little boy in a summer hat

How to cope in the heat with children with additional needs

“Phew! Wot A Scorcher!” screams the newspaper headlines as the temperature rises to new record levels once again, but for families with children with additional needs, the screams are all too real as they and their children struggle to cope with the heat.

So, here’s some links to places that families of children with additional needs can go to get some help and advice as we all try to support our children…

Mummy Est.2014
This is a great website for families of children with additional needs, and a recent blog post is packed with helpful tips to cope with the heat.

Heatwave with kids: Ways to handle a heatwave

Red Cross

Always a useful resource for health and safety tips, the Red Cross website has a great article with seven things to remember in a heatwave.

Heatwave UK: Top tips for keeping cool

https://www.redcross.org.uk/stories/health-and-social-care/first-aid/beat-the-hot-weather-top-tips-for-staying-cool

BBC News

The Disability area of the BBC News website is always worth a look, and it currently has a really helpful article about cooling solutions for disabled people of any age, including children.

Disability and the heatwave: Cooling solutions and disability as weather alert goes red
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-62136032

The SEN Resources Blog

Another useful website for families and carers to explore anyway, but the SEN Resources Blog also has this useful article to help keep our children cool during the heatwave.

How To Keep Kids Cool During The Heatwave

https://senresourcesblog.com/2022/07/16/how-to-keep-kids-cool-during-the-heatwave/

And finally… here’s some resources from Twinkl to help to explain about the heatwave to your additional needs children…

Twinkl

Lots of resources including visuals to help you to explain about the heatwave to your child

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/search?q=heatwave&c=244&r=parent

I hope this provides you with a head start as you look to keep your child with additional needs safe and cool during the heatwave, and as you help them to understand more about the heatwave too.

Keep safe!

About Mark Arnold

Mark heads up Urban Saints pioneering additional needs ministry programme and is co-founder of the ‘Additional Needs Alliance’, a learning and support community. He is a ‘Churches for All’ partner, a member of both the ‘Council for Disabled Children’ and the ‘Living Fully Network’, and serves on the executive for ‘Children Matter!’ Most importantly, he is dad to James, a 17-year-old Autistic boy with Learning Difficulties and Epilepsy.