Nursery World - Best Practice

How can adults help to build kindness and co-regulation in children – as well as themselves? Helen Garnett explains

Co-regulation is key to empathy and models kindness

‘Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.’1

Kindness is a skill that takes many years to develop and refine. Consideration, respect and generosity are among the complex skillset required to become a kind person. Children do not simply ‘learn’ kindness. They need to live it.

‘Kind and considerate children are developed where kindness and consideration are practised.’2 Kindness develops best when we are purposeful about building it, and environments that harbour and harness kindness are the most effective in building kind children.

THE BENEFITS OF KINDNESS

Kindness raises others’ wellbeing. However, studies have discovered how being kind can also increase our own feelings of happiness and life satisfaction.3 Serotonin and dopamine levels rise as we display kindness, improving mood and decreasing stress. In short, being kind boosts our own wellbeing!

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