The full emotional diet: Finding emotional balance in the early years

We do not need a 'free from' diet when it comes to providing young children with emotional wellbeing and support. In the early years children need a safe space to experience, articulate, and process emotions – there is no such thing as a 'bad emotion'; they all have their role to play. Behaviour and emotional regulation coach Samantha Dholakia talks us through why children need the full 'emotional diet'.

Read Samantha's article here:

https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/the-full-emotional-diet-finding-emotional-balance-in-the-early-years/

This episode is sponsored by Funding Loop:

Funding Loop automates the process for nurseries of collecting funding forms from parents and typing that information into council portals. Funding Loop is used by over 2000 nurseries including over 80% of the top 25 nursery chains in the UK including Busy Bees.

To find out more visit: https://www.fundingloop.co.uk/home

Episode break down:

00:00 – Welcome!
02:50 – We focus too much on calming children down
05:00 – Each emotion has a different job
08:00 – Let's unpick the anger, rather than saying 'don't be angry'
11:45 – Teaching children about their brain, emotions and THEN behaviour
13:45 – Allowing children to feel their own emotions
18:00 – Having language to understand and describe the emotion
22:30 – Are we projecting our own dysregulation on children?
26:45 – Up and down-regulation: Both are vital
29:00 – Is this emotion helping you right now?
32:00 – Having conversations about emotions with children
33:00 – We don't usually experience one emotion at a time
35:00 – Energetic behaviour is actually useful before bed
37:00 – Matching energy is useful (not matching emotion)
39:00 – Meeting children where they are at
39:45 – Disengagement – sometimes you need to lean into this
41:00 – We don't just run out of energy, we can generate energy too
40:00 – Emotionally refuelling
43:00 – Getting to an active state of learning
46:00 – Further reading and listening material
48:00 – Wider societal implications of this work

If you enjoyed this episode and would like to listen to more, take a look at the following episodes:

Samantha's previous episode – Should we punish and reward children's behaviour – https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/should-we-punish-and-reward-childrens-behaviour/

Mandy Worsley – Understanding neuroscience in early childhood – https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/understanding-neuroscience-in-early-childhood/

Matt Bawler – Proactively promoting positive mental health – https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/proactively-promoting-positive-mental-health/

The Durham research project episode with Jill Jones and Rebecca Martin on Supporting regulation in the early years: A progressive approach – https://thevoiceofearlychildhood.com/supporting-regulation-in-the-early-years-a-progressive-approach/

For more episodes and articles visit The Voice of Early Childhood website: https://www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com