While the term “wellbeing” isn’t new, we certainly have been talking about it more recently, especially with regards to our children. We talk to Valerie Lagarde, Senior teacher for Playgroups and Pre-kindergarten, Curriculum and development at ESF Explore, to find out how we can ensure the socio-emotional development of some of our littlest loved ones.
What is Wellbeing?
Wellbeing goes beyond the absence of illness and is not a synonym for happiness either, explains Valerie. It encompasses general health, physical safety and the absence of harm, and psychological safety, defined as being able to participate in conversations, debates and activities without the fear of being reprimanded or criticised.
The PERMA Model
In 2011, the founder of Positive Psychology, Dr. Martin Seligman, put forward the PERMA model designed to measure and increase wellbeing. This stands for Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment/Achievement. Having identified an overly narrow focus on the negative in psychology, his aim was to move from a current sense of happiness or joy to a sense of flourishing, which looks towards a future state or future accomplishments.
But what does this look like for education? If we take a typical day at ESF Language and Learning Centre, it’s easy to see how moments are in fact carefully crafted to ensure students’ well-being and socio-emotional development.
One fine morning in August, Pak Pak started his second week of Pre-Kindergarten. He greeted his teachers and the centre team, took his shoes off and placed them near his photograph on the shelf, went into the classroom where he placed his snack and water bottle on the trolley, dropped off his backpack, and went to play. His favourite thing was the kitchen corner, reheating popcorn in the oven. That morning, he sang songs he knew, listened to a new story and explored a new sensory tray with coloured rice and funnels. He also went to the playground where he chased after the teachers in a toy car!
To begin with, staff are there to cheerfully welcome Pak Pak into his day, engaging him in meaningful relationships that are caring and supportive. Next, as he finds his photo to drop off his snack, water bottle and backpack he feels a sense of accomplishment and achievement that he knows what to do in this situation. After this, the play-based activities encourage positive emotions and give him a strong sense of agency and autonomy; exploring new experiences help him to learn and grow. Finally, he clearly feels safe and comfortable as he laughingly chases his beloved teachers in his toy car!
Threats to Wellbeing
There are three types of stress which can affect children’s well-being–positive, tolerable and toxic.
Positive
The first is so-called because it is short-lived and leads to positive outcomes. This very temporary source of stress actually helps children grow intrapersonal skills, resilience, and courage. Imagine a young child having to stand in front of the class for show-and-tell, or starting a new music lesson; if they have the support needed to develop a sense of mastery, this is an important part of the normal development process.
Tolerable
The second refers to more severe stressful situations, which could potentially affect the architecture of the developing brain. However, because they happen over shorter periods of time and with the help of supportive and caring adults, the brain can recover. Children can overcome these episodes, such as the death of a pet or the separation of their parents, and reverse potentially harmful effects.
Toxic
Toxic stress refers to frequent or prolonged activation of the brain’s stress management system. Stressful events that are chronic, uncontrollable and occur without the support of caring adults can provoke this type of stress, and science shows that it can have an adverse impact on brain architecture. In extreme cases, the regions of the brain involved in fear, anxiety and impulsive responses may overproduce neural connections, while those responsible for planning, reasoning and behaviour control may produce fewer neural connections. This means that the stress system starts to activate at lower thresholds in situations which might not seem stressful to others, more frequently and for longer periods than necessary. It creates wear and tear which increases the risk of stress-related physical and mental illness later in life.
Reactions to Stress
Fight, flight, freeze are all responses to stressful situations that children perceive as threats to their well-being. These look like:
- aggressiveness to eliminate the danger (fight)
- avoidance or escaping the danger (flight), accompanied by rapid breathing and heart rate, flushed or pale skin, tense muscles, trembling, constricted feeling in the throat
- immobility (freeze).Characterised by a drop in heart rate, together with muscle tension.
With healthy socio-emotional competencies, children respond to stressful situations with communication instead of avoidance, self-soothing instead of confrontation and mindful thinking instead of hopelessness.
As parents, caregivers and educators we need to protect children from exposure to tolerable and toxic stress, and support them in the development of fundamental skills to manage stress and preserve or enhance their wellbeing.
Read more: Prioritising Wellbeing in Schools
Building Core Competencies for Life
Core skills can be split into three main categories.
- Executive function represents the command centre of the brain. It includes memory, planning, focus and mental flexibility. It helps people to work collaboratively and productively. For Pak Pak, arriving in class and remembering the sequence of events required executive function. Children between the age of 2 and 5 should be able to remember three simple steps.
- Emotional regulation refers to managing and modelling emotional reactions to difficult situations, such as the frustration of a toy being snatched out of your hands. It also includes learning about delayed gratification, going from the “now” to accepting “later”. Self-regulation requires mental flexibility and inhibitory control and builds on executive function.
- Interpersonal competencies, often referred to as people skills, social skills or social intelligence, involve the ability to communicate and build relationships. As children develop social awareness, they go from focusing solely on their own feelings to being able to identify and acknowledge those of others and then develop the ability to empathise with them. They learn to understand other perspectives, pay attention to social cues and behaviour and navigate conflict.
These skills are all developed over time through practice, but they can be upset by factors including fatigue, overload and long-term stress. The ultimate goal for educators and caregivers is to find a balance between giving opportunities to practise the skills and managing the negative effects.
Promoting Wellbeing at Home
There are a variety of ways to promote wellbeing at home alongside developing nurturing, caring relationships and modelling healthy self-regulation
- Set boundaries, establish routines and write to-do lists: children gain a sense of safety by removing uncertainty. Clear expectations help children develop patience, self-control, problem-solving skills and responsibility instead of entitlement and immediate satisfaction.
- One-on-one quality time, family game night, free play and sensory activities: quality time with a caregiver not only helps children feel valued, but these serve-and-return interactions also stimulate brain development towards communication and social skills. Board games, free play and sensory activities offer a multitude of opportunities for children to mobilise their memory, focus and planning skills, as well as building new brain pathways by discovering a variety of textures.
- Identify emotions, sing, tell stories: this not only stimulates memory but also provides opportunities for emotional regulation and empathy.
- Express gratitude, go for walks in nature, engage in mindfulness: these activities help foster a positive outlook on life, allow you to be in the moment, focus on positive emotions and release stress. Nature walks support the development of neural connections as children explore the world with all their senses. They can also help to produce beneficial reductions in heart rate, blood pressure and cortisol levels.
Well-being and socio-emotional learning in the early years are of vital importance, as this is when children build the foundations for lifelong social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Fostering a positive and supportive learning environment and integrating social and emotional learning into the curriculum sets them on a path to success academically, personally and professionally. By providing this comprehensive support to children, we increase the chance that they will grow into emotionally intelligent, resilient, and empathetic individuals and in turn create a more compassionate and harmonious society.
You might also be interested in reading:
The Importance of Student Wellbeing at Harrow Hong Kong
School News: What’s Happening in Hong Kong
Written By: Hollie Arnulphy
