Nursery World - Love, love, love

Our approach to love needs attention, says Dr Jools Page, director
of the MA in Early Childhood Education (UK and Malta), University of
Sheffield.

Love and affection are natural and normal aspects of human relationships and are fundamental to the healthy growth of young children. Adults who have experienced loving, stable relationships and as a consequence have developed emotional resilience are more likely to be equipped to deal with complex and emotionally challenging relationships with others.

Practitioners need to be both emotionally resilient and intellectually capable of understanding themselves in relation to the behaviour of others so they are able to cope with the everyday demands of working with babies, young children and their families1.

Young children flourish when they are in the company of adults who are genuinely interested in them and are able to form strong, attuned attachment relationships with them2. Children need to know that the adult who is going to temporarily 'replace' their parent is going to be able to 'mind' about them until their parent returns.

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