Being sensitive to children is one of the most important elements of being an early years teacher or educator. It seems such an obvious statement but it is critical to the complex world of relationship-building. Staff who build sensitive and empathetic relationships with children are demonstrating best practice. It requires staff to know how, why and when to tune into a child. Being able to do this benefits the child's lifetime ability to build relationships and regulate emotions confidently. It shapes their brain architecture by creating positive synaptic connections. It also affects children's immediate wellbeing because it provides the buffering protection to manage challenging experiences without producing toxic stress responses, and underpins our foundations for personal and professional success.
To tune in to children, staff need to understand child development. Staff need to understand each child's idiosyncrasies and recognise how to help them manage the moment. For example, some children don't cope well during routine transitions, and sensitive staff will introduce little personal techniques to help them to cope better. Sometimes it's how you announce what is going to happen next for children. Other times you need to connect with the child and swoop them into your love and warmth.
Giving the child space to speak and be listened to is critical to their wellbeing:
- We often use simple tactics like the five-finger pause, pause, pause, pause, question as a way of giving a child a space to continue their conversation.
- We support children with Makaton.
- Helicopter storytime is used to enable the child to be the storyteller.
- Dialogic reading also helps the child become the author of the story.
The power of observation is critical to tune in to children. Think about what you are observing; for example, a child standing alone may be lonely or unable to figure out how to join into play. For example, when we were observing children using their bikes, one of the staff commented on how she had not noticed the level of detail the children created in their own play space. She watched a child cycle down a path and stop halfway down the path and cycle round and round before continuing. When she asked him what he was doing, he had created a roundabout using a settled leaf in the middle of the pathway. She noted that she never would have understood his thinking had she not been watching so very carefully. It also sharpened her power of listening and giving the child a voice.
But what this tells us is that we celebrate the significance of the early years teacher/educator who is a sensitive, knowledgeable builder of harmonious relationships and environment.