10/12/2025
Every child has the right to feel safe. Some children need help with different skills to do this.
🥰 Understanding signals from their body
🥰 Understanding what different emotions look like in others
🥰 Maintaining regulation
🥰 Vocabulary of emotions, and when we don't feel safe
🥰 Understanding appropriate and inappropriate behaviour around different types of people
There are so many things we can do to build these skills, here are some quick places to start.
🤩 Play is the most important job a child has - ensure they have a space where you can engage with child-led unstructured play to build foundational skills
🤩 Provide plenty of waiting time when listening in conversations about emotions (emotions are some of the hardest things for anyone to talk about, it takes time!)
🤩 Help them understand appropriate behaviour (e.g. hugs vs high-fives) with different types of communication partners (e.g. family, friends, professionals, strangers)
🤩 Encourage your child to make choices about their own body - do they want to give someone a hug? Or are we telling them they should hug someone?
🤩 Gain a good understanding of how to support regulation for your child's particular needs
🤩 Add words to your emotions - describe how you are feeling, so a child can learn what different emotions look like
🤩 Talk about what emotions look like on different people when you see them. You can see emotions in eyes, eyebrows, the mouth, body posture, hands etc.
🤩 Always be stronger, wiser and kind with our children - and if the world is making that hard to do at the moment, reach out for support.
Child safety is everyone's business. Always follow your gut if you are concerned.
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