June 2021

How we use Emotion coaching in our nurseries.

Jennie Webb our Chilcompton Deputy Manager and 2-year-old room leader talks to us about Emotion Coaching after she recently attended a course on it with Somerset County council.

What is Emotion Coaching?  

“Emotion Coaching is about helping children and young people to understand the different emotions they experience, why they occur and how to handle them” It entails validating children’s emotions, setting limits where appropriate and problem-solving with the child to develop more effective behavioural strategies. Emotion coaching techniques instil the tools that will aid children’s ability to self-regulate their emotions and behaviour. It enables practitioners to create an ethos of positive learning behaviour and to have the confidence to de-escalate situations when behaviour is challenging. Emotion coaching provides a value-added dimension to behaviour management strategies and creates opportunities for longer-term solutions to children’s wellbeing and resilience.

Emotion Coaching builds awareness of brain development in the Early Years. It teaches us skills to empathise and use an Emotion Coaching approach to support young children's emotional well-being and behaviour.  

When using the emotion coaching technique in our settings we:

·       Help children to regulate, improve and take ownership of their behaviour 

·       Help children to calm down and better understand their emotions 

·       Help practitioners to be more sensitive to children’s needs 

·       Help create more consistent responses to children’s behaviour 

·       Help practitioners to feel more ‘in control’ during incidents 

·       Help promote positive relationships 

We aim to do this throughout our daily practice in the nursery. With our interactions with both the children and the adults around us.  As adults we are learning that by “putting the lid back on” our own emotions this helps us regulate how we feel before we approach a reactive emotional situation, this enables the child to be calm and relaxed and begin to regulate their emotions. Through emotion coaching the children will learn that all emotions are ok, and there are no such things as wrong or bad feelings, we are just learning to name them and put them in a place where they belong.

We will be doing this with stories, songs, games, puppets the list is endless. As a nursery we have just purchased ‘My First Emotion box’ which has puppets, stories and emotions that the children can physical feel. This box is also available for parents to borrow. If you would like any more information on emotion coaching please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Jennie our Emotion Coach lead.

Somerset is also holding a free Emotion coaching Parents and Carers webinar in October Please see the attached.