Personal, social and emotional development

Training

The government is providing a package of workforce training, support and guidance for the early years sector to aid staff and settings.

You can access free online training from the DfE. Module 3 is all about supporting children's personal, social and emotional development and there will be further modules released in the near future.

Also available is the Help for Early Years Providers pages. There's a section on personal, social and emotional development with videos and ideas to support play and development.

Key sites

• Siren films have a wealth of training films and materials about child development and learning, including current research. The website includes a free series of articles from Nursery World by Anne O’Connor about adult-child interactions, starting at a new setting, gender roles and more
• Persona doll training - resources and information from this international organisation that promotes equality and inclusion and challenges discrimination in child-friendly ways
• Amaze is a Brighton & Hove and Sussex-based organisation offering advice and support to families of children with special needs and disabilities

One-off articles

• Read an excellent summary of a masterclass on children’s self-regulation from the Foundation Stage Forum
• Information on the BBC and NSPCC websites might be useful for reference if you need to support children after upsetting national news, although intended for slightly older children they could be useful to share sensitively with colleagues and families
• The YouTube film Still Face is a useful team discussion point about interacting with young children, watch Still Face on YouTube
• Read an article reflecting on the quality of daily greetings, using the ORIM framework to consider practice, from Teachwire
• Read how a ‘worry eater’ doll is being used very successfully to support children’s PSED in a local setting, from Sorgenfresser
• Self-regulation is discussed in this interesting article by Ali McClure, from the Community Playthings website
• These ideas about transitions, with top tips for slightly older children on planning positive beginnings and endings, is written with previously looked after children in mind, and is from PAC-UK, the country’s largest independent Adoption Support Agency
• Read a comprehensive article about understanding and supporting children’s behaviour, available from the EY Forum, written by Kathryn Stinton, a specialist early years teacher and trainer
• Highlighted by Early Education, see Forest schools: how climbing trees and making dens can help children develop resilience, and the linked research
• A very useful article from Hanen on how to use ‘thinking and feeling words’ to build your child's communication skills, written for parents and carers and includes sections on:
  • examples of thinking and feeling words
  • when do children learn words for thoughts and feelings?
  • why are thinking and feeling words important?
  • how to help children learn thinking and feeling words