Work with Children
Barnardos work with children from 0-18 years of age in a variety of different ways. How we work depends on the individual child’s age and stage of development. Our work supports children to achieve their milestones and develop resilience to help them overcome any challenges they may face.
Early Intervention
Why we work with children
We work with children to help reduce the impact Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) may have on their development.
It is important to intervene as early as possible. Early intervention can be in the age of the child or the difficulty they are experiencing. Early Intervention is at the core of our work.
Possible reasons for early intervention
We work with children who experience one or more of the following challenges:
- understanding or expressing emotions
- managing conflict or demonstrating empathy for others
- playing in a co-operative manner
- sharing
- making positive choices
- understanding speech/language
- They may have difficulties standing, walking, holding a pencil, picking up items or coordination due to poor gross and fine motor skills
- Changes in their home or community which impact on their daily life and development
The Impact of Early Intervention
Through early intervention children are supported to develop life and education skills, such as the ability to make and sustain friendships, literacy skills, manage conflict, problem solving and self-regulate. These skills will be important throughout their life.
Individual Work
Why individual work?
The aim is to promote the child’s resilience and wellbeing. By this we mean their ability to deal with difficulties and their overall safety, happiness and development.
We respond to each child by assessing their needs and carefully tailoring a package of services for them. When individual work is carried out with a child, Barnardos will always seek to work with parent or carers around how they can support their child to address identified needs. Barnardos provides individual work with children across our family support projects which are based at the heart of their local communities.
Group Work
What is group work?
Group work means working with more than one child at a time. Groups can be focused on a particular need, stage of development or interest.
Group work examples;
- Children who need help to develop their social skills
- An afterschool group for 1st to 3rd class pupils
- Book club
Who can attend?
Who can attend a group will be influenced by the type of group taking place. Some groups are targeted meaning they have a very specific focus with specific requirements in relation to who can take part. Other groups are open to any child in the area.
How long do groups run?
The number of sessions and the times and length of groups vary according to the need.
Early Years
What is an Early Years Service?
Barnardos Early Years Services are warm, welcoming and engaging they support the children to learn, develop, and increase their readiness for school.
Each service delivers the Tús Maith curriculum, which integrates two internationally proven programmes, HighScope and REDI, to maximise the developmental outcomes for children.
Evaluation of Tús Maith
An evaluation of Tús Maith programme was published by the Centre for Social and Educational Research (CSER), in collaboration with the UCD Geary Institute in 2013.
Tús Maith Evaluation - Executive Summary
The study demonstrated that children who participated in the Tús Maith programme achieved positive outcomes across a range of key domains, such as social, language and cognitive development.