Welcome to The Regulated Child with Nicola McAllister.

Strengthening relationships, regulation and resilience.

Strengthening Regulation and Resilience in a Changing World

Whether you are caring for a child at home or supporting children and young people in an education or community setting, the goal is to equip them with the skills and capabilities to enable them to navigate the daily demands of life.

Self-regulation is such an important function but it is one that our children are not born with. It develops and is strengthened through repeated experiences and interactions with well regulated adults.

For many children their ability to regulate their stress responses and emotions are inhibited by traumatic early experiences or neurodivergence. In these cases, as supporting adults, we need to be intentional in the environments that we create and the interactions that we have. We need to become skilled at using our own regulation and stress response system to strengthen that of the children and young people we care for and support.

This requires knowledge and skill. We have both at The Regulated Child and welcome you onboard your regulated journey where we will support you every step of the way.

How we can support you.

  • Home

    Caring for a chid or young person who becomes easily overwhelmed and dysregulated can be exhausting. Whether you are a parent, carer or adopter, or a professional supporting children and young people in a home setting, having the knowledge and skill base to understand and respond to a child’s unique needs is crucial in supporting their development and emotional regulation.

    The Regulated child specialises in supporting the needs of neurodivergent children and young people and those who have been impacted by developmental trauma.

  • Education

    The education landscape has changed significantly. More and more children are entering the education system not having developed the core capabilities required to engage in learning. We also have a growing number of students for whom traditional classrooms and teaching styles are no longer fit for purpose. This results in high levels of dysregulation and distress for our pupils which impacts significantly on the emotional wellbeing of staff.

    The Regulated Child offers training and continued support to staff across the education sector from primary through to further education. Developing the use of needs led, collaborative, relational approaches that develop self-regulation and resilience in pupils.

  • Community

    Organisations supporting children and young people within community settings may be working with and supporting groups containing a diverse range of needs at any given time. The children and young people may have varied life experiences, functioning at different stages of development and have a limited skill base to navigate expectations and social demands. All of these factors can pose a challenge for staff as they try to engage with groups while understanding and meeting the needs of individuals.

    The Regulated Child offers a suite of training opportunities for community organisations which support staff in developing the knowledge and skills required to develop relationships, regulation and engagement.

Your Regulated Services

  • Online Course

    The Regulated Child online course is a comprehensive yet accessible online training programme for parents, carers, adopters and professionals. It will provide you with both the knowledge and understanding of why children behave in the way that they do while providing you with lots of practical suggestions of how you can support the development of regulation and resilience in your own setting.

  • The Regulated Parent

    Whether you are a birth parent, carer or adoptive parent, caring for a child who doesn’t respond to typical parenting approaches can be both stressful and worrying. We understand this at The Regulated Child. Our parent coaching service is designed to help you better understand your child’s unique needs and how you an better meet those needs while strengthening their emotional regulation. Our sessions offer a safe, compassionate space for you to learn and grow.

  • The Regulated School

    The context in which we teach has changed dramatically over recent years, to be successful we must adapt our teaching approaches and environments to support regulation and engagement. By having a better understanding of the developmental needs and stage of pupils and the importance of predictability and collaboration in reducing stress responses we can create regulated classrooms in which students and staff can thrive.

    Our training and support programmes are suitable for all education settings from early years through to further education and are adapted for you specific context.

  • Training for Your Organisation

    We offer a suite of training and support packages for your organisation which develop staff’s understanding of distressed behaviour and how they can respond in ways that develop relationships, provide opportunities for repair and strengthen regulation in children and young people. Training is participative and reflective, building on the existing skill set of participants while providing them with practical ideas that will have a positive impact on their practice and the children and young people they support.

  • Fostering and Adoption

    Caring for a child who has experienced insecure attachments and developmental trauma requires a different level of parenting. Typical parenting approaches are ineffective and can retraumatise. It is essential that adoptive parents and carers have a sound understanding of the impact of trauma, where their child is functioning developmentally and how to intentionally support the development of core skills and capabilities.

    Our comprehensive training and ongoing support programme for Fostering and Adoption organisations, provides, adoptive parents, carers and staff with the knowledge, skills and support that the need to sooth stress responses, nurture relationships and strengthen regulation.

  • Coming soon. On Demand Webinars

    Life is busy and we don’t always have time to develop our knowledge, understanding and skill base even although we know that it would make a big difference to ourselves and the children and young people we support and care for.

    The Regulated Child is developing a selection of short accessible, engaging webinars that will provide you with all that you need to better understand child development, behaviour, relationships and regulation while providing you with lots of practical ideas and inspiration.

What they say.

  • Nicola clearly speaks from a professional and personal perspective that brought experience and knowledge to her training. As practitioners, we all like to take away practical ideas for supporting children in our nursery and classrooms and we will definitely use lots of the practical tools and techniques discussed in her presentation.

    Sally Ann Johnson | Robert Gordon’s College | DHT

  • I learned so much during Nicola's presentation, about how the brain and body respond to external stressors, how the child's behaviour is a reflection of the child's inner needs, and of the importance of being able to regulate emotions, etc. etc.! There was so much covered in such a short space of time! I want to learn more, as regards my work, I am an assessing social worker who works with fostering applicants, and I also supervise foster carers. In each situation we always talk about the impact of trauma on children and therapeutic parenting /PACE. This session brought the concept to life so to speak, Nicola made the subject more "user friendly" and therefore I feel that I could talk to the people I am working with in a more informative manner.

    Distressed not Difficult: Recognise & Communicate with Traumatised Children | Children in Scotland

  • Nicola takes you on a journey of gentle reflection and discovery, whilst considering approaches and behaviour through a lens of therapeutic parenting techniques. Her expertise drawn from professional and personal experience is delivered in a straightforward non jargonistic manner which enables attendees to be curious and wonder about their own parenting. It culminates in being curious and wondering about how parents/carers/teachers can themselves adapt to provide the optimal base for individual children to grow and develop.

    Ruth Caldwell | Fostering Service | Learning and Development Manager