The walk with no agenda

The sheet

For the parent: openers that are not about school, what to do with a silence, and what to do if something hard is said.

Pocket card · A4, four cards to cut · One page · PDF, 50 KB

How it helps

Many children find it easier to talk while walking beside you than face to face, with no questions waiting. The same walk at the same time each week gives your child a regular chance to say what’s on their mind, without being asked.

How to use it

1. Cut out the cards and keep one in your pocket. Choose a walk you can take at the same time each week, just the two of you.
2. Start with something that isn’t school: the dog, the weather, something you both saw on the way out.
3. When there’s a silence, let it run. Many children say what’s really on their mind after several minutes of nothing in particular.
4. If something hard is said, listen more than you speak. The card says what to do if your child tells you something that worries you.

How to get this sheet

This sheet comes with a subscription. It is also yours with its chapter, if that is the chapter you read free, or if a teacher or therapist sends it to you. School staff and therapists signed in to their shelf can print it too.

It goes with When They Stop Talking to You.

Free to print

These are free to anyone, with nothing to sign up for.

• A plan for a bad dayTo fill in together · A4
• Before you ring the schoolFor a call or a meeting · A4
• What to say: school and friendsCards to cut out · A4, eight cards to cut
• Before the SENCo meetingFor a meeting · A4
• Three reports, side by sideFor a meeting · A4 landscape
• The return-to-school meetingFor a meeting · A4
• The move to secondary school, for a parents’ eveningFor a parents’ evening · A4, five pages
• The last half-hour before bedFor the fridge · A4
• The worry ladderTo fill in together · A4
• Before you see the GP about your childFor an appointment · A4, two sides
• A record of what happenedFor a call or a meeting · A4, two pages
• The people I can tellTo make together · A4, two pages

Every sheet, marked free or with a subscription, is at theparentbook.com/printables.