RESOURCES
Time to thrive
Rebecca Elsom, Alliance early years development officer, explores the concept of emotional wellbeing in children and offers advice on how adults can best support it
Rebecca is responsible for writing and delivering CPD resources that supports best practice for early years providers.
The interactions and experiences that a child has in their earliest days, months and years play a pivotal part in all aspects of their later life – including their emotional wellbeing.
This was recognised in Ofsted’s 2022 research review, Best Start in Life.
What does the term 'emotional wellbeing' mean for children in the early years?
In essence, it’s how they feel about themselves, how they are made to feel by others, and how positively they can interact with those around them.
Understanding this can help us to see how having poor emotional wellbeing has the potential to negatively influence a child’s wider mental health.
For example, a young child who has low confidence and self-esteem may not be able to positively interact with their peers, involve themselves in play or conversations. This could lead to feelings of loneliness or isolation, and possibly, in later life, mental health issues such as anxiety or depression. Although this wouldn’t be the case for every child experiencing low confidence, it does demonstrate the connection between how a child feels about themself and how it could influence wider factors.
‘Being’ or ‘becoming’ mentally healthy
In 2022, a report from the NHS stated that 18% of children aged 7-16 had a “probable mental disorder”. These statistics show how important it is that we support the emotional wellbeing of all children, including those within the early years, to do our best to prevent them becoming one of these statistics.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists outlines that “mental health conditions in the under 5s can manifest as behavioural difficulties such as tantrums, relationship difficulties, developmental delay, social withdrawal or eating/sleeping difficulties”. That’s not to say that all children that present in these ways are displaying a mental health condition, as some can be ‘typical’ of early childhood – so it can often be difficult to distinguish when a child is needing further support.
International children’s charity UNICEF used the terms ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ mentally healthy within their Understanding and supporting mental health in infancy and early childhood toolkit (2023). It outlined that being mentally healthy “involves babies and young children feeling safe and good about themselves and the world around them, experiencing sensitive responsive care from a reliable caregiver(s)”.
This relates to how young children are feeling now and refers to their present-day emotions and experiences. We can support this by providing a welcoming and nurturing environment for the children within our provision; ensure they experience positive relationships; and the freedom to explore and learn, and, ultimately, feel safe.
When supporting children in ‘becoming’ mentally healthy, we’re thinking about the skills and tools that children require to become happy, healthy adults. This relates to many aspects of children’s progression: how we support their personal, social and emotional development; how we support them in developing self-regulation skills that will enable confidence in communicating their thoughts and feelings; and how we promote confidence, independence and agency.
The role of the adults
Both ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ mentally healthy for young children is highly influenced by the adults and caregivers in their lives. This may be the adults within the immediate home environment, the wider family, or the community – including us as early years educators!
Within the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), one of the overarching principles is positive relationships. In relation to children’s emotional wellbeing, that means providing a key person who acts as a safe space for each child, the person they can come to for a bit of reassurance, or the person that is supporting them to feel valued and listened to. We can support children to learn about their emotions, widen their vocabulary surrounding emotional literacy, support them to navigate how to respond to social situations, and provide them with the tools for self-regulation through the process of co-regulation.
Findings from a UNICEF report (2020) outlined that “children who reported having supportive family relationships were also more likely to have good emotional wellbeing”. Knowing the vital importance of positive relationships for children’s emotional wellbeing, we can support families by informing them of these key messages, sharing ways they can build strong bonds with their children, or, where necessary, signpost them to services to support further such as parenting programmes or health professionals.
Something to share with families is the ‘Five to Thrive’ approach, which is drawn from research around attachment and attunement. It outlines five building blocks for a healthy brain:
Respond –Engage –Relax – Play– Talk
To find out more, you can visit their website: www.fivetothrive.org.uk.
The ‘Voice of the Child’
This year’s Children’s Mental Health Week 2024 (5 - 11 February) has the theme My Voice Matters. Empowering children and young people to share what matters to them, it also provides an opportunity to remind the adults to really listen to what children and young people have to say.
We often hear the phrase ‘the voice of the child’ being used within the early years, but how can we ensure that we hear the child’s voice when it comes to their emotional wellbeing?
Acknowledge all feelings – it’s important that we are not dismissive of how children are feeling, they need to know it’s okay to feel all emotions, and we can do this by naming and validating feelings that children are displaying.
Actively listen – provide children with the time and attention that they need; when children feel valued and listened to, this builds their self-esteem.
Support children to express themselves – children may do this verbally, through their play, or by engaging in arts or music. Give children the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas; let them lead the play and embrace their enthusiasm.
Respond accordingly – if we’re worried about a child’s mental health or wellbeing, we should follow relevant policies and procedures to report our concern or seek further support.
If you want to find out more about this topic, you can book a place at our upcoming Virtual Classroom – Supporting children’s emotional wellbeing, on Monday 5 February 2024 (9.30am-1pm): bit.ly/Supporting_wellbeing.