Nursery World - Behaviour: self-soothing

Carers need to recognise when a child's self-soothing habit is an expression of distress

There are countless other such habits, such as hair-pulling, but recreating the familiar is what is common to all 'self-soothing' behaviours. Some behaviours do not actually soothe but instead amplify the distressed feeling, and it is these that deserve special attention by the parents, carers and early years practitioners.

All babies have a need to suck, for nourishment, pleasure and relief from distressing feelings. Quite often the discovery of a finger to suck is extended to a cuddly toy or the end of a blanket, which becomes important to the child at night or in new situations. Thumb-sucking occurs in about half of all infants, and while most stop it by the age of two or three years, some continue on into adulthood.

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