Children can become very upset when in unfamiliar surroundings, and perhaps we should remember how we, too, can feel when away from home. Being in a strange and/or threatening environment can elicit the need for comfort and reassurance, and wanting to be home denotes the need for the safe place.
Who has not heard a child's cry of 'I want to go home', and how often are we ready to hear the need for reassurance? For us, the daycare setting, the childminder's home or the classroom may feel welcoming, but for some children on a first visit, the place will be strange - smells, sounds, decor and furnishings are all new and possibly unfamiliar.
The space in such a setting may be much larger than the child's own rooms at home, another unsettling factor. I wonder how many of us have revisited a childhood haunt as an adult and found it to be so much smaller than we remember? Think how large places can appear when we are relatively so small. We need to add this awareness to what the child may already be feeling at the separation from their parent, so their grief at parting is compounded by their possible fear and distress at the space in which they find themselves.
A CARING ENVIRONMENT
There are three aspects to thinking about the environment: the emotional atmosphere, the indoor environment and the outdoor environment. The Oxfordshire County Council/Sure Start team have produced a document called My Space which particularly looks at the environment from the child's point of view, in which what is particularly striking is the children's needs for emotional warmth in whatever situation. So we will begin with the emotional atmosphere.
For young children in daycare or entering school, the transition from home to a different environment in which they are going to spend some time means that they need to feel safe. An innovative early intervention project entitled 'The Circle of Security', based on attachment theory, introduced the concepts of a 'safe base' and a 'safe haven' as key components of secure attachment relationships, and these concepts retain their validity in organisational situations.
A child needs a safe haven for their emotions and a safe base for their exploratory and learning needs. Just as with parents, some early years practitioners and teachers will find that dealing with a child's emotional needs is easier than the child's exploratory/learning needs, and vice versa. For example, one teacher I met was apparently comfortable supporting and encouraging the children in her class but appeared to find it very difficult in dealing with a child who, aged five years, was already reading well; she insisted that the child followed a particular reading scheme with the other children, but this made the child miserable.
The questions in My Space that children asked regarding their emotional space were very moving. They included:
- Do you know me, my family, my circumstances?
- Who will I meet here and how do I know who is special to me?
This clearly identified how children want to be seen as individuals and, most importantly, cared about. It also highlights the fact that early years professionals and teachers do become the alternative attachment figure and a key person for the child. They need to know so that they know where to turn.
Another interesting question asked was, how do people behave in the particular setting? This pulls together the need for connection between the child and the other people and the importance of imitation as a strategy in which they will find out how people behave and fit in. It also identifies how much children need to know what the boundaries are, where they can go and what they are able to do. A lack of clarity in such situations is very unhelpful for most children. Uncertainty breeds anxiety, and children will respond according to their particular strategies.
An important message for everyone is that when all children feel relaxed and not stressed through hypersensitivity to sensory information, or are not feeling confused, anxious, angry or fearful, they are then able to really hear what adults are saying to them and therefore respond more appropriately.
INDOOR ENVIRONMENT
The key questions that children in My Space asked regarding their indoor environment included whether the environment was welcoming and inviting. Children also wanted to know whether they could move around freely, with opportunities to be independent, explore and, interestingly, use all their senses.
Places to rest, eat and solve problems also seemed to be important. It struck me on reading through this document that much of what children wanted from their environment was very similar to what adults want, which is to feel safe, welcomed and have opportunities to express themselves.
Adults, like children, need to feel secure, but also competent within whatever context they happen to be. However, as adults we do sometimes have the luxury of adapting or altering our environment to suit our needs and tastes. But children do not often have this opportunity, and their environment is the one that we adults present to them. This emphasises just how important it is for us to think about what children need, whatever their age, always remembering what makes us feel at home.
While what suits one may not suit another, there are still these broad principles that seem to apply to a range of contexts and which adults, in any professional role, can think about and examine the environment they provide through the eyes of the child.
OUTDOOR ENVIRONMENT
What children seemed to want in this section of the Sure Start report was permission to be outside, and one of the questions was whether adults like to be outside. Having witnessed adults standing in a playground, muffled up to the eyebrows, arms tightly folded, I do wonder what message this is giving to the children about outdoor activities. The other aspect, sadly all too often seen especially in schools for older children, is the sterile nature of the outdoor area. Children, on the other hand, had asked for:
- places and features to sit in, on, under, lean against, and provide shelter and shade
- different levels and nooks and crannies, places that offer privacy and views.
I wonder how many playgrounds have seats, shelters and tables as well as the more obvious outdoor equipment? Some nurseries and schools do have the most beautiful outside areas, not all large but with resources adapted to the practicalities of the environment. Small seats, growbags, planted-up areas using discarded tyres and so on are all put to good use by imaginative and resourceful practitioners and are a delight for children, staff and parents.
Children need to know that adults like being outside too. They need to know what they can do outside, and they need to have places just to 'be' as well as being active and involved.
KNOW THE CHILD
In many ways, the role of the adult can be summed up in a simple phrase, 'know the child', as it is only through knowing and thereby understanding that adults can really get behind behaviour and under the 'skin' of the child. Adults cannot get away from the huge responsibility they have towards children, not only to support their growth but also to provide safety, comfort and reassurance. To this end, adults also need to know themselves, so that with their own needs and strengths acknowledged they can then turn the spotlight of attention on the child in their care.
We are only young once, and this is the time when that neural footprint is laid down. Children need adults who can help form that footprint with compassion, understanding, sympathy, care, knowledge and wisdom.
This is an edited extract from Understanding Behaviour and Development in Early Childhood - A Guide to Theory and Practice by Maria Robinson (Routledge, £19.99)
REFERENCES
- - My Space, which is all about 'creating enabling environments for children', also comes with a DVD. The Oxfordshire County Council Sure Start programme can be contacted for further details.
- - The authors of 'The Circle of Security' are Glen Cooper, Kent Hoffman and Bert Powell from Marycliff Institute in Spokane, WA, and Robert Marvin from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. Details of the project and their work can be found at www.circleofsecurity.org
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Understanding Behaviour and Development in Early Childhood - A Guide to Theory and Practice by Maria Robinson (Routledge, £19.99) explains behaviour within a developmental context and provides guidance on how to respond to and support the shifts in a child's behaviour.
Themes covered include brain development and the senses, how emotions affect our ability to learn. and a sense of self.
A 20 per cent discount on the paperback version (ISBN: 9780415565615) is available to Nursery World readers only at www.routledge.com. The offer is valid until the end of August 2011. Readers must enter the promotional code NWMRS11 to validate the discount.
