Children take path to emotional understanding

PROJECT

Paths programme for pre-schools

PURPOSE

To teach young children social skills, emotional understanding, problem-solving and self-control

FUNDING

£60,000 from Pembrokeshire County Council from April 2024 to March 2025

BACKGROUND

Paths (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) is a social and emotional learning programme that was originally developed in the US. It was adapted for UK settings by Barnardo's Northern Ireland adapted a schools version and pre-school version for UK settings. The pre-school version for children aged two to four was introduced in Pembrokeshire in Wales in 2019 due to an increase in the number of settings struggling with children's behaviour. So far, 45 settings – 70% of all settings in the county – have taken part.

The pre-school and schools version of the programme has been delivered to more than 500 settings across the UK since 2008.

ACTION

The pre-school programme is delivered over two years by early years practitioners to groups of children. It includes scripted teaching and practising social and emotional skills using storytelling, role play, group discussions and games. There is a strong emphasis on emotional competence – recognising and expressing emotions. Curriculum themes include developing a positive classroom environment, understanding and naming feelings, and developing social skills such as basic problem-solving. The approach is based on the idea that teaching children to be aware of their emotions and express them verbally provides an effective way to manage them, reducing impulsiveness and promoting self-regulation.

Nursery managers or senior staff receive training from Barnardo's trainers who deliver it on behalf of SEL Worldwide. Separate coaches are employed by Barnardo's to ensure the programme is delivered in an evidence-based way. This may be through modelling sessions, providing guidance and offering staff training. Coaching is delivered over 20 hour-long sessions in the first year and 10 in the second. Coaches also advise on how to create a Paths-friendly classroom environment and cover how to deliver core messages through other areas of the curriculum.

The aim is to embed the approach across the whole setting so coaches also train non-teaching staff such as playground supervisors on core themes and using Paths language. Coaches also deliver parent information sessions and run monthly advice surgeries and networking meetings for all staff involved in the programme across the county.

Paths service manager Elaine Britton says the coaching in pre-schools aims to build confidence, allowing staff to take ownership of the programme. “The coaching support allows the setting to extend the learning outside of those explicitly taught sessions so it's not just a standalone curriculum but staff see it as being integrated into everything they're doing,” she says.

Puppets play a key role in Paths sessions. They greet children in the morning and are used to demonstrate core emotions such as happy, sad, scared, calm, angry and safe, and show children how to deal with them. These discussions are backed with specially written stories about the puppets. For example, one story involves turtle puppet Twiggle who learns to calm himself down by taking a deep breath before talking about how he is feeling.

Some of this is covered in morning “circle time” while other elements of the programme are woven into activities throughout the day. “In each of those lessons, there will be a scenario where those feelings will be explored, first of all through the puppet and their experiences and then the discussion will be opened out to the children,” explains Paths programme manager Mairead Ewart.

Each day a child is chosen at random to be the “child of the day”. They are given compliments by children, staff and puppets, and chosen to do special tasks such as assist at snack time. The aim is to encourage children to seek praise for positive behaviour – rather than being told off for poor behaviour – and to build relationships between children and staff.

Many of the children involved in the programme come from disadvantaged backgrounds, says Hayli Gibson, early years lead at Pembrokeshire County Council. “A lot of the children are from deprived areas and quite difficult backgrounds. So the compliments are really important because they may not have had that experience within their home lives,” she says.

OUTCOME

A 2023/24 evaluation by Barnardo's looked at the impact on 136 children across 19 settings. This found children were using more vocabulary about emotions, could concentrate for longer periods and were generally more ready to engage in school.

Surveys done at the start and about 10 months into the programme gave children scores for various criteria. Before the programme children scored an average of 17.2 out of 30 for various aspects of attention and concentration but this increased to an average of 22.3 afterward.

Average scores for social and emotional competence increased from 25.5 out of 55 to 35.5 while scores for aggression and disruptive behaviour reduced from 17.4 out of 55 to 12.7. The research also found children's ability to empathise had improved significantly based on a 0 to 6 scale where 0 is “worse” and 6 is “much improved”. Of the 136 children, 115 – 85% – were rated as 4, 5 or 6.

A senior leadership team survey completed by 24 staff from 18 settings found 100% said the programme had a positive effect on children's relationships.

A 2017 evaluation of the pre-school Paths programme by the Early Intervention Foundation found there was evidence it benefited children yet was low cost.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The plan is to train all settings across Pembrokeshire and Barnardo's is keen to see the programme delivered in even more parts of the UK.

EXPERIENCE CENTRE ACHIEVES MODEL STATUS IN ADOPTION OF PATHS PROGRAMME

Under the Paths programme, settings that deliver the approach at a high level across the board can achieve “model status”.

Golden Grove Flying Start and Childcare Centre in Pembrokeshire achieved model status in 2024 after introducing the Paths programme three years earlier.

“We were just coming out of Covid and because the children hadn't been anywhere and seen anybody we thought this was a good way to address their emotional wellbeing,” says daycare leader Sally Brown.

Deputy pre-school leader Katie Lewis received the initial training and has modelled the approach for six other members of nursery staff, including Brown. Staff can also do an hour-long online introductory course. The nursery introduced the sessions for children on the Welsh government's Flying Start programme – which offers 12.5 hours per week of free childcare to two-to three-year-olds from deprived postcode areas. But it is now integrating the approach into its new daycare offer for all two-to four-year-olds.

Child of the day

Morning circle time is used to revisit the key concepts, give children compliments and choose a child of the day, who wears a special jacket and sits in a special seat. Puppets are brought into activities – and the children have made paper and clay versions. Brown says the puppets provide continuity and reassurance. “One little girl wouldn't go to the toilet so we said Daphne the Duck wants to go – and that gave her the confidence to do it,” she says. “The idea is that as the children get older, they can self-regulate – they can ‘do turtle’ like Twiggle and that is enough to calm them and possibly stop them overreacting.”

Paths displays on the wall show simple faces depicting emotions such as happy, sad, excited, scared and cross. “This encourages children to speak about their emotions,” says Brown. “Before we did this programme, we might have seen a child who was feeling a bit cross throw something or lash out but seeing these pictures and pointing at them gives them a better way. It also means as staff we are much more tuned into how they are feeling.”