Across the UK, many families wait months, sometimes years, for a child's special educational needs assessment. During that time, support can feel distant and uncertain.
Kent and Medway NHS Trust set out to change this through a new initiative called This Is Me.
Challenge
The This Is Me programme encourages teachers and parents to work together to better understand a child’s needs and create supportive environments earlier, rather than waiting for a diagnosis. But explaining this approach wasn’t straightforward.
The project challenges traditional thinking around neurodivergence. Instead of focusing solely on diagnosis, it emphasises understanding the child first, recognising every child experiences the world differently and the environment around them often needs to adapt.
The Trust sought a way to communicate this shift clearly and sensitively to parents of primary school children - and the children themselves.
Solution
Working closely with the NHS team, we created a short animation to introduce the This Is Me approach to families and schools. It needed to feel approachable for children while also acknowledging the complex emotions parents might be experiencing.
“We knew we needed to take a sensitive visual approach but still wanted to be playful... As neurodiverse children were part of the audience, we couldn’t make the visuals so abstract that they felt disconnected from their reality.”
Amy Wolfe, Lead Creative, Scriberia
As Lead Creative Amy Wolfe explains, “We knew we needed to take a sensitive visual approach but still wanted to be playful. Neurodiversity is such a big topic and much of the content about it can feel very literal. As neurodiverse children were part of the audience, we couldn’t make the visuals so abstract that they felt disconnected from their reality.”
The team also considered the wide range of perspectives among families watching the animation, from parents navigating a diagnosis to those just beginning to ask questions.
“The animation needed to feel positive and hopeful but without sugar-coating the realities some children face.”
“Different parents can experience this journey very differently,” Amy adds. “Some may find it reassuring while others may find it more challenging. The animation needed to feel positive and hopeful but without sugar-coating the realities some children face.”
The final concept uses colourful strings running through the animation to visually represent the often invisible challenges neurodiverse children experience - from sensory overload to emotional dysregulation. Set against a recognisable school environment, the strings provide a visual thread that evolves throughout the story.
Bright primary colours reflect a classroom setting and the story is narrated by a child, giving it an authentic and relatable voice.
Crucially, the strings never disappear. Instead, they gradually become part of the picture - eventually forming the strings of kites at the end of the film, symbolising how, with the right understanding and support, children can feel confident and free to be themselves.
Results
The finished animation gives families a clear introduction to the This Is Me programme and the philosophy behind it. You can watch the full animation, below:
It helps parents and teachers understand how children may experience the world differently, why early understanding and support matter and how small changes in a child’s environment can improve wellbeing and learning and enable them to flourish.
By visualising these ideas, the animation makes a complex and sensitive topic easier to engage with - helping parents feel more confident raising concerns and encouraging constructive conversations between families and schools.
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