Supporting quiet, shy, and anxious children in the primary school using a targeted nurturing intervention programme called ‘Special Me Time’

Quiet, shy and/or anxious children are found in every classroom and in every school and by their nature, tend to go ‘under the radar’. These children present a variety of behaviours, such as being inhibited, lacking confidence, or appearing socially anxious. For some children, their shyness can be severe and may affect their access to learning, thus further understanding, support and nurture is needed. This study employed a targeted six week intervention programme entitled ‘Special Me Time’ (SMT) that supported the children with: vocalising their feelings; accessing classroom opportunities; communication, and developing friendships. The premise of the approach is that the children are withdrawn from the mainstream classroom and the session is led by a trained practitioner in a small group situation. The programme is aligned to and followed a nurture based approach. The SMT programme was conducted by school staff and Initial Teacher Education students in primary schools predominantly in South Wales, UK. Findings from the implementation of the programme highlighted that it benefited all children’s personal and social development in a range of ways such as improving their confidence and self-esteem. Boys with English as an additional language (EAL) responded especially well to the programme. The results of this research study demonstrated the importance of using an intervention designed to understand and support quiet shy and/or anxious children and to develop their unique abilities in a medium where they were both seen and heard