Babies and young children have significant needs wherever they spend their days, be it at home with their families, in the home of a childminder or in an early years setting such as a nursery.
To begin to understand those needs and how to respond to them, practitioners need first to turn to the two sets of national guidance: Birth to Three Matters: a framework to support children in their earliest years, in England, and Birth to Three: supporting our youngest children, in Scotland.
These two resources may look different in layout, but they give consistent messages for child-friendly, developmentally appropriate practice.
Both sets of guidance stress that emotionally healthy development for children through the earliest years depends upon their making close, affectionate relationships with familiar adults:
* Two of the ten principles that underpin Birth to Three Matters emphasise that, 'A relationship with a key person at home and in the setting is essential to young children's well-being' and 'Caring adults count more than resources and equipment'.
* Birth to Three states that relationships are one of the three crucial Rs for good-quality practice and says, 'Key to making the most of children's capabilities is the quality of the warm, affectionate and responsive relationships surrounding babies and young children'.
Each resource also makes generous use of the words 'care' and 'caring'.
Examples in words and visuals show clearly that practitioners should give respect and friendly attention to children's physical care needs and communicate that they care deeply about children as individuals. This emotional 'nutrition' flows through the personal relationship between a child and practitioner/key person in a nursery or childminder in their own home.
Some practitioners may find the word 'care' unsatisfactory in describing their role and may prefer, instead, to use 'nurture' and 'nurturing'.
Emotional security
Marjorie Boxall's work on nurture groups in schools highlights that early years experiences need to create a sense of emotional security for children: that adult behaviour and daily life are reasonably pleasant and predictable. Young children will avoid taking the risk of being independent learners if they feel adrift, without a safe base. Emotional security is not an optional extra for very young children.
* Babies and very young children who feel it is easy to gain the warm attention of a familiar adult are relaxed and able to enjoy playful experiences and are happy to get hands-on with suitable play resources.
* When a situation is uncertain, very young children look towards, or return to, their familiar adult - their safe place. Toddlers trust these familiar adults to help them resolve the inevitable conflicts that arise between young children, even between good friends.
* On the other hand, babies and toddlers who spend their days with emotionally distant adults (at home or in out-of-home care) spend much of their emotional energy trying to attract attention and predicting what attention-seeking behaviour will be effective.
* If the situation continues, young children stop bothering to relate to adults at all, or they learn strategies that attract attention, at the personal cost of being labelled by adults as having behaviour problems.
Personal relationships
Practitioners can observe children's persistent emotional states - relaxed and happy, or edgy and uncertain - through an individual's typical pattern of words and actions. These patterns impact on the chemical balance of young brains, for example, with increased levels of stress hormones like cortisol. But while children's brain development is complicated, and still little understood, effective ways to support under-threes are very straightforward:
* Be generous with your time and personal attention to the babies and very young children in your care. By all means, offer the children some special experiences in addition to the play resources that are always available to them, but avoid having a daunting list of 'activities I have to do with them today'.
* Create an accessible learning environment and friendly routines that enable even babies to anticipate what will happen next and enable toddlers to become active helpers in your home or nursery.
* Allow time to get to know babies, and families, who have joined your provision. You need to form a personal relationship with parents as well as children. Aim to communicate the message that you are pleased to share the care of this child with their family.
* Establish a proper keyperson system for group settings, in which one practitioner develops as the safe emotional base for a child. It is perfectly normal that babies and children will cling to their keyperson in times of uncertainty or distress. It is an emotionally healthy sign that a baby or toddler sees the keyperson as their 'safe place'.
* Enable children to be physically close to you. They need communication through touch and the easy availability of a cuddle. Birth to Three Matters refers to the importance of 'snuggling in': the importance of a welcoming arm and lap and comfortable spaces where adults and children can get together.
* Show children, and their parents, that the relationship with them matters to you. Birth to Three focuses on the sensitivity that reassures children that they are 'kept in mind', and that during a busy day, or when children have been absent, they have a secure place in your thoughts and memory.
* Reassure children, through your words and daily actions, that they have your care, interest and attention. Young children who learn that they do not have to compete with their peers for your affection will sometimes be emotionally generous to each other. Be pleased - you have observed the very beginnings of pro-social behaviour.
Real feelings
As with the children, so with the adults: affection should never be viewed as a competitive exercise. The close relationship that babies and children need to develop with their out-of-home carers does not drain a finite store of attachment. Young children's emotional connection with their childminder, their keyperson and other familiar adults in nursery is different from the enduring attachment that they need to create within their own family.
Problems can arise when parents are ambivalent about their child's feelings for a childminder or keyperson, or when a practitioner genuinely loses sight of the fact that they are not this child's parent. But it is important that parent and practitioner resolve these issues in a mature and adult way.
Young children never show that they feel 'too attached'; I hear this worrying phrase sometimes from practitioners or team leaders. Many babies and under-threes now spend many hours in out-of-home care. For their emotional health, they must be allowed to become close to their non-family carers. If very young children are blocked from developing a bond of affection, then they will remain ill at ease and fail to benefit from the play experiences and resources on offer, however well organised.
Further resources
* Boxall, Marjorie Nurture groups in school: principles and practice (2002, Paul Chapman)
* Elfer, Peter, Goldschmied, Elinor and Selleck, Dorothy Key persons in the nursery: building relationships for quality provision (2003, David Fulton)
* Gerhardt, Sue Why love matters: how affection shapes a baby's brain (2004, Routledge)
* Gerhardt, Sue Mind the baby (Nursery World, 8 December 2005)
* Learning and Teaching Scotland Birth to three: supporting our youngest children (2005, www.ltscotland.org.
uk/earlyyears/birthtothree
* Sure Start/DfES Birth to three matters: a framework to support children in their earliest years (2002 www.surestart.gov.uk/resources/childcareworkers/birthtothreematters)
