Nursery World - Learning & Development: Personal, Social & Emotional Development

Making children feel secure and content is essential, but settings often have a narrow view of how this should be achieved - creating an
environment of forced gaiety, for example, which although well-meaning does not lead to long-term well-being, explains Dr Julian Grenier

The first thoughts that come to mind when reflecting on the personal, social and emotional development for children up to the age of three will almost certainly be about ensuring that every child feels secure and content.

As I argued in 'First of all', it is essential that we work hard towards getting this basic aspect of our provision right. We also need to resist cosy assumptions that we have all the necessary procedures securely in place. We need to check that we are doing our best to help children feel secure and content through regular and careful observations of children, through dialogue with parents, and by having a robust staff supervision system in place. But, going beyond these foundations, it can be argued that early years practitioners sometimes take too narrow a view of this area of child development. This narrowness can show itself in four main areas.

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