Loved or listened to? Parent and practitioner perspectives on young children’s well-being

Abstract

Well-being is a significant concept in research, policy and practice in education, but consensus about what it is is challenging. In addition, the well-being of children under eight is under-researched. Using online surveys, this paper looks at the perspectives of 155 parent/carers and 285 practitioners in England on young children's well-being. In many areas there were high levels of agreement: the importance of fun and laughter, feeling good about oneself, feeling listened to, good family relationships, time and space to play and opportunities to express thoughts and feelings. Parents/carers emphasized 'love' whilst practitioners emphasized listening to children. Practitioners also strongly emphasized the importance of their relationships with children and parents/carers. The paper concludes that, whilst the perspectives of parents/carers and practitioners are valuable, a full understanding of young children's well-being needs to include their voices as well as those of adults.

The Pursuit of Happiness: Leadership Challenges of Recognising and Supporting Child Health and Wellbeing in the Early Years

“…They value the need for supervision to be used as a tool by leaders to enable them to develop and strengthen their skills to support wellbeing within nursery settings. These points highlight the necessity of reflective supervisions for staff, which supports the work of Robson, Brogaard-Clausen, and Hargreaves [37], who advocate that this will assist and reinforce early-years practitioners' confidence in supporting child health and wellbeing. Early-years practitioners need a wide variety of skills to understand children's feelings, and as key workers, they should work to ensure that they are nurturing children to develop positive relationships and empathy towards others [38,39].…”

What is it that we still don’t get? – Relational pedagogy and why relationships and connections matter in early childhood

“…The UK was placed 14th out of 15 countries for subjective wellbeing, with the rather damming indictment that children in the UK are among the saddest and least satisfied in Europe. Robson, Brogaard-Clausen and Hargreaves (2019:1147) argue that in research, policy and practice, wellbeing in education is considered something to aspire to. Yet, while it has been afforded greater importance generally (Department of Health and Social Care and DFE, 2018) and is considered mandatory to address within ECEC (OFSTED, 2021), there is little guidance on what constitutes wellbeing and how schools should accommodate it.…”

“…The measurement of subjective wellbeing applied within the Good Childhood Report was only for young people aged 8–13 years, children in ECEC were not even represented. Corroboratively, Robson, Brogaard-Clausen and Hargreaves (2019: 1147) observe that a particular problem when addressing wellbeing in ECEC is that children under 8 years are ‘largely ignored’ within research, and therefore the true wellbeing picture within ECEC remains indistinct. These trends are troubling in light of developmentally appropriate practice and maturation theory.…”