As nursery owners or early years practitioners, you have a crucial role in shaping the mental well-being of the children you care for. Creating a supportive and nurturing environment during these formative years can set the stage for a child’s future mental health.
Here are some simple ways that you can support early years mental health in your nursery and build emotional well-being effectively.
Create a Safe and Nurturing Environment
Creating a space where the children in your care can feel secure, valued, and understood is the cornerstone of supporting early years mental health. It’s important to establish daily routines as knowing what to expect each day can create a sense of stability, reducing the anxiety a child might feel within a nursery setting.
Include cosy corners and quiet areas where a child can retreat if they feel overwhelmed, making sure to have weighted blankets and sensory or cuddle toys on hand to soothe and calm.
Encourage Emotional Expression
Helping children in your care to understand and express their emotions is vital for supporting early years mental health. Be attentive to their emotional cues and look out for any warning signs such as a child being withdrawn or displaying a lack of enjoyment. Excessively controlling behaviours or extreme mood swings can also be signs.
Try and incorporate activities that allow children to explore and express their emotions. Reading, storytelling and expressive art projects on a one-to-one level can encourage positive communication and build strong, trusting relationships. Introducing self-care activities can also help with confidence and build well-being.
Foster Social Connections
Social connections are fundamental to early years mental health. Through play in a nursery setting, children can build a social world full of new skills like communication, turn-taking, and cooperation.
You can nurture these skills by planning fun activities that require teamwork and back-and-forth communication such as group games or role-play, this will boost their ability to form strong social interactions and teach important interpersonal skills like empathy.
Anything that gets the children in your nursery to work together can also allow them to develop skills for resolving conflicts and dealing with disagreements, which is just as important for mental well-being.
Promote Physical Activity
Physical activity is so important for mental well-being, so make sure to include plenty of chances for movement and outdoor play.
Giving children regular time outside to run around is not only great for their physical health, it helps reduce stress and can regulate mood. Puddle jumping, hopscotch and scavenger hunts for a simple list of items, are all joyful, tried and tested ideas for engaging and focusing little ones.
Being indoors doesn’t mean children can’t be physically active, you can bring physical activities and movement-based learning sessions inside with fun obstacle courses or dance and yoga sessions.
Engage with Families
Regular engagement with parents and caregivers is key to maintaining early years mental health within your nursery, as it helps families feel comfortable to share their concerns and insights with you. It’s important to keep communication open and friendly with regular updates, meetings, and a welcoming atmosphere. Where possible, invite parents to join in on nursery activities to boost emotional security for the children and to make sure there’s a smooth connection between home and nursery life.
You can simplify engagement with parents, build better relationships and grow your nursery community with our eyengage software. Whether it’s tracking child development or staying in touch with parents, eyworks can help create a supportive environment and a welcoming feel online as well as in person.
Supporting Staff
The mental health of your staff can directly impact their ability to support the children in their care. It’s essential to offer regular training on early years mental health so that your staff feel confident and well-equipped to support a child in need – opportunities for professional development are key.
At eyworks, we offer a number of solutions to support nursery staff. Our eypeople nursery HR software takes care of administrative tasks, freeing managers to focus on nurturing the children. Meanwhile, our nursery eyemployee engagement app makes it easy for staff to book their well-deserved breaks, cutting down on personal admin and giving them more free time to enjoy outside of work.
How do we support you?
Let eyworks support your whole nursery community with our easy-to-use nursery management software, designed to enhance the nursery experience for owners, employees, and families alike.
Together, we can create nurturing environments where every child can thrive emotionally and mentally.
