autism or Trauma that impact on their ability to thrive in mainstream school.
I founded Square Peg Kids four years ago. My mission is to support children and their parents to navigate the demands of mainstream school and family life, giving them the tools to thrive in a neurotypical world. Providing practical and compassionate support in what is an increasingly complex and demanding landscape for families.
As I know myself, it can be a difficult road to tread on your own.
The World’s Greatest Teachers
Your Child’s Biggest Asset Is YOU!
The World’s Greatest Teachers
It’s a cliche, I know, but my kids have been my greatest teachers. Without knowing it, they have set me on a path of discovery and delight. It’s been challenging, for sure, but would I change it? Certainly not!
When these two beautiful boys popped in to the world, I firmly believed that all I needed to do was love them and play with them
It’s a cliche, I know, but my kids have been my greatest teachers. Without knowing it, they have set me on a path of discovery and delight. It’s been challenging, for sure, but would I change it? Certainly not!
When these two beautiful boys popped in to the world, I firmly believed that all I needed to do was love them and play with them and everything would be OK. Apart from the sleepless nights it would be easy! Right? Wrong!! They have taken me on an unexpected path which has been full of challenges but full of awe. Neurodivergent kids are the world’s greatest thinkers, creators, friends, conversationalists, hockey players, cricketers, engineers, musicians, gamers … and they can both cook up a storm!
But after years of school not really working, we hit a rocky road. With a few diagnoses (ASC, Dyslexia, ADHD and Twice Exceptionality) under our belt we thought that school would understand, support and know what to do. We could not have been more wrong. Work was thrown in the bin by my children’s teachers because it ‘wasn’t good enough’ or ‘untidy’. Playtimes were taken away to get work done, or do more work. Unable to read by the age of 7, I taught my younger son myself. After 6 months he was reading ‘Harry Potter’, but school treated them both as ‘less than’.
Toxic shame burrowed its way into their hearts and spread like a black hole. It was heart-breaking to see, as a teacher myself, my boys tumble in to a chasm of sleep disorders and depression that led to significant absences from school due to being so unwell. They were so damaged - Square Pegs being squeezed, squashed and hammered into round holes. .
Sarcastic school reports and eye-rolling teachers lit my fire. ‘I believe in my child’ - this was my mantra. And I stuck to it…
Square Peg Kids
Your Child’s Biggest Asset Is YOU!
Your Child’s Biggest Asset Is YOU!
Being loving, conscientious parents, we carefully chose (and paid for!) schools that prided themselves on outstanding pastoral care. Eventually we had to admit that, with the best of intentions, the schools were not able to help us and we called it quits. We were banging our Square Peg Kids in to round, school-shaped holes. And it really
Being loving, conscientious parents, we carefully chose (and paid for!) schools that prided themselves on outstanding pastoral care. Eventually we had to admit that, with the best of intentions, the schools were not able to help us and we called it quits. We were banging our Square Peg Kids in to round, school-shaped holes. And it really wasn’t working. We home-schooled for a short time and focused on family, moved to the country and got a dog - Skye. And yes, she is a Very Good Girl!
But we were alone, isolated and traumatized and there was no-one who seemed able or willing to help us. We searched high and low for a coach or a mentor, someone who could support us and guide us. There was no one.
I hit the books, reading and researching anything I could get my hands on. I needed to learn, to understand and to equip myself with enough knowledge to get us through and out the other side in one piece, better than ever. The round hole was never going to fit my Square Peg Kids, so we needed to give them the tools to get through without changing shape completely.
The focus became connection. Being a safe harbour. Making our home a place of non-judgement and unconditional regard. We made it through and my boys are the most wonderful, accomplished young men. Good company, funny, branching out in to the world on their own terms and, best of all, they are happy and contented. And although they are both so tall that can both rest their chins on my head, they give the best hugs! We are content in our connectedness and at peace.
Your Child’s Biggest Asset Is YOU!
Your Child’s Biggest Asset Is YOU!
Your Child’s Biggest Asset Is YOU!
Once the dust began to settle, I saw that this journey had taught me a number of things but the biggest one is this:
Parents are their children’s biggest asset. Plain and simple. With you by their side, they can achieve anything. Happiness is key and focusing on contented connection is crucial.
Helping your child to flourish in a narrow
Once the dust began to settle, I saw that this journey had taught me a number of things but the biggest one is this:
Parents are their children’s biggest asset. Plain and simple. With you by their side, they can achieve anything. Happiness is key and focusing on contented connection is crucial.
Helping your child to flourish in a narrow, unyielding school-landscape is the biggest gift you can give them. But it all starts at home, with you, your bond and your willingness to learn and grow with your child.