Yvonne Newbold

Have you ever seen a child misbehaving in a supermarket? Did you secretly feel a little smug because your child would never behave like that? Yvonne Newbold was the mother of the child you were staring at. Her son has a profound intellectual disability and for many years his anxiety led behaviour resulted in many scenes like this…until she was taught to be a ninja parent.

How to meet your child’s difficult behavior with compassion

Yvonne MBE is the founder of Newbold Hope, a parent-led organisation which enables parents and professionals to develop the knowledge, skills, strategies and confidence to reduce anxiety-led difficult and dangerous behaviour in children with a disability or an additional need. Newbold Hope is inspired by Yvonne’s son, Toby, who has multiple disabilities and complex needs as well as a history of violent and challenging behaviour. Newbold Hope has developed from Yvonne’s “Bucket List”.

On the day she was diagnosed with Stage 4 bilateral breast cancer with a very poor prognosis, she knew that there was one thing she’d like to do in whatever time she had left – to improve the quality of life for the next generation of children with disabilities and additional needs, as well as for their families.