Early years parent support and training for children with SEND

You will know your child better than anyone else. Parent support groups, training or workshops can help you further understand your child’s additional needs by learning new ways to support them as well as interventions you may not be aware of.  

Support groups are a great way to meet parents of other children who have similar needs to your child. Meeting other parents can also help you to feel less isolated. You can find details of parent support groups in the directory.  

The following organisations run groups for pre-school children with special educational needs and disabilities and their families:  

  • South Glos parent carers run a play and stay session for children aged 0-5 and their families based in Warmley Park on a Thursday morning and sessions on Mondays at Yate Children's Centre.

  • Jigsaw run drop in sessions during the daytime for children and their families based in Thornbury  

  • Incredible kids run family sessions on a Friday morning based in Kingswood   

  • Gympanzees are an organisation who also offers support for families

Parent workshops/ programmes  for early years  

Early years speech and language course 

If your child has speech and language difficulties, there are courses you can access run by speech and language therapists. Sorting Out Sounds is a course for parents of pre-school children that gives ideas on supporting your child’s speech sounds and suggesting some games to try at home. 

Details of when these courses are running can be found on the speech and language children’s community health website, training for parents

Early bird for children under 5 with autism  

If your child has been diagnosed with autism, the team who diagnosed your child will ask if you would like to be added to the waiting list for the NAS Early Bird programme. You will be contacted when a space is available.  Early Bird is a parent support programme for families of children under the age of 5 with a diagnosis of Autism. Designed by the National Autistic Society (NAS) the programme is delivered by Early Bird trainers over 3 months. 

Further details about the Early Bird programme is available on the NAS website.  

Contact details

For general enquiries regarding SEND, including SEN Support Services, please contact Will Pritchard, Strategic Lead for inclusion and SEND: will.pritchard@southglos.gov.uk