Safe and Loved

Feeling ‘safe and loved’ underpins the mental health and wellbeing of adults and children. The way that we feel about ourselves in relation to others’ and whether we feel secure and accepted for who we are, enables us to develop confidence and positive self-esteem. Underpinning the practices throughout this book is what every child needs , and the essential elements that are vital to human development. If we don’t feel safe and loved our ability to form healthy, new relationships is impacted and our stress levels are raised, impacting on our ability to learn. We introduce the importance of sensory, physical connection, as well as emotional connection, and talk about chemicals in the brain that are released when we’re feeling good and those released when we’re experiencing stress. Brain architecture and early neurodevelopment is explained in further detail, building on what we’ve learned in Chapter 1 . Reflective questions encourage the reader to check in on their own emotions and provide examples of how these questions can be used to support early childhood practitioners in their work with children. We share ideas that promote early communication, including strategies to encourage ‘serve and return’ so that adults can ‘actively listen’ to what babies and young children are saying to us, supporting the implementation of PACE. Alongside polyvagal theory, we discuss the importance of practising ‘mentalisation’ alongside very young children. This means that the adult will learn to ‘wonder into the mind of a baby’, to successfully respond to their feelings and begin to identify potential stress or anxiety, as we tune into to their attempts at communicating their needs effectively.