Louise Hannan (University Centre Somerset, Bridgwater & Taunton College)
Early Childhood Education and Care settings have seen in recent times, unprecedented changes to policy, funding and requirements. Furthermore, post Covid-19, there has been a growing concern from setting about emotional, social and physical well-being of children. This project an exploration into the emotional environment of Early Childhood Education and Care settings, examines the ecology of these complex interactions. Deploying a mix of phenomenology and praxeological methodologies, it considers the emotional ecology a unique phenomenon and aims to inform practice through direct observations in settings. It concludes by presenting a new way of considering the emotional ecology of settings by providing reflexive materials that settings can use to develop their thinking and practices.
Louise Hannan has been a Early Years Practitioner, Team Leader and Manager, in and around the Bristol area. She is now a lecturer at University Centre Somerset and this project was part of her on-going PhD with the Centre for Research and Early Childhood.
Video to be uploaded soon.
Dr Jenifer Wakelyn and Prof. Vaso Totsika (Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust)
Jenifer and Vaso discussed new research findings on the Watch Me Play! Approach.
Watch Me Play! is a way of supporting parents or carers and their baby or young child – aged from birth to around eight years old – that promotes child-led play, individual attention from caregivers and talking with children about their play.
Parents or carers are encouraged to provide children with age-appropriate toys and their undivided attention in a quiet environment for regular short times two or more times a week.
Parents or carers are also encouraged to talk with the child about their play, and to reflect with another involved adult or professional on their observations of the child’s play and how it felt to be with the child as they played.
Links for further information:
Watch Me Play website: watchmeplay.info
Paper discussed in the webinar:
Randell, L., Nollett, C, Henley, J., Smallman, K., Johnson, S., Meister, McNamara, R, Wilkins, D., Segrott, J., Casbard, A., Wakelyn, J., McKay, K., Bordea, E., L. Totsika, V., Kennedy, E., (2024) Pilot and Feasibility Studies Watch Me Play!, Protocol for a feasibility study of a remotely-delivered intervention to promote mental health resilience for children (age 0-8) across UK Early Years and Children’s Services. https://pilotfeasibilitystudies.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40814-024-01491-7
Book:
Wakelyn, J. (2020) Therapeutic Approaches with Babies and Young Children in Care: Observation and Attention (Karnac/Routledge). ISBN 978-1-782-20438-1
Dr Caroline Guard (University of Oxford)
How babies contribute agency of voice in environments outside of the family home has received very little research attention to date. Very young children’s agency of voice is rarely considered when developing cultures for care and education or national policies that drive forward educational outcomes.
Thriving in nurturing early childhood settings is the intended outcome for all young children. Recent government attention to early childhood education sets to prioritise high quality early education for all children, including babies.
Caroline discussed her work completed at The University of Roehampton that captured babies’ experiences of group based early childhood settings. An ethnographic study, fostering a visual methodology exposed the rich potential for relationship-based care but unearthed the nuanced and often complex landscape babies exist within when they attend early childhood settings. With proposed government expansion of early education to centre around school-based nursery places, key findings from Caroline’s study advocate for greater attention to be paid to babies’ voiced contributions when developing cultures that nurture early relationships and action to be taken to ensure national policy promotes the rights of very young children attending formal early childhood settings in England.
Links:
Guard, C. (2023). ‘It’s the little bits that you have enabled me to see’. Reconceptualising the voices of babies using the video interaction dialogue model with early years educators. Early Years, 43(3), 606–625. https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2023.2190498
Guard, C. (2023) Hearing the voices of babies in baby-educator interactions in Early Childhood Settings. PhD Thesis, University of Roehampton. Available online: Hearing the voices of babies in baby-educator interactions in Early Childhood Settings – University of Roehampton Research Explorer
Thinking about Babies: a Froebelian Approach (Froebel Trust)
Dr Laura Abbott (University of Hertfordshire)
Laura discussed insights gathered through conversations with women, healthcare professionals, social workers and prison staff.
The research delves into the emotional intricacies and challenges surrounding newborn-mother separation in criminal justice settings. Findings have shed light on the profound impact on maternal well-being, the complexities faced by healthcare and social workers, and the dynamics within the prison system.
By capturing these narratives, the study emphasises the critical need for comprehensive support structures, advocating for a deeper understanding of the nuanced interplay between institutional protocols and the early development of young minds affected by maternal separation.
Dr Julia Petty (University of Hertfordshire) and Professor Celia Harding (City, University of London)
Infants born preterm face heightened risks of speech, language and communication issues, impacting education and social connections.
In neonatal care, bonding and skin-to-skin contact are often mistakenly seen as fostering verbal skills. Yet, the specific strategies for linguistic development are poorly grasped and rarely applied.
Julia and colleagues explored a qualitative study on parents’ and nurses’ perspectives on fostering communication in preterm infants. Parents primarily focused on bonding and skin-to-skin care, while nurses emphasised broader communication practices. Given the risk of delayed language development from insufficient parent-infant interaction, accessible resources tailored to parents are urgently needed.
Link to open access paper on parent data: Investigating parental perspectives of the enablers and barriers to communication with their preterm infants: A narrative study – Julia Petty, Celia Harding, Lisa Whiting, 2024
Georgie Marks (Action for Children), Siobhan Mitchell and Kath Wilkinson (University of Exeter)
Georgie, Siobhan and Kath discussed how training non-professionals who interact with parents in communities (e.g. breastfeeding peer supporters) has been used to mobilise knowledge about the First 1001 Days.
They shared the theory behind this ‘community champion’ approach as well as the outcomes of research investigating how it works in practice.
Please find below the two research papers referred to in the webinar (both papers are open access and free to download):
Patrick Myers, Thrive at Five
Patrick discussed Thrive at Five’s Collective Impact model encouraging collaboration between funders, service partners and the public to improve the outcomes in the early years through a shared agenda and a range of joint activities.
The approach offers sustainability by working at the practice level and systems wide collaboration.
The webinar discussed how the Collective Impact model works, including its implementation in their first local authority (Stoke on Trent).
Thrive at Five is a national charity with the express aim of improving outcomes for children in their early years.
Carol Hardy (South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust)
Carol introduced the SUSI model, designed for under-5s and their families, offering a comprehensive approach to assess and intervene in children’s social-emotional development and their relationship with caregivers.
SUSI includes a detailed assessment, a tailored intervention plan ranging from 6-15 sessions, and employs therapeutic techniques aimed at addressing the core issues within the parent-child dyad.
Created to fill the gap in resources and accessibility for this age group, SUSI aims to support families through customisable resources and by embedding the service within community networks and social care services. It is evidence-based, reflecting a broader effort to improve early mental health care.
Debra Laxton, Lianna Wilding and Lorna Earle (University of Chichester)
Debra, Lianna and Lorna presented findings from a research study conducted during the 2020 lockdown focused on Personal, Social, and Emotional Development (PSED) in two-year-olds, examining parents’ perceptions of the lockdown’s impact on their child’s development.
The study included responses from 827 parents, of which 6% received funding for two-year-olds.
Jane and Michael hosted a ‘soft’ launch of the Supporting Early Minds Research Network, explaining how the research network can benefit everyone in the 0-5 sector in England.
Michael then presented preliminary findings from a qualitative study that explored both the facilitators and barriers to engaging with research in services for children aged 0 to 5.
This study involved a diverse group of key stakeholders (n=40), including practitioners, service managers, commissioners, researchers, and policy officials.
He also shared practical advice on how these services can increase their involvement in research studies, drawing on insights from the study’s findings.
*Recording not available*