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Supporting Children’s Emotional Security

As practitioners, we spend a huge amount of time and energy making sure our learning environments meet and extend the physical developmental needs of the children within our care, but how much thought do we put specifically into their emotional needs?

My three initial areas to consider in promoting emotional security within our provision are safety, fostering home school links, and is above all, that it’s relevant.

Safety is obviously at the core of Early Years provision. As practitioners we all understand that children have basic needs; to be kept safe from dangers, warm, fed and have adequate rest, but I’d argue that their emotional wellbeing is just as important. In order to keep children emotionally safe we need to be pleased to see them, value them, have time for them, know them, listen to them, and care about helping them to develop their understanding of emotions. We need to ensure our provision gives ample opportunities and r...

Emotional strength is a funny old subject. I mean, what even is it? And how do we get it ourselves, let alone instil it into others? 

It’s generally agreed that there is a rise worldwide in mental health issues, particularly amongst children and young adults. But I can’t help questioning the figures we base this on. According to data, about 13% of the global population, some 971 million people, are currently suffering from some kind of mental disorder. But… is this new? Or are we just more aware of it? Is it now more acceptable to admit that we’re struggling? Are there now more avenues we can access for help? Are we now perhaps more socially aware and recognise that men or children can have issues too? Dementia is apparently the fastest-growing mental illness but is it? Or are we living longer and therefore there are just more age-related issues in the demographic?

In all honesty I can’t quite formulate an answer to all these questions in my own head, but what I really do believe ...