How Mentoring Helped Emily after Brain Trauma

Emily is a teenage girl who was referred to Targeted Provision for social mentoring and support with her English and Maths skills, after being involved in an accident which left her with significant brain trauma. After the accident, Emily regained independent mobility and verbal language skills, but was left with severe limitations in her short-term memory and limited insight into the difficulties she was facing. She required constant adult support in order to maintain her safety and allow her to engage in day-to-day routines.

We paired Emily with Fiona, a qualified secondary teacher with experience in working with LAC and pupils with a range of SEND. Fiona understood that Emily was going to find it hard to retain information from their sessions, having worked with our SEND Support Specialists and read notes from the medical staff involved in her rehabilitation.

Fiona realised quickly that Emily had a passion for art and decided to work with her to create an attractive and engaging “learning diary” so that she could refer back to previous learning and orient herself.

Emily’s father also recognised how special her artwork was after only a couple of 1:1 sessions, and how much this multimedia element of her learning was adding to her enjoyment and progress within them. After liaising with Fiona, he agreed to get her a large sketchbook for her to use as a learning log, giving her the chance to showcase her artwork at every possible opportunity throughout her tuition.