March 2022 Parenta magazine

What does leadership
look like when …
children’s needs change?
No one yet fully understands the impact
that the COVID pandemic has had on
young children, or what the longer-term
effects will be. Initial research studies
though have suggested a decline in
physical activity and development (EIF,
2021), cognitive delays in language and
problem-solving (Nature, 2022) and
shifts in early family relationships which
can in turn negatively impact social and
emotional development (Wijaya et al.,
2021).
As an early years educator, you are
probably noticing some of these changes
in children’s learning and development
needs day-to-day. Perhaps you are
noticing that it’s harder to encourage
children to play together. Or perhaps you
see that families are struggling to connect
with the professionals in the same way
as they did before. This presents a difficult
challenge.
How are we to respond to the changing
needs of young children and families,
particularly when these are not yet
fully understand? Early Years (EY) have
to support teams to help children and
families through this difficult time.
Drawing on the experiences of leaders
across EY and building on the work of
Professor Julie Nicholson on traumaresponsive
leadership in EY, we can focus
on three strategies:
1. Tuning in to the needs of children and
families yourself
2. Helping staff to connect with the
needs of children and families
3. Looking after yourself: top-down and
bottom-up regulation
Tuning in to the needs of
children and families yourself
Tim Hopkins, Strategy Development
Manager at the EY group Humpty
Dumpties, suggests that leadership in
these difficult times is about developing
your own awareness of the changing
needs of children and families.
A great leader gets stuck in. As we all
know, a change in one child’s needs
can sometimes be a catalyst for other
behaviours to also change or be tested. It’s
times like this that we roll up our sleeves
and lead by example. I’ve made it my job
to learn more about children’s changing
needs in the context of the nurseries.
Two of the main things we’ve noticed are
children struggling with learning in groups
and getting involved in cooperative play.
Noticing these changes and what children
are finding hard is the starting point for
developing the right kind of support. It
requires close and careful attention to
children, as well as empathy so that we
can understand more about what they are
experiencing. Tim goes on to stress the
importance of recognising these changes
as the result of trauma:
We liken some children’s and their families’
presentations to those who have suffered
a traumatic event as they join or re-join us
in our settings. The social and emotional
effects cannot be ignored and as frontline
workers, we need to be able to allocate
time to observe and find solutions with
these changes in needs.
Professor Julie Nicholson suggests that
trauma-responsive leaders prioritise
stability, safety and caring relationships.
The point is not to get children to meet
set standards and goals, which were set
pre-pandemic, but instead to authentically
respond to the situation on the ground
and buffer the stress among children so
as to limit the negative impact that it will
have on their development (Nicholson,
forthcoming).
Helping staff to connect with
the needs of children and
families
As well as tuning in yourself, as a leader
you are supporting others to pay careful
attention to the changing and complex
needs of children and families at this
time as Shane Page, Baby Room Leader
at Oxford Brookes University Nursery,
explains:
“It’s about supporting fellow practitioners
to tune into the children and families by
giving them tools to help them adapt
their practice to ensure they support the
children effectively.”
As well as practical tools or shifts in
expectation-setting, leaders will seek
to help the staff they lead deal with the
additional emotional labour of working in
this kind of context. Trauma-responsive
means recognising that working with
changing needs is difficult and it can feel
overwhelming and burdensome.
Professor Nicholson describes how
trauma-responsive environments are also
vital for early childhood educators, as well
as the children and families they serve. If
early childhood educators feel triggered
by what they are encountering among
children, they are likely to experience
empathic distress, where rather than
finding ways to practically support
children, they feel a need to detach
themselves from the situation. Staff can
become so overwhelmed by the needs
around them that they actually step away
from meeting those needs, rather than
coming towards them responsively. So,
leaders are essential in supporting an
environment where educators are looking
out for one another.
Connection is the most effective way to
protect against feelings of overwhelm,
and trauma-responsive leaders will look
for opportunities to develop these feelings
of connection. Team meetings are a great
example of this. When we take some time
at the beginning of team meetings to
connect with each other, finding common
ground and taking a collective deep
breath, this can build up the resilience
among staff so that they are better able
to tune into children’s needs and actually
respond to them.
Look after yourself: top-down
and bottom-up regulation
Leaders are not immune to trauma. Just
as we can think about trauma affecting
young children and their families, and also
the educators who serve them, this is the
case for leaders too. In the situation as it
stands, leaders are having to ‘hold’ more
than ever, containing the emotional and
social distress of children, families and the
educators they lead. Finding ways to take
care of yourself is an act of leadership,
because it builds the foundation for
supporting others.
Professor Nicholson offers two types of
regulation strategy that leaders (and
anyone) can use to help them to cope
with stress and process trauma. These are
top-down regulation strategies, where we
consciously address our thought patterns
in order to reduce stress, and bottom-up
regulation strategies, where shifts in our
bodily response (e.g. through breathing,
movement, singing and so on) can help us
to navigate stress and trauma.
References
Early Intervention Foundation (2021)
Growing up in the COVID-19 pandemic: An
evidence review of the impact of pandemic
life on physical development in the early
years. Accessed 08.02.2022: https://www.
eif.org.uk/report/growing-up-in-the-covid-
19-pandemic-an-evidence-review-of-theimpact-of-pandemic-life-on-physicaldevelopment-in-the-early-years
Nicholson, J. (in press) Trauma-responsive
pedagogical leadership in ECE: What
it is and why it matters. In M. Sakr & J.
O’Sullivan (eds.) Pedagogical Leadership
in Early Childhood Education. London:
Bloomsbury.
Wenner Moyer, W. (2022) The COVID
generation: how is the pandemic affecting
kids’ brains? Accessed 08.02.2022:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-
022-00027-4
Wijaya, R. P. C., Bunga, B. N., & Kiling, I.
Y. (2021). Socio-emotional struggles of
young children during COVID-19 pandemic:
Social isolation and increased use of
technologies. Journal of Early Childhood
Research. Accessed 08.02.2022:
https://journals.sagepub.com/
doi/10.1177/1476718X211052789
Mona Sakr
Dr Mona Sakr is a Senior Lecturer in
Education and Early Childhood. As a
researcher in Early Years (EY) provision,
she has published extensively on
creative, digital and playful pedagogies
including the books “Digital Play in
Early Childhood: What’s the Problem?”
(Sage) and “Creativity and Making in
Early Childhood: Challenging Practitioner
Perspectives” (Bloomsbury).
Mona’s current research is an
exploration of pedagogical,
organisational and community
leadership in EY and how leadership can
be more effectively developed across
EY. Current funded research includes a
Nuffield Foundation project looking at
online leadership development across
the EY sector, a BELMAS project looking
at leadership in the baby room of
nurseries and a BERA project examining
ethnicity in the early years workforce.
Forthcoming books (include an
introduction to social leadership in early
childhood education and care (written
with June O’Sullivan, CEO of London Early
Years Foundation), and an edited volume
on EY pedagogical leadership around
the globe.
Email: m.sakr@mdx.ac.uk
Twitter: @DrMonaSakr
36 March 2022 | parenta.com
parenta.com | March 2022 37