Good mental health underpins adults’ ability to support children’s emotional regulation, explains Gemma Kirby…
Early years practitioners are highly skilled at supporting children’s personal, social and emotional development (PSED).
They help children make sense of feelings, support emotional regulation, and create environments where young children feel safe, valued and understood.
Yet we still too often overlook one crucial element of this emotional ecosystem: the mental health and wellbeing of the adults doing this work.
Research across early years, education and psychology consistently shows that children’s emotional security is closely linked to the emotional availability of the adults who care for them.
When practitioners feel supported, regulated and emotionally resourced, children benefit from calmer interactions, more sensitive responses and more secure attachments.
When practitioners are overwhelmed, exhausted or emotionally depleted, it becomes significantly harder to maintain that same level of emotional attunement.
Qualitative research with early years practitioners working across nurseries, school-based settings and childminding highlights a clear and consistent message: practitioner wellbeing is not a “nice to have”. It is foundational to high-quality PSED.
Practitioners don’t deliver PSED solely through planned activities or structured interventions. They build it moment by moment through everyday interactions: tone of voice, facial expressions, responsiveness and emotional consistency.
Practitioners frequently describe how their own mental health shapes these interactions in subtle but meaningful ways.
Across settings, practitioners report that when they feel emotionally well, they are more patient, playful and present in their interactions with children.
On more difficult days, many notice a shift towards prioritising routines and tasks over emotional connection. This is not about reduced commitment or professionalism, but about emotional capacity.
Emotional energy is often described as a finite resource. Supporting children through distress, managing transitions, responding to families and working within stretched staffing ratios all draw on that resource.
When it becomes depleted, emotional availability requires conscious effort rather than flowing naturally. This has clear implications for children.
Attachment theory and developmental psychology consistently show that young children rely on emotionally attuned adults to feel secure enough to explore, learn and regulate their emotions.
Calm, responsive adult behaviour supports children’s emotional regulation, while adult stress or withdrawal can increase emotional dysregulation in young children.
A common theme across practitioner accounts is how quickly children respond to adult emotional states. Practitioners describe how calmness, stress or tension can shape the emotional atmosphere of a room.
When adults feel regulated, children tend to settle more easily; when adults feel overwhelmed, behaviour can escalate more quickly.
This dynamic is particularly evident in early years environments, where children are highly sensitive to nonverbal cues and rely on adults for co-regulation.
Emotional contagion, the unconscious transmission of emotions between people, plays a powerful role in these settings.
For childminders, the effect can be intensified by working alone. Without colleagues to share emotional load or step in during challenging moments, emotional strain can accumulate.
Research suggests that isolation, combined with high responsibility, places additional pressure on emotional wellbeing, which can affect the emotional climate children experience throughout the day.
Many early years practitioners describe a strong sense of responsibility for children’s emotional wellbeing. Emotional availability is closely tied to professional identity, with warmth, patience and consistency seen as core markers of good practice.
At the same time, early years work involves significant emotional labour: the ongoing regulation of emotions to meet professional expectations.
Practitioners are expected to remain calm, positive and emotionally responsive regardless of personal stress, fatigue or anxiety.
Within this context, some practitioners report feeling guilty when they perceive themselves as falling short emotionally, even when children’s needs are met appropriately.
Professional cultures that equate competence with emotional control can make it difficult to acknowledge emotional strain openly, increasing the risk of emotional suppression and burnout.
These experiences sit within a wider sector context that has been under sustained strain. National workforce data indicates that early years education is characterised by high turnover, with around 15% of staff leaving their roles each year, and many leaving the profession altogether.
High turnover affects continuity of care and the stable relationships that underpin children’s emotional security.
Surveys of the early years workforce highlight widespread emotional strain. The Early Years Alliance reports that over half of practitioners experience work-related anxiety, more than a quarter report symptoms of depression, and nearly half say that stress affects their performance at work.
Almost one in four practitioners has taken time off due to work-related stress. Structural factors contribute significantly to this picture, including long working hours, limited breaks, high accountability demands and comparatively low pay.
When combined with the emotional labour inherent in early years work, these conditions make sustaining emotional availability particularly challenging.
Crucially, this is not only a workforce issue. When practitioners are emotionally depleted, it becomes harder to provide the calm, responsive interactions that support children’s personal, social and emotional development.
Supporting practitioner wellbeing is not a distraction from children’s outcomes; it is a pathway to them. When practitioners feel emotionally supported, children benefit from calmer environments, more consistent relationships and more responsive emotional care.
Over time, this supports children’s emotional regulation, confidence and social competence.
Early years practice has long recognised the importance of relationships for children. Applying that same relational lens to the adults who do this work is both ethically and pedagogically essential.
Practitioner wellbeing is not separate from PSED; it is the foundation upon which it is built.
If practitioner wellbeing underpins children’s PSED, then supporting it should be a core element of quality early years provision.
While systemic change is essential, settings can take practical steps that help protect emotional wellbeing:
1 Normalise emotional conversations – create a culture where discussing emotional load and stress is acceptable and supported.
2 Build in reflective spaces – offer supervision or reflective practice sessions that focus on emotional experiences, not only performance.
3 Protect breaks and boundaries – where possible, ensure staff can take breaks and discourage out-of-hours communication becoming routine.
4 Acknowledge emotional labour – recognise emotional labour as a core component of early years practice.
5 Support leaders’ wellbeing – room leaders and managers shape emotional culture; supporting them benefits entire teams.
6 Include wellbeing in training – professional development should address adult emotional regulation alongside children’s.
7 Reduce isolation for childminders – peer networks and regular check-ins can help counter professional isolation.
Gemma Kirby MSC is an experienced EY educator and leader.
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