The Brain Has To Change Too... Why Change-Management Is So Difficult!

The start of the summer term always pulls me in two different directions. On one hand I anticipate the relief from the cold?that?it will bring, but then feel like time is going too fast.

Because, as the world finally comes back to life, the start of the summer term means we’re also counting down to another ending.

Children are much better at living in the moment than their grown-ups, so most of them aren't in that headspace yet. Even so, like most adults, they tend to just deal with changes as and when they happen anyway.

We’re often ready for the sought after ones - the new job, upgraded car or moving house - but we all know from experience that even the most basic of changes we haven’t planned for?- being forced into diverted traffic, or?locating the gravy granules after the supermarket has changed the layout (again!) - can turn our brains to jelly.

Anyone who knows me in a professional capacity knows that I have much to say about the insane learning capacity of the human brain: its 86 billion neurons, its one million neural connections a second, its neuroplasticity - the capacity to?reconfigure and rewire itself until the very end of life...

But it’s a very contrary organ as well, because our brains are also very lazy.

For the occasions when we need to make make rapid sense of information, retrieve learning, draw on experience or function on 'autopilot', Mother Nature gave us a very efficient asset.

It's downfall is that when faced with the unfamiliar -?especially when?multiple changes are occurring simultaneously and/or?they?challenge us emotionally -?it doesn’t have the pathways in place to process that.

Our heads can start to feel like spaghetti junction for very good reason.

Hence?'change-management'?isn’t just a primary-secondary?transition?issue. Just a new teacher or classroom, different peers, a revised curriculum, may be enough to knock any child off course.

Not forgetting, of course, that beyond school life, moving house, a new sibling, grief, loss, parental separation etc., problems we may be oblivious to, can all mean serious brain-reshaping.

We seldom appreciate that the challenge is less about new learning, and more about?‘unlearning’.

If we knew just how much?the brain itself has to change?in order to adapt to change, we’d know why change-management needs far more attention than it gets.

It takes?90 days at the bare minimum, even under the most ideal circumstances for neural networks to catch up. Throw in enduring stressors, uncertainty, emotional struggles, vulnerability, maybe neurodiversity, and 2-5 years might be more realistic.

It stands to reason then, that for children with changes afoot in the next few months (or more accurately, in the next two years!) we need to be preparing them now. ‘Transition’ support plays a part, but a half-day here and a visit there doesn’t really cut it.

Change shouldn't just be an inevitability that is thrust upon young people, another pressure for them to 'cope' with. How much more positive the experience if they were equipped to navigate uncertainty, to problem-solve along the way, and to trust themselves, even when faced with the unexpected or obstacles?

If?we?need to know this as professionals, so do parents (and children too IMO, but that's a different newsletter altogether) because 'change management' should never necessitate being thrown in at the deep end, and you sink or swim.

When young people have continual and consistent support that extends far beyond school life, not only are they much more likely to weather the often choppy waters of change, but to self-identify as someone who can handle the slings and arrows of life, for life.

So I'm planning to partner up - with nurseries, primaries and secondaries -?to provide workshops for parents (in-person or online,)?around the subject of?Preparing Children for Change.

I'd love to tell you more about my plans, so if you want to know more, or are interested in a Preparing Children for Change workshop for?staff, as well as parents, just reply ‘YES’ ?(or 'FORWARD' to your Transition Co-ordinator)