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A Unique Child: Child development - Sleepy time

Early years practitioners have a vital role to play in developing healthy sleeping habits for the babies and young children in their care. Jackie Hardie explains her nursery’s approach

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The majority of early years practitioners will be very much aware of the importance of sleep. Not only does it affect a child’s mood, but it is also critical to their development. So I find it staggering that early years qualification courses rarely touch on this important subject. Young practitioners are then often left to their own devices to work out strategies to lull multiple babies and children to sleep at the same time. For them, it can feel like spinning plates.

Sleep, or lack of it, seems to be on the mind of almost every new parent I speak to, and because of this, coupled with first-hand experience of many sleepless nights as a mother, I decided to research sleep and babies. The more I researched, the more convinced I became that practitioners should be playing a major role in the sleeping habits of the children in their care.

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