Frequently Asked Questions
“My child is flitty. They won’t focus or concentrate. Will they benefit from your programme?” Our programme and session structure has been built with your child’s needs and difficulties in mind. While the sessions are 1½ hours long, each activity within that time is quite short, and there are periods of free play built in for the younger ones as well, to allow your child to have a rest. All of our approaches are also adapted to meet the needs of each individual child where they are at, and we will work in close partnership with you to get things right for your child.
“I am really interested, but my child won’t entertain it. How can I encourage them to come?” There is a strong likelihood that your child’s reaction is about anxiety and fear of the unknown, rather than complete disinterest. Keely reacted the same way when she was first asked if she wanted to go to dancing classes – because the thought of committing herself to something, when she’d never been there and she had no idea what it would be like, was to terrifying for her. This is why our Gentle Introduction starts with a private, no-strings-attached visit. That visit will allow your child to get their bearings and calm their fears – before you and they make any decisions about it together. We’ve seen it work!
“My child is really anxious, and I can’t get them out of the house to visit you at your studio. Do you have anything in place to address this?” If this is the case, we can offer you and your child a home visit first – so that your child can meet Keely and break the ice in the comfort of their familiar surroundings. We can go through all of the relevant information there, and give your child pictures of the studio and written plans for our next actions, so that they can be put at ease.
“My child is really anxious about going through with our plans to visit your studio, and I am concerned that we are not going to make it. How can we overcome this?” This suggests that your child has probably thought of some more questions and uncertainties since we last met, and these are building the anxiety. Try to find out what these are – and if it would help, we could visit them again one more time, to put these fresh anxieties at ease.
“I’ve tried other things before, but my child has behavioural issues and they are likely to disrupt the session for everyone else. Can you help?” Our programme and session structure has been built with your child’s needs and difficulties in mind. We place children and young people in groups together with others who share very similar issues, so that they can all work at a similar pace towards similar aims. This means that our sessions will be a place where your child will not stick out as being different to the others – and where they will be able to benefit from a programme and an environment that can be adapted to meet whatever needs arise at any time.
“My child just tends to do their own thing. How are you going to get them to do what you want?” Our programme and session structure has been built with your child’s needs and difficulties in mind. At the beginning, our focus will be on getting to know them, finding out what they enjoy and incorporating these passions into their individualised programme. We start on a one-to-one, until we have found a set of methods that are working really well for your child – and then we keep honing these within a group situation, as your child develops and progresses through the programme. This has been very successful with children so far!
“My child doesn’t like dancing. Is this programme for them?” The programme is about far more than just dancing – and we actually have some groups who learn their exercises through exciting themes like “ninjas”, “minecraft” and “Digimon”, so that they don’t actually feel like they are dancing.