EYFS training: Part 8 – PSED - Get emotional
Monday, August 19, 2019
The mental health and emotional well-being of our youngest children has never been so high on the agenda. Charlotte Goddard asks what this means for training
- There is a growing focus on developing self-regulation and resilience in the EYFS
- Brain development and understanding what drives children’s behaviour at different developmental stages should be the focus of training
NHS figures show one in 18 pre-school children has been identified with a mental disorder. Research on adverse childhood experiences is also feeding into current thinking about children’s personal, social and emotional development (PSED). According to the new Early years inspection handbook, nurseries will be judged on how they help children to ‘manage their own feelings and behaviour, and how to relate to others’.
PSED is one of the three prime areas of the EYFS. Helping children to form positive relationships, develop social skills, learn how to manage their feelings and have confidence in their own abilities, PSED forms the foundation for all other areas of the EYFS, says Fiona Bland, early years adviser at the National Day Nurseries Association.
‘When you think how children play and develop, PSED underpins all that and you can’t separate it out,’ she says. ‘It is holistically linked to all areas of the EYFS, the Characteristics of Effective Learning and the four overarching principles. For example, when it comes to the enabling environment: are there spaces for children to take time out if they are overwhelmed? Are children able to take risks? When it comes to positive relationships, we are looking at the role of the key person and issues around attachment.’
- Under the EYFS, PSED is divided into three areas: self-confidence and self-awareness, managing feelings and behaviour and making relationships. The Early Learning Goals within these areas include:
- the confidence to try new activities and speak in a familiar group
- talking about how they and others show feelings
- knowing that some behaviour is unacceptable.
Under the revised Early Learning Goals being piloted, self-confidence and self-awareness, and managing feelings and behaviour, are being replaced by one goal: self-regulation. By the end of the EYFS, children will be expected to show an understanding of their own feelings and those of others, and regulate their behaviour accordingly; have a positive sense of self and show resilience in the face of challenge; and pay attention to their teacher and follow multi-step instructions. ‘Making relationships’ has been replaced with ‘building relationships’, and a new goal, ‘managing self’, incorporates aspects of health and self-care, which were previously under Physical Development, alongside ‘knowing right from wrong’.
The sector has a number of problems with these changes, including concerns that the revised goals do not show a proper understanding of what self-regulation is, and emphasise achieving at school rather than broader emotional development.
Training should cover what PSED looks like in different stages of development, says Ms Bland, with a focus on observation and planning so practitioners can put strategies in place to support each unique child. Practitioners attending the NDNA’s half-day course on PSED have requested more information on developing children’s emotional literacy and resilience, so the organisation has created a separate course covering self-regulation.
‘We look at the developing brain, the impact of stress, and how practitioners can support children to be resilient and self-regulating,’ says Ms Bland.
Croydon is planning to make free training in PSED available to all 160 PVI settings, focusing particularly on those that make a lot of referrals on behaviour. Croydon’s early years inclusion and intervention team attended training delivered by Julie Revels on risk, resilience and relationships, and intends to roll this out to practitioners.
‘We find settings are referring a lot of children with possible autism and social communication issues,’ says area inclusion co-ordinator Pam Sokhi. ‘Then you find it is not necessarily an issue with social communication, but more around emotional development and relationships, and nursery settings are not understanding how to support those children’s behaviour. Everyone knows about the key person and attachment but not necessarily in enough depth for them to link to how it supports that child’s social emotional and mental health. When I visit settings, the key person role can be more of a tick-box exercise – “I fill out the child’s journal and greet him in the morning” – but there needs to be a deeper understanding.’
Wendy Thrussell, manager of Eastwood Day Nursery in Wandsworth, south London, did the training in January. ‘There were six sessions which Julie delivered in our setting to our whole team in the evening,’ she says. ‘Unlike other training we have attended, it was a very reflective course.’ The team were given tasks and reported back at the next session. ‘Although it was 6.30pm, people were still full of enthusiasm,’ says Ms Thrussell. ‘PSED is something we are dealing with all the time: it’s the main thing we do but we don’t always realise it.’
The setting has now changed its approach to information sharing. ‘We have always passed on key information about attainment and development to other settings if a child is moving to primary school or another nursery, but now we are also passing on PSED information, like what signs to look out for in the children that indicate how they are feeling,’ says Ms Thrussell. ‘We have always had home visits as part of our settling-in process, but now we have more sharing of information from parents, getting to know a child’s character as well as what they are capable of.’
The focus on brain development had a big impact on the staff, she says. ‘It helped them to understand how important their role is in making a difference to the child’s future, especially as we are one of the most deprived areas in the country.’ The setting was so impressed with the training it has decided to organise its own refresher session every year, using the resources from the course.
Julie Revels, independent early years consultant
Practitioners and training can focus on managing behaviour. Good training should look at how to understand behaviour, not just how to manage it. The key to supporting young children’s emotional development is their relationships with adults. The adults must therefore be able to regulate their own emotions in order to respond to the children’s needs.
There is a danger that practitioners may see PSED in isolation. A lot of the development underpinning PSED does not appear on developmental checklists, such as the rapid growth in neural pathways in early childhood and the use of a secure base and safe haven to enable children to develop the Characteristics of Effective Learning.
PSED permeates through the EYFS, linking to the role of the key person, early relationships and experiences. It’s not about how a child can comply with expectations in a setting environment but how they feel about being there and how adults respond to them to express and understand their emotions.
There is an extensive body of knowledge, including Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Where local authorities have devolved funding for CPD to settings, some offer guidance on where to find training.
training
Brains, Behaviour and PSED, two-day programme from Stonegate Training, based on Debbie Garvey’s book Nurturing Personal, Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood
Risk, Resilience and Relationships: promoting strong social, emotional and mental health in the early years, from Julie Revels
Personal, social and emotional development, NDNA half-day course
Self-regulation – supporting wellbeing, new NDNA half-day course
Emotion coaching: A systemic, relational approach to behaviour, 20 hour Level 4 online course from KCA
Emotional regulation as a key to understanding young children’s behaviour: Underneath the iceberg, Early Education, delivered by Julie Revels
guidance and resources
EYFS Guidance: Social and Emotional – factsheet from the NDNA
Development Matters in the EYFS
EYFS Statutory Framework. Sets out the current ELGs for PSED
Early years outcomes
Early years foundation stage profile: exemplification materials
Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University
Nurturing Personal, Social and Emotional Development in Early Childhood, Debbie Garvey
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