Practitioners are well versed in the fact that what happens to children in their earliest years has a massive impact on the rest of their life, yet what happened to practitioners when they were small, and the long-term impact of this, has not been widely researched. How many practitioners have suffered childhood trauma? How does this impact the way they see and look after their own, and others’, wellbeing?
Many early years practitioners are aware of terms such as ‘adverse childhood experiences’ as understanding grows about the cumulative effect that ‘ACEs’ can have on a child's later outcomes (see box). ACEs can affect both adult mental and physical health: a Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council report found adults with four or more ACEs were nearly twice as likely to be morbidly obese, twice as likely to have liver disease, and ten times more likely to use heroin or crack cocaine.
Clearly, educators also need an understanding of how their own childhood might impact both their current wellbeing and their approach to early years education. Early years pioneer Elinor Goldschmied identified the need for this kind of reflection, stating in an interview with the British Library: ‘We should never deny the impact of our childhood experiences either on our own life-long development or on our professional thinking about young children.’
Practitioners as children
Thinking about one's own childhood is sometimes part of early years training. ‘If I am talking about a curriculum area, I will encourage practitioners to connect to the children they were, that they are still carrying around with them,’ says Anne O’Connor, early years consultant, trainer and author. ‘For example, they may reflect on their own experiences of running and climbing.’ Attachment training may ask participants to reflect on their own attachment styles, shaped by early interactions with their caregivers (see box).
It can be difficult for those who have had a more challenging childhood to reflect on the impact on their own wellbeing, especially if they have not considered this before. They may feel stigmatised or singled out. However, research shows that more than half of the population has experienced at least one ACE, and around one in ten has experienced four or more.
‘We need to recognise trauma is a shared human experience. In our workforce, 40 or 50 per cent will have lived with adverse childhood experiences and we have to be mindful of that,’ says Siobhan Collingwood, head of Morecambe Bay Community Primary School in Lancashire. Ms Collingwood has developed trauma-informed leadership training programme Different Doors, in partnership with trainers Makala Leadership.
‘When I do training specifically on ACEs, on understanding attachment, or on early trauma, I begin with a health warning,’ says Ms O’Connor. ‘Some people might never have thought about these things in the context of themselves, so I give people space and say “be aware, this might resonate with you and trigger emotions”.’
ACEs among practitioners
Some research on the effect of ACEs on early years practitioners’ practice has been done in the US. Clinical psychologist Grace Hubel, assistant professor at the College of Charleston, found that 73 per cent of her sample of early years workers reported experiencing at least one ACE, and 22 per cent reported experiencing four or more.
Professor Hubel's research looked at early years’ practitioners’ capacity to exhibit responsiveness, warmth and appropriate emotions in their interactions with children, by observing their practice, and found that those with a higher number of ACEs were less likely to show these qualities. This was particularly the case with early years teachers who had experienced a family member in prison or emotional or physical abuse. ‘Teachers who have experienced a high level of ACEs may have less of an ability to cope with stress in the environment,’ she says. ‘They may be less able to take care of themselves outside the classroom.’
As in this country, childcare and early education providers are among the lowest-paid workers in the US, and Professor Hubel suggests this may account for the higher incidence of adverse experiences among her sample than among the general population. There is also the possibility that a challenging childhood drives some people to enter the early years profession. ‘It may be that people with high numbers of ACEs go into careers like early years because they want to help children who have experienced the same things they went through,’ Professor Hubel says.
This is not to say that a challenging childhood will always lead to difficulties, and experts agree that no practitioner should be stigmatised or stereotyped. The ACEs approach has also been criticised for excluding some important factors that can have an impact on later outcomes, such as poverty. Many people with significant ACEs have no issues or problems, and some who did have a challenging childhood might take an ‘ACEs test’ and be told that they did not.
An earlier qualitative US study focusing on early childhood education students found that some adverse experiences can be turned to positive effect. For example, one participant felt her difficult past had developed within her a strong belief in children's abilities to overcome challenges and persevere. However, it is important for setting leaders to understand the impact a challenging childhood might have on their practitioners especially given that ACEs are so common. ‘Supervision becomes even more important,’ says Ms O’Connor. ‘The emotional impact of working with young children can be intense – even if you had no trauma in your background, it can provoke reactions you don't expect.’
Until recently, Morecambe Bay had been able to utilise a CAMHS practitioner to run supervision sessions to support staff on a regular basis. ‘Someone might say “this kid is really triggering me, they are pressing all my buttons and I think it resonates with my previous experience”,’ says Ms Collingwood. While many settings will not be able to engage professional mental health practitioners, effective supervision and space for reflective practice are vital.
ACEs
The CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, which took place between 1995 and 1997 in Southern California, first identified ten ‘ACEs’ which influence a person's health and wellbeing. The risk for negative outcomes increases as the number of ACEs increases. The ACEs are:
- Physical abuse
- Emotional abuse
- Sexual abuse
- Physical neglect
- Emotional neglect
- Substance abuse in the household
- A mother who was a victim of domestic abuse
- A family member in jail
- A family member diagnosed with a mental illness
- Experiencing divorce of parent
Sapphires Nursery School, Surrey
Sapphires Nursery School is an Outstanding-rated nursery based in East Molesey, Surrey. The setting has a strong focus on attachment, and has worked with child psychologist Robyn Dolby to put together a training programme including research-based secure attachment training.
‘When a child has made a secure attachment, they are more likely to explore their environment, have self-confidence and self-esteem, have the ability to problem-solve, form long-lasting relationships and flourish to be the best they can be in a learning environment,’ says Emma Watson, director of Sapphires Nursery School.
Training focuses on a child's need for a secure base and looks at how practitioners can support children to explore the world, while also watching for cues that they may need to return to their safe haven to be comforted, or to work out what they are feeling and thinking. As part of this training, practitioners reflect on their own childhood and how this may affect the way they respond to children at the setting.
‘Nobody has had a perfect childhood,’ says Ms Watson. ‘If certain emotional needs have not been met – for example, curiosity, joy, anger – we are likely not to be able to meet those needs for the children in our care. We might feel uncomfortable with some of these core emotions when children express them.’
In one exercise, practitioners are asked to draw a circle, placing inside the circle those emotional needs they feel were met in their childhood, and placing those that were not met outside the circle. ‘Perhaps your parents were not good at helping you to organise your feelings of anger, so when a child gets angry or upset you might feel uncomfortable and ignore it,’ explains Ms Watson. To help practitioners recognise these feelings, they are shown the same video, accompanied first by calm music and then by ‘shark attack’ music, demonstrating that the same emotions can feel comfortable or threatening for different people.
Training takes place in the setting, with no other people around. ‘It can trigger so much, so it needs to be done in a gentle way,’ says Ms Watson. ‘It is important to remember, however, that such training is not therapeutic, and is generally focused on the mental health and wellbeing of the child.’
- CACHE is offering qualifications in ACEs and early years mental health. For more, see our Training Today feature on pages 47-48.
