Online Safety - Parents of Children with SEND

Navigating your child's online safety can feel like a minefield. Where do you begin?

If your child has special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) you will need to take these into consideration. Better Together wants to help you break down this intimidating virtual world. Angela's practical workshops raise awareness of online safety issues which can affect children of all ages and differing stages of cognitive development. Whether you're a parent, carer, or professional these online safety fundamentals are designed to make you feel empowered and informed.

This experience will be a 3 hour course with scheduled breaks.

The course is based around the acronym 'SPECIFIC'.

S - Supervision: How to supervise your child online, with various options depending on your child's age and cognitive ability

P - Parental Controls: Guidance on where you can get instructions to set up parental controls on a wide variety of platforms and devices your child may use or own

E - Expectations: The online safety 'rules' discussed will not be prescriptive, but will give you some ideas

C - Communication: The who, the what and the when of online safety conversations. Learn how to create safe spaces for conversations using non-verbal methods of communication

I - Intentions: Considering the intentions of other individuals and organisations, and how your child may be misinterpreted

F- Friendships: How to put boundaries in place to protect your child from harmful people online

I - Irony / sarcasm / jokes / lies: Interpreting text - its nuances, inferences, tone, and how these can be misread

C - Creating a child-centred approach: Choose your preferred strategy that will help your child and reflect your parenting style

In week one Angela will begin with a short introduction. Discover what motivated this mum of two and online safety professional to set up Better Together. She will share useful background information, including the benefits and the risks of being online for children with SEND and the ‘SPEC’ half of the acronym.

In week two Angela will cover the remaining ‘IFIC’ half of the acronym followed by a section on how to report inappropriate online behaviour such as bullying, grooming, offensive/harmful content.

Learn from one another and find solidarity in other parents' struggles. With Angela's guidance, leave with more clarity about what's right for you and your child than ever before.