When a child is struggling at school, it is easy to assume they need immediate, high-level intervention, whether that’s speech therapy, remedial support, or seeing an educational psychologist.
But as Lauren Edmunds explains, those specialised therapies can’t do their job if a child’s basic foundation isn’t there.
In this episode, Lauren talks about the four non-negotiables we have to get right first: sleep, nutrition, unstructured movement, and genuine, screen-free family connection.
If a child arrives at school dysregulated, overtired, or running on a sugar spike, they simply aren’t in a state to learn.
Lauren shares a brilliant, stress-free strategy for fixing this: picking just one tiny habit to change each week, letting those small shifts stack up over time until you’ve quietly transformed your family’s routine.
Transcription:
Getting the Basics Right for Our Kids
Today I want to talk about the basics. I talk about it a lot. I will still talk about it a lot because we actually just need to get the basics right when it comes to our kids.
And there’s more to it, of course. Remedial therapy isn’t the basics. It’s quite a high-level intervention. Speech therapy, occupational therapy, educational psychologists, and play therapy are all quite high-level interventions.
But what I have seen over the almost fourteen years of being in this industry, and being a parent of twenty-three-year-old twins, is that the basics need to be in place for the high-level therapies to have an impact, or to have the impact we’re hoping for them to have.
Sleep, Nutrition, Movement and Connection
The basics are these:
Is your child sleeping enough?
Are they eating a nutritious, balanced meal with enough protein, fibre and fruits and vegetables?
Are they healthy? Is their gut healthy?
Are they getting enough movement?
They don’t need to be playing organised sports, though that is great. They need to be playing outside, climbing trees, running with their friends, swimming and building forts.
And they need to do chores at home. They need to be part of the family. They need to be moving their bodies.
Is that happening?
So, sleep, nutrition, movement, and do they feel connected to the family?
Do you have conversations? Do you have dinner time without screens? Do you talk to them about their day? Do you love and connect with them every single day?
Being Fully Present
I’ve spoken in the past about Gordon Neufeld’s concept around Hold On to Your Kids, and one of the things he says is, when you collect your children at the end of the school day, scoop them up and be fully present with them.
Are you reading to them at night in a connected way? Are you sharing stories?
We know the science. Research shows that if you read to your child, they will become better, stronger readers. They will be lifelong learners. Their vocabulary, connection, critical thinking, and basic thinking skills improve.
Building a Strong Foundation
Are you doing those four things?
Sleep, nutrition, movement, and connection.
Without those four things, all the other therapy you layer on top has no foundation.
Your child gets to school dysregulated, underfed, with sugar spikes, and tired. Potentially, they’ve been on screens, they’ve got a headache.
How are they supposed to learn?
Small Changes, One Week at a Time
If you can get the four basics right, and you just need to choose one of them and one little task within one of those headings, and focus on that for a week and change the behaviour in you so that your habits and routines change, so that you become a family that is like that, that does that.
One little thing under one of the headings. Once a week, you change that.
By the end of the week, you’ve got a new habit.
Next week, you choose something else.
If you’re deciding to have dinner around the table, start with that and only that.
Then the next week you might add, “Right, no screens in the car.”
Start that.
Now you’ve got two things.
The next week, the next thing. Okay, they need to help me with the dishes or carry in the groceries.
Right, now we’ve got three things in three weeks.
Fifty-Two Opportunities for Change
You’ve got fifty-two weeks, fifty-two things.
Your child will be happier, your family will be happier, and you will be more content.
That’s my biggest advice: get the four basic things right.
Sleep, nutrition, movement, and connection.
I’ve spoken about all of those in different podcasts before. You can find them. Hopefully it’s nicely catalogued.
I will speak about them again.
I hope this helps.
