About Sparky and Shady
Hi, I’m Kathy
I’m a wellbeing and behaviour support educator with a psychology degree and more than 30 years’ experience working with children, educators and families.
My background includes teaching in public, private, specialist, alternate and faith-based schools. I have worked with children with autism, additional needs, complex trauma, anxiety, grief, behaviour challenges and many different learning and emotional needs. I hold a Bachelor of Education (Special Education and Behaviour Management) and a Bachelor of Psychological Science with Honours.
I am not a practising psychologist and I do not diagnose or treat mental health concerns. My work is educational and preventative. My goal is to share knowledge and tools so children, educators and families have language and strategies that support wellbeing, self-regulation, connection and healthy relationships from an early age.
Why I created Sparky and Shady
When I was 22, I had a serious motorbike accident that changed my life. During my recovery, I realised I had never really been taught how my body, thoughts, feelings and behaviour all worked together. I wanted to understand myself, and I realised I wanted children to understand themselves too. That was the beginning of the “I want to understand how human beings work” journey.
Years later, while working as a behaviour support teacher, I was supporting a nine-year-old boy who was struggling to self-regulate. He was shouting, swearing, threatening people and hitting trees with a stick. I felt completely overwhelmed. I closed my eyes and quietly asked, “How can I help this kid?”
That was when I felt it.
Calm. Peace. Connection.
A moment later, the boy sat opposite me and gently asked, “Hey Miss, did you bring your handball?”
From that moment on, I knew I wanted to help children find that same inner calm for themselves, especially those who had never been told it was there.
What makes this program different
Sparky and Shady gives children and adults a shared language for understanding behaviour, wellbeing and relationships.
Sparky represents the calm, kind, loving and wise part within us.
Shady represents the protective, reactive part that can take over when we feel stressed, scared, overwhelmed, disconnected or unsafe.
Rather than seeing behaviour as good or bad, Sparky and Shady helps children and adults ask:
- What is happening underneath this behaviour?
- Is there a body need, feeling, skill gap or overwhelm?
- How can we return to calm, safety and connection?
- What needs to be repaired, practised or strengthened?
This approach helps children understand themselves with kindness and compassion. Learning to meet our needs in calm, connected ways takes time, practice and support from grownups.
Sparky and Shady gives children and grownups simple language and consistent strategies for real moments. And when things go wrong, as they do for all humans, we can repair, be kind to ourselves and each other, and keep going.
Sparky and Shady philosophy
Connection is the heart of Sparky and Shady.
When children feel connected – to themselves, to others and to the world around them – they are more able to listen, learn, cooperate, solve problems and manage big feelings.
We believe children are capable, worthy of respect, and deserving of kind, calm and connected support.
We believe behaviour makes sense when viewed through the lens of children’s needs, skills, learning history and level of overwhelm.
We believe children need regulated grownups to help them co-regulate before they can reflect, problem-solve or repair.
We believe wellbeing includes learning how to:
- recognise body needs
- understand and express feelings
- manage emotional responses
- ask for help
- solve problems
- repair relationships
- build self-compassion
- make wise and kind choices.
Sparky and Shady does not use fear, shame, intimidation or punitive behaviour management to control children. The aim is not short-term compliance. The aim is long-term self-awareness, resilience, responsibility, connection and healthy relationships.
Evidence-informed and practical
Sparky and Shady is an evidence-informed educational program. It draws from child development, psychology, neuroscience, attachment theory, trauma-informed practice, mindfulness, positive psychology, self-compassion, social and emotional learning, behaviour support and classroom experience.
The program does not claim that Sparky and Shady are literal parts of the brain. They are child-friendly metaphors that help children and grownups understand something real.
Sometimes we are calm, connected and able to think clearly.
Sometimes we are reactive, protective and overwhelmed.
Children do not need complex theory to begin. They need simple, repeatable language that helps them notice what is happening, return to calm and try again.
That is what Sparky and Shady was created to do.
The long-term goal of Sparky and Shady is to help children grow into adults who know how to care for their whole wellbeing.
