During the Early Years, children are developing their skills to manage their own feelings and understand the emotions of those around them. Managing feelings is a term used to describe a child’s ability to manage their thinking, feeling and behaviours. Children’s ability to self-regulate in the Early Years is limited, and children will learn how to self-regulate through their interactions with the adults around them.
Warm and responsive interactions between adults and children are used to support them to regulate their emotions through co-regulation. This is the first stage of supporting children to develop the skills required for managing feelings independently (coregulation leads to self-regulation).
Create a calm, positive and nurturing environment.
Use strategies from the Early Years Development Matters Framework for supporting self-regulation throughout the Early Years.
Whole group approaches to teaching emotional regulation strategies, eg, Yoga and Mindfulness.
Whole group activities that encourage identification of strengths eg, creating visual reminders of strengths through posters, certificates, stickers and other visuals, serves to remind children of all the things they are good at. These can be collected in a ‘Good to be Me’ or ‘All about Me’ book.
Use of attachment aware practices and tuning into the child’s feelings and world (attunement). Attunement involves the adult initially recognising the emotion that the child is feeling. The adult then acknowledges this emotion by naming it, and then empathises with the child about how they are feeling. Remaining attuned to the way a child is feeling promotes positive attachments.
Discuss and model feelings and emotions often:
Use of emotional validation strategies when a child is upset, angry or distressed, (eg, Emotion Coaching approach).
Offer small group support to develop skills related to emotional awareness and emotional regulation to support the development of emotional literacy skills, such as:
Regular ‘Reset’ breaks incorporated into the day to help children remain calm (eg, access to quieter spaces, movement breaks and use of sensory resources or sensory rooms).
Use of appropriate checklists and assessment tools. For example, the self-esteem developmental milestones within the Early Years Development Matters Framework.
Complete appropriate assessments to establish a greater understanding of individual children’s needs. For example, observe and record ‘impact on learning’ across a range of contexts across the day to understand whether a particular need is dependent on a certain context/situation, or what the child may be trying to communicate through their actions, so as to inform strategies as needed (e., use of ABC Charts).
Environmental audits are used to identify aspects of the environment that might lead to increased anxiety, arousal or sensory sensitivity, with monitoring of behavioural responses and adjustment to support plans / adult responses as needed.
Work with a group of key staff to identify an individual profile of the child and gain an understanding of their individual triggers and observable behaviours, as well specific escalating and de-escalating adult responses. An example of this might be the RAMP (Reducing Anxiety Management Plan). This should form part of a robust risk assessment which is regularly reviewed to support any behaviours associated with difficulties managing feelings (see Getting Risk Support section).
Assign a key adult/team of adults to provide daily opportunities for the child to talk through success and achievements experienced that day and to develop their skills. Such as:
Provide access to specialist therapeutic interventions if needed (eg, play therapy, art therapy, interest -based activities that facilitate discussion and skill rehearsal).
Explicit verbalisations of safety (eg, 'you’re safe'). Provide access to safe spaces if needed (eg, pop up tent, quieter area of the setting, use of a sensory room).
Ensure reasonable adjustments to behaviour policies and procedures, for example, flexibility of behaviour systems to account for a child’s individual needs.
Robust risk assessments are in place and regularly reviewed to support any behaviours associated with reduced emotional regulation and communication skills or self-harming behaviours (see Getting Risk Support section).
Children with interaction needs may also need support with their communication skills– please also see the Communication and Interaction section.
Ensure every child experiences regular, positive interactions with an adult, including children who appear to prefer solitary play.
Describe aloud what the child is doing (at their language level) by giving a running commentary. This supports children’s language development and play skills.
Reduce questions.
Follow the child’s lead and join in with their play. Allow a balance of child-led and free play, as well as adult-directed tasks.
Adults model positive relationships and social skills.
Use turn-taking games and circle time on a regular basis. Ask each child to hold an item (talking object) when they talk so they know whose turn it is to speak and how long they must wait until their turn.
Adults use mind-mindedness (putting yourself in the child’s shoes and seeing the world from their eyes) when responding to incidents or children’s concerns.
Share key messages around Five to Thrive in the setting using posters eg respond, cuddle, relax, play, talk.
Use activities themed around the Five to Thrive Framework and share these with parents or carers.
Plan opportunities to learn and practise social and emotional skills during structured activities (eg, role playing).
Use stories that generate problem solving around different social situations during circle time.
Model and support children to practise the use of these skills (eg, home corner, shop role play area). Use role play or verbal rehearsal before activities to reinforce behavioural expectations and reduce anxiety (eg, how to ask for a turn on the bikes).
Use of whole group/class interventions to develop social and emotional development (eg, R time).
Offer small group interventions to promote positive peer interactions:
Offer interventions and attachment focused programmes to support relationships between children and adults (early years practitioners and parents or carers) such as:
Use of tools such as the Adult Interaction Checklist (Elklan, 2006, Early Language Builders) to support positive interactions between adults and children and to support adults to respond in an individualised way to children.
Identify and complete appropriate assessments to establish a greater understanding of the child’s needs to inform individual intervention such as the Social Skills development checklist in the Early Language Builders book (Elks and McLachlan, 2006).
