Ms Lucinda Murrihy:

I will start with the disciplinary piece. It is important there be a shift in mindset in seeing behaviours and communication. We talked about non-speaking children, for many of whom the mode of communication is behaviour. Transformational training is key here in looking at behaviour as a very valuable tool and a clue to something being wrong in the environment or something being off with the adults around the child. It is about looking to place the shift, change and adaptation on the adults and environment and not on the child. That is really important. Children pick up very quickly the feeling of not belonging or the feeling of being misjudged because of their behaviour.

This deeply impacts their mental health, so they grew up without confidence and the kind of foundational things we want children to have, such as self-belief. It is really important that we look at investing in transformational change in terms of training and educating all schools, along with all teachers and principals.