Nursery World - Image problem

Even the youngest children are not immune to society’s obsession with body image. So what should early years staff be aware of? Hannah Crown reports

One three-year-old regularly called himself ‘fat’. He used to hold his stomach at nappy-changing time and say, ‘Look at all this fat.’ The manager of his nursery, Emma Davis, says, ‘He used to struggle during some physical activities and would shy away from running and jumping. He had a poor self-image.’

Concerns over body image – long associated with adolescents – are increasingly found in our very youngest children. According to Fiona MacCallum, associate professor, department of psychology at Warwick University, ‘Children become aware of stereotypes about body from three years old. They have a preference, if they are shown figures to play with, for thinner ones. They are not just seeing that person as fat and it’s bad for them – they don’t want to play with them because they are unpopular.

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