Provide regular, additional adult support to ensure all children who struggle with interactions are socially included. Provide individualised, targeted interventions to develop their skills through specific target setting and timely reviews using the Plan Do-Review process.
Use an Intensive Interaction Intensive Interaction approach to build relationships with children who find it hard to interact. For children who aren’t using any words yet, you can copy their actions. If they clap their hands, you clap them too. See what they do; they might look at you and smile to let you know they want you to carry on. Once the child is interacting well with you regularly, invite another child to join you too.
Use of Transitional objects to support children who find it hard to separate from their parents/ carers (separation anxiety).
Engage in the Emotionally Friendly Settings process.
Arrange relevant training for school staff from external support services where needed (eg, attachment, trauma, Emotion Coaching).
Consideration is given to creating a calm environment (eg, organisation of the space, seating and group dynamics).
Clear boundaries and routines are in place, supported by Visual supports eg, visual timetables, Now and Next Boards, objects of reference, simple visual rules are displayed eg Good looking and Good Sitting.
Transparent system of rewards and natural consequences are in place. Rules and expectations are consistent across staff. The children’s attention is gained in a consistent and positive way. For example, attention-grabbing signals may help such as the use of a song or musical instrument at a transition point.
Children are prepared for changes to activities/ routines/ staffing in advance (eg using visuals).
Ensure adults’ expectations are appropriate, for example ensure children are not expected to wait for long periods for example at snack time or lunch time.
Use of Emotion Coaching. Provide connection before correcting children’s behaviour through responding to children’s emotions first.
Growth mindset as a whole setting approach.
Share key messages around Five to thrive in the setting using posters eg respond, cuddle, relax, play, talk. Use activities themed around the Five to Thrive framework and share these with parents/ carers.
Invite selected parents to participate in the Incredible Years course.
Consideration of clear and coordinated response to critical incidents (eg, critical incident policy/ identification of a nominated lead for the setting).
Consider the following group-level emotional wellbeing interventions:
Daily Mindfulness sessions (training and resources can be provided by Salford Educational Psychology Service to begin mindfulness sessions with 2-6 year olds).
Use of Tummy Time and Yoga.
Planned time to complete relaxation activities in calm spaces within the setting.
Use of the Baby room project, to support baby room practitioners and parents/carers understanding of babies’ brain development in the first year.
To identify an overall profile of the child, use ongoing tracking through EYFS and other assessments, for example Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ), and Boxhall Profile to measure and demonstrate the impact of an intervention or programme over a period of time.
Provide a plan and support at unstructured and/or transition times for children who find these times of the day unsettling.
Obtain and record children’s views using observation, discussion with key adults and tools such as The Mosaic Approach the Bear Cards, picture sort activities (eg activities I like and don’t like) and the Blob Tree.
Obtain and record parental information and views. Ensure regular communication between home and setting (eg, a minimum of 3 meetings with parents within a 12-month period). Consider risk and protective factors to provide a holistic understanding of the child’s needs.
Consider risk and protective factors to provide a holistic understanding of the child’s needs. Use appropriate assessment tools to identify needs early, establish a greater understanding of the child’s support needs and inform appropriate referral to other services. For example the ABC Charts, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, The Boxall Profile, or The SMILE Score.
Observe and record the child’s presentation and patterns of interaction and behaviour (eg, using an ABC chart) across a range of varied contexts/ times during their session to understand what they are trying to communicate and to inform possible strategies.
Provide key adult support at specific times that have been identified as challenging for the child (eg, morning transition. 1:1 time to build up a relationship between a child and key adult to be built into the child’s timetable). Ensure effective sharing of information and consistent use of strategies (eg, Use of a One-page profile).
Offer additional transition visits and transition books before the child starts, or when moving between rooms or onto school.
Create Play Plans and adapt termly with progress against targets routinely reviewed with the Special Educational Needs and Disability Co-ordinator (SENDCo), key worker and the child/parents/carers where appropriate. Ensure that all staff involved with the child understand the purpose of the Play Plan and are able to support the child to achieve their targets.
Implement appropriate interventions for children with specific individual needs. For example, ensure planned opportunities for ‘Time In’ and flexible access to a key adult/s. Key adult characteristic: nurturing yet able to hold firm boundaries; resilient; patient; empathic; and able to seek and accept support from another adult.
Provide time and space for targeted support on a consistent basis (eg, access to a smaller space to complete interventions, increased staff: child ratios for times when intensive support and interventions are being delivered).
Refer to external agencies for additional support (eg, Starting Life Well, Speech and Language Therapy, Educational Psychology, Paediatrician).
Use the Plan-Do-Review process to monitor the child’s progress, alongside any external agencies’ advice, whilst collating evidence of the impact of the strategies being used (please refer to the Best Practice Walkthrough document). Where the child has an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP), refer to described outcomes and provision and implement.
Continue to use the Plan-Do-Review process against the specified outcomes and provision. Regularly update with strategies as they are tried. Complete Annual Review of EHCP (please refer to the Best Practice Walkthrough)
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