Engage: Exploring simple steps to transform how we engage in school meetings and therapy sessions!

I’m Suzanne—a mum, occupational therapist, and long-time listener to the quiet wisdom that families carry. Lead Together is a space where parents lead, services follow, and your vision for your child’s life is honoured from the start. You are the expert. I’m here to walk beside you.

Dear fellow parent,

Thank you for being here. Maybe you’re reading this while waiting in the school car park. However you’ve landed here, I’m glad we’re together.

Last time in Engage, we explored engaging in a new skill using small steps to just begin.

This week, we look at an example of engaging in steps that may support how you are in school/therapy meetings:

Engage.

Engage doesn’t mean piling on more. It means practicing small skills that shift how we meet our children and the systems around them.

The Engage Practice: 3 Simple Steps

1. Ground: Before a meeting, or in the middle of one, plant your feet firmly on the ground. Notice where your body feels tight. Take one slow breath into that place.

Why it matters: Your body is a compass. Grounding steadies the nervous system so you can respond, not just react.

2. Reframe: When you see deficit language on a form, create your own column. For each “can’t,” write a “can.” For each “weakness,” name a strength.

Why it matters: This keeps your child’s wholeness in view. It reminds you (and sometimes the school/therapy service) that every deficit story has other layers.

3. Name:Tell your child what you notice about their spark:“I love how you notice details others miss.”“I saw how kind you were when you shared today.”

Why it matters: Children internalize what we name. You are planting seeds of strength, curiosity, and belonging.

This week, try it like this:

• Ground: In your next stressful moment, pause, plant your feet, breathe once deeply.

• Reframe: Take one “deficit” label and write your own “strength” column beside it.

• Name: Speak one strength out loud to your child today.

  
  

A Glimpse Ahead:

Next time, we’ll continue with the “A” in our L-E-A-D framework:

Adapt

And always:

Before you close this email, take one breath for yourself, and one for your child. Not the child described in a single report. The layered, luminous child who called you into becoming.

May we ground. May we reframe. May we name. May we engage with love.

Take all of the care,

Suzanne

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