Can a Silly Face Teach a Big Lesson? – PSED in Action
September is a time of change at nursery. Some children are returning after the summer holidays, others are moving into a new room, while some are taking their very first steps into nursery life. So, as everyone settles in, our All About Me topic gives us the perfect opportunity to place a little extra focus on Personal, Social and Emotional Development – or PSED.
What is PSED?
PSED is one of the three prime areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage, alongside Communication and Language and Physical Development. The current EYFS statutory framework for group and school-based providers describes PSED as “crucial for children to lead healthy and happy lives” and fundamental to their cognitive development. That sounds rather formal. In everyday nursery life, however, PSED is about some very human questions:
Who am I? How do I feel? Who are the people around me? How do they feel? And how do we learn to live, play and get along together?
In fact, Birth to 5 Matters – Personal, Social and Emotional Development describes who we are, how we get along with others and how we feel as the “bedrock of our lives.”
And this week, quite a lot of that learning began with some very silly faces.
Who is that in the mirror?
The children were invited to look carefully at themselves in mirrors before drawing their own faces. We talked about the different features that make up a face – eyes, noses, mouths, ears and hair – but we also explored something less visible: all the things our faces can communicate. What happens to our face when we are happy? What might we look like when we are surprised, cross or excited? Naturally, careful observation soon developed into pulling some wonderfully funny faces!
The children also experimented with an old digital camera, taking photographs of themselves and each other. Besides introducing a little ICT, this gave them another opportunity to notice their own features and expressions and to think about what makes each of us individual.
For babies and younger toddlers, PSED begins much earlier than being able to name an emotion. Warm, responsive relationships, exchanging smiles and expressions, being comforted when upset and gradually developing an awareness of themselves all form part of these foundations.
Development Matters describes babies and toddlers as gradually establishing their sense of self and engaging with others through gaze, gestures and communication. It also highlights babies’ fascination with faces and their tendency to copy facial expressions and movements.
So even a funny face can be doing rather more than making us laugh.
From faces to whole bodies
Next, we went bigger – considerably bigger!
The children lay on large sheets of paper while we drew around the outlines of their bodies. Together we named different body parts and talked about what belonged where. It may look like a simple activity, but recognising our own bodies, learning the words to describe them and beginning to develop a sense of “this is me” are all part of children’s growing self-awareness. At the same time, they were talking, listening, making marks, moving their bodies and learning new vocabulary.
That is one of the lovely things about early-years learning: the areas of development rarely sit neatly in separate boxes. A single activity can involve language, physical development, creativity, understanding and PSED all at once.
But why do we need rules?
Understanding ourselves is only part of PSED. Children are also gradually discovering what it means to be part of a group. This week we began creating our new Golden Rules display, with the children adding their own colourful handprints.
Our Golden Rules include simple expectations such as:
Using kind hands.
Taking care of our toys.
Tidying up after we play.
Taking turns and sharing.
But these can be somewhat complicated ideas when you are two, three or four years old.
Waiting for a turn requires children to begin controlling an impulse. Sharing means recognising that another person wants something too. Tidying teaches responsibility for a space we all use. Using kind hands involves gradually learning how to manage strong emotions without hurting someone else.
Development Matters describes three- and four-year-olds as increasingly learning to follow rules while understanding why they are important, as well as beginning to talk through conflicts and recognise how other people might be feeling. This distinction matters to us. Our Golden Rules are not simply about telling children what they should or should not do; we talk about them together and help children understand why kindness, care, sharing and respect make nursery a happier place for everyone. And children do not suddenly acquire these skills by being told to behave.
Birth to 5 Matters – Self-regulation explains that self-regulation develops gradually through co-regulation. In other words, responsive adults initially help children manage overwhelming feelings and actions until children become increasingly able to use those skills themselves. It also makes an important distinction: “Self-regulation is not the same thing as compliant behaviour.” So sometimes learning to use kind hands begins with an adult helping a child through a very unkind feeling. And that is learning too.
Who lives in your house?
Our All About Me conversations also naturally moved towards another very important part of children’s identities – their families. Using colourful little figures, the children talked about the people who live in their homes and the people who are important to them. There were conversations about mums and dads, brothers and sisters, grandparents and other family members. It also allowed us to introduce a simple but important idea: families do not all look the same.
Children can recognise their own family and relationships while also discovering that another child’s home life might be different from theirs – and that both belong. This is something we have explored with the children before too, looking not only at our families but also at the homes and communities that surround us. You can read more in our earlier article, All About Me Activities in Early Years: Our Families, Our Houses, Our Street.
Development Matters encourages children to make connections between their own families and other families, notice differences between people and, as they grow, begin to make sense of their own life story and family history. The guidance also encourages practitioners to help children feel valued and that they belong.
These are some of the earliest building blocks of respect and inclusion: my family matters, your family matters, and they do not have to look the same.
And then there were the drills…
Not everything children learn follows the week’s plan.
Last week, some of the children became fascinated by watching our new garden fence being put together. One child in particular was extremely interested in the tools. So we followed that interest and added a couple of new toy drills.
Suddenly, our nursery maintenance department became very busy indeed. The big slide needed fixing. The garden bench apparently required urgent attention. Several pieces of perfectly functional nursery equipment underwent extensive repairs.
This little diversion might not have been part of our All About Me planning, but following children’s interests is an important part of how young children learn. Development Matters encourages practitioners to extend children’s interests by providing stimulating resources in response to their fascinations and to join children’s play and investigations without taking over. And perhaps that is a good reminder of what PSED in action really looks like.
It is a baby being comforted by somebody they trust. A toddler recognising themselves in a mirror. A preschooler trying to wait for a turn. Two children negotiating over the same toy. A conversation about why families can look different. An adult helping a child put a difficult feeling into words. And, occasionally, it is pulling a very silly face at a camera.
Because behind that silly face, some very big learning may be taking place 🙃
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