Are you prepared for your child to start nursery? I don’t mean lunch boxes, name stickers and water bottles; I mean the wild rollercoaster of emotions and huge developmental leaps.
Starting nursery is a massive transition for children, which often causes a change in their temperament. You might find your child’s usual happy, carefree and loving personality temporarily replaced by tears and tetchiness.
Don’t worry, it’s perfectly normal.
All children experience some ups and downs when they first start nursery, but it won’t last forever.
What will last forever is the developmental benefits of attending an early years setting that will set your child on the path to a bright future.
An Emotional Rollercoaster
The first few weeks in a new setting can be a wild ride! Even as adults, the change when your child starts nursery is massive and can leave you feeling out of sorts. For children, it feels even bigger.
Many children haven’t spent a lot of time away from their parents and home before, and the sudden change to unfamiliar surroundings, caregivers and peers can be a big change for them to get used to.
You might feel worried that things are going backwards, but it’s completely normal to encounter a few temporary setbacks whilst your child settles into their new nursery. Once they’ve found their feet, it won’t be long before you see your child's communication, social and life skills flourish.
To find out the five common problems we see when children start nursery, click here…
A Flourishing Future
You’ve done an incredible job of raising your child so far and are instrumental to their continuing development, but with the care, support and encouragement of trained professionals in child development, nurseries are the ideal environment for your child to grow.
Communication Skills
Children want to understand and be understood, and when they can’t express their wants and needs properly, it can quickly lead to them becoming upset, angry and frustrated. The language-rich environment of a nursery helps to develop a child’s verbal and non-verbal communication skills at a young age through consistent conversation, story-time, roleplay, nursery rhymes and more.
Sharing & Taking Turns
Snatching, obstructing and hoarding are common occurrences when children first start nursery. Even if a child has siblings, they may find it difficult to take turns due to it being a different dynamic with lots of children. Encouragement to be fair, use of timers, behaviour modelling and praise are some of the most common ways an early years setting helps children to develop respect, boundaries and cooperation.
Making Friends (Social Development)
Before starting nursery, many children have a small social circle that comprises the same people, places and experiences. Nursery settings are busy places with lots of adults and peers to get to know with different backgrounds. One way a nursery can help children to form friendships is through free play, whereby children are ‘free’ to interact and learn from each other.
Emotional Intelligence
It's hard to watch a young child struggling with their emotions, and sometimes frustrating when they become cross at the tiniest things. The exposure to others that an early years setting provides for children helps them to create a deeper understanding of the world through observation and modelling behaviour. A child learns much of how they behave from what they see around them, and seeing others happy, sad or upset gives them insight.
Independence
Independence is a vital skill to learn for later in life, and time at nursery teaches children to;
- Find their voice.
- Tackle tasks unaided.
- Listen and respond to their own needs (hungriness, toileting, tiredness, etc.).
- Form lifelong friendships.
- Experience new things.
- Develop confidence.
The thought of this growing independence can make some parents a little teary, but it’s an essential skill to prepare them for the big transition to school.
Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover
If you judge a nursery by how your child acts in the first few weeks, you won’t have the full picture. The transition for them is huge, and you shouldn’t underestimate the short-term knock-on effects. Expect emotional breakdowns and changes in behaviour. That includes you, too! The thing is…
It won’t last forever.
Once your child has adjusted to their new normal, their development will come on in leaps and bounds. Opening up the world to them for an exciting future of learning, experiences and endless possibilities.
Teaching your child emotional regulation at home can help your child cope better with the wild ride of feelings they might experience when starting nursery. Our blog ‘How To Help Your Child Manage Their Emotions’ explains how you can help your little one to be prepared for the big change ahead.
