Features

Working with parents – Into a new routine

Practice Positive Relationships Wellbeing Management
The pandemic has heightened parents’ anxieties and caused disruption to children’s routines. Katy Morton finds out how settings are helping families to deal with change
Sticking rigidly to routines that were established during the pandemic can be stressful for both children and parents.
Sticking rigidly to routines that were established during the pandemic can be stressful for both children and parents. - Adobestock

As Covid-19 restrictions lifted and nurseries welcomed back children, practitioners were faced with reimplementing and adapting routines for babies and toddlers.

For many children born pre-pandemic who were used to attending an early years setting, their normal routines were lost during lockdown. One consequence was disrupted sleep, commonly impacting their behaviour.

In an Italian study of parents of pre-schoolers, mothers reported a ‘general worsening of sleep quality and distortion of time’ for both them and their children, as well as increased emotional symptoms and self-regulation difficulties in their children.

PREDICTABILITY

At Thrive Childcare and Education, staff worked with parents to introduce more predictable nap and sleep times as they found some children’s routines became more flexible during lockdown.

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