Princess of Wales highlights children's social and emotional wellbeing at National Symposium

Speaking at the Shaping Us National Symposium, part of the Princess's campaign to raise awareness of early childhood, she said that if these building blocks are not in place when we are young, it is ‘much harder’ to manage ourselves, communicate and connect to others and engage with the world around us in adulthood. ‘This leaves us vulnerable to isolation and adversity,’ she adds.

The Princess initiated a ‘global listening exercise’ earlier this year, focusing on the importance of developing a ‘social and emotional skill set’. She engaged with 100 leading experts from 21 countries around the world, posing the question: what are the key skills we develop in early childhood, but continue to grow beyond it, that help establish the core foundations for life and allow us to go on to thrive as adults?

The symposium brings together cross-disciplinary leaders, child and adult specialists and global thinkers to ‘unite thinking’ and agree on the ‘key foundational skills we lay in early childhood’ that can help establish ‘happy, healthy adult lives’.

Launching details of the findings, she said, ‘The latest science clearly indicates that early childhood development must focus on more than just the physical and technical skills of our children – we also need to prioritise their inner worlds too.

‘How they manage anxiety, low mood, tantrums, self-loathing or anger; these are the things that will shape their future lives, and without solid foundations in childhood, they may become vulnerabilities later. No matter how outwardly successful they may be.’

She adds, ‘Nurturing skills that enable us to know ourselves, manage our emotions, focus our thoughts, communicate with others, foster positive relationships and explore the world are just as valuable to our long-term success as reading, writing or arithmetic.’

Social and emotional skills are ‘the bedrock’ for helping children thrive and for ‘restoring, protecting, and investing in humankind’. But rebalancing and restoring calls for ‘new thinking and action at every level’, she concluded.