It is snack time at Shooting Stars Nursery at St Mary the Virgin Primary School in Dorset. As the children munch pieces of fruit, they look at laminated pictures of dinosaurs, cars and other familiar items. They ask each other, ‘What’s your favourite?’ then pass the card to a neighbour.
Deputy manager Lucy Stevens introduced the ‘snack chat mats’ in 2018 after completing Incredible Beginnings training. Developed in the US, it aims to help practitioners build positive relationships with children, to support language development and prevent difficult behaviour.
Ms Stevens chose the course to develop her skills in supporting emotional and behaviour issues. ‘We had a few children that were slightly more challenging and we were going to be getting a few more,’ she says.
She describes the course’s approach as a pyramid. ‘It’s bottom up,’ she says. ‘Rather than just addressing poor behaviour, it is about understanding why, helping to give other strategies, teaching children to self-regulate, building on their language so they can communicate their needs.’
Dorset Council commissioned the programme, which was delivered by two trainers over six days. Ms Stevens was the only member of her team to attend alongside some 15 other early years practitioners. The workshops covered building positive relationships and managing separation anxiety; promoting language development; social and emotion coaching; how to be a proactive teacher; and positive behaviour management.
After each session, trainees were expected to put into practice what they had learned. For example, Ms Stevens learned a variety of calming strategies, including breathing exercises, which she says helped several children.
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