Early Years Early Help Clinics with Lisa Fisher and Heidi Saunders
The Early Help Team are now able to offer all Early Years providers with an opportunity to book an Early help clinic. Please contact Lisa and Heidi to book a space to consult where a family is open at Green or Yellow levels of the triaging tool. We can provide you with advice and support and also consider how to support conversations with parents you think would benefit from Early Help.
Contact: heidisaunders@warwickshire.gov.uk or lisafisher@warwickshire.gov.uk
International Library Month 1st October - 31st October 2022
This month it is International School Library Month. This is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate your library and reading areas within your early years setting and homes! In doing so, you can encourage children of all ages to take out books and enjoy reading.
If you haven’t yet created a library within your early years setting maybe this is something you could consider as this will help children to:
· Develop an interest in books and love of reading at a young age.
· ·Develop listening and attention skills.
· Develop children’s independence as they have their own book, special book bag and maybe even a library ticket.
If you are thinking about setting up your own loaning library, this could be created using a simple bookshelf and placed in the entrance area so its accessible to parent and children when they arrive:
Here are 5 top tips to consider when setting up your library:
1) The types of books: Ensure that types of books you offer are developmentally appropriate so that they engage children and their parents, Include books that have a lot of pictures and photographs, tactile books, those with pop-up features, flaps to lift, buttons to press with sounds and hand puppet books which draw young children’s attention.
2) The variety of books: Include both fiction and non-fiction books which cover a range of themes including traditional stories, rhyming texts and books with repetitive language to help to encourage the children’s speech and language development.
3 The Organisation of books Keep the library area or library shelf as simple as possible, but ensure books are organised into categories so they are easy to find. Categories you could include are: pop-up, animals books, people and children, numbers and rhymes.
4) Additional resources You may consider adding puppets to your library or reading buddy teddies which children can take home with their chosen book. You may also decide to give each child a book bag to take their book home in. This will keep the books safe and dry.
5) Engaging parents Build relationships with parents, recommend books their children may like to borrow and guide them informally in how to share the books with children at home.
World Mental Health Day
Each year, The World Health Organisation recognises ’World Mental Health Day’ on 10th October. World Mental Health Day is a chance to talk about mental health in general, how we need to look after it, and how important it is to talk about things and get help if you are struggling.
Talking about emotions can be a good place to start when thinking about supporting our children’s emotional wellbeing.
Here are 5 ideas for supporting children to name, understand and express their emotions.
- Help children to recognise different facial expressions and link these to emotions we may be feeling. You can use mirrors, images, actions and visual prompt cards to support this.
- Model talking about your own emotions to the children. Give them examples of times you felt certain ways, what happened to make you feel like that and how did you respond to this emotion, such as doing something to make yourself feel better.
- Prompt children to think about how their friend is feeling and how they are expressing that emotion, “Sam, look at your friend Ben. He is giving you a big smile. He is feeling really excited to read this story with you.”
- Sing songs together about emotions. For example, you could begin the day by singing an Emotion Hello Song, such as “Hello, Hello, Hello and how are you? I feel … and how about you?” Visuals can be used alongside the songs to support.
- Read stories together. Talk about the emotions that the characters might be feeling during different parts of the story and think about how they are expressing this emotion.
More information can be found here.
Understanding ADHD
ADHD is one of the most common mental health conditions affecting children and adults. But it is often misunderstood. ADHD Awareness Month's goal is to correct these misunderstandings and highlight the shared experiences of the ADHD community.
The Open University offer a free online course - Understanding ADHD. The course explores the experience of ADHD from the perspective of those who are diagnosed with the condition, and those who care for them.
Click here
Child Accident Prevention
Use these free resources from the Child Accident Prevention Trust to help educate parents
Say thank you to an amazing teacher
Say thank you to an amazing educator, from teaching assistants to school leaders, nursery staff to FE lecturers, by sending a free, personalised card.
The thank a teacher campaign celebrates everyone working in education for the incredible work they (you!) do and there are plenty of opportunities for schools, pupils and parents to get involved.
Better Health
Better Health is launching the latest phase of Every Mind Matters that shares the small things we can all do to be kind to our minds. The campaign provides practical advice on managing mental wellbeing by delivering the opportunity to try self-care actions.
Every Mind Matters has new NHS-approved videos that are based on the principles of CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) presented in easy, bite-sized tips to help people deal with stress and anxiety, boost their mood, sleep better and feel more in control. These videos are available here.
The NHS-approved Mind Plan is available on the website. By answering five short questions – including questions on “Money work and housing” and “Life changes and difficult times” people get a personalised mental health action plan, providing practical tips to help them deal with stress and anxiety, boost their mood, sleep better and feel more in control. Find more here.
There is also a page with content on coping with money worries and job uncertainty that you can find here.