Understanding Behaviour and Supporting Emotional Growth and Regulation

Understanding Behaviour and Supporting Emotional Growth and Regulation is a professional development webinar designed to help early years and school-age childcare educators develop a deeper understanding of children's behaviour and strengthen their ability to respond to emotional and behavioural challenges with confidence, empathy and intention.

Based on the Play for Growth Framework, developed by Mireia Lopez, founder of Discovery Playtime, the webinar explores the connection between children's emotions, experiences, nervous system regulation and observable behaviour. It encourages educators to look beyond the immediate action and consider what a child may be communicating through their behaviour.

A key focus of the training is recognising everyday challenges, such as frustration, conflict, emotional outbursts and difficulty with transitions, as potential opportunities to support children's emotional intelligence, communication, problem-solving and holistic development.

Participants explore the difference between regulation and dysregulation, learn to recognise signs of overwhelm and reflect on how their own emotions, expectations and automatic reactions influence their interactions with children.

The webinar introduces practical co-regulation strategies and a structured five-step approach: Pause, Connect, Reassure, Guide and Grow, to support educators in moving from reactive behaviour management towards intentional, relationship-based responses.

Through interactive discussions, visual examples, realistic scenarios involving different age groups and guided reflection, educators develop practical approaches to positive communication, emotional validation, respectful boundaries and meaningful choices.

The session concludes with a practical regulation toolkit featuring playful, age-appropriate experiences that educators can introduce into their daily practice to support children's emotional wellbeing and developing self-regulation skills.

The overall aim is to empower educators to create safe, supportive learning environments where children's emotional experiences are understood, their individual needs are respected and everyday challenges become meaningful opportunities for growth.

This webinar provides early years and school-age childcare educators with a practical understanding of behaviour, emotional regulation and responsive adult-child interactions. It combines the principles of the Play for Growth Framework with reflective practice, real-life examples and practical strategies that educators can apply in their settings.

The training is organised into eight interconnected areas of professional learning.

1. Understanding Behaviour as Communication

Educators explore how children's visible actions may reflect underlying emotions, needs, sensory experiences, developmental capabilities and life experiences.

Using the iceberg analogy and an observation-based approach, participants learn to distinguish what they can see from what they may be assuming about a child's behaviour.

Key learning: Developing a more curious, empathetic and non-judgemental approach to understanding children's behaviour before deciding how to respond.

2. Seeing Behaviour as a Learning Opportunity

Participants examine how everyday challenges, including conflict, frustration, disappointment and emotional outbursts, can become opportunities to support children's development.

The session introduces the Play for Growth concept of the Next Level of Growth, exploring how educators can create a bridge between children's current abilities and emerging skills through safety, connection, appropriate guidance and repeated experiences.

Realistic scenarios involving babies, toddlers, preschoolers and school-age children encourage participants to identify opportunities for emotional, social, cognitive and personal development.

Key learning: Recognising that responding supportively to challenging moments can help children develop emotional awareness, resilience, communication, problem-solving and relationship skills that are valuable throughout life.

3. Understanding Regulation and Dysregulation

Educators develop an understanding of emotional regulation and the relationship between the nervous system, emotional experiences and behaviour.

The webinar challenges the misconception that quiet or compliant behaviour always indicates regulation, or that movement and emotional expression necessarily indicate dysregulation.

Participants explore how emotions, relationships, sensory experiences, environmental conditions and expectations can influence a child's ability to regulate.

Key learning: Recognising possible signs of dysregulation and understanding why children experiencing overwhelm may need safety, connection and support before they can engage in problem-solving or learning.

4. The Regulated Educator: From Reacting to Responding

This section focuses on the educator's own emotional awareness and regulation.

Participants reflect on how children's actions may trigger automatic emotional responses and learn to recognise personal warning signs through changes in thoughts, feelings, body sensations and communication.

The training introduces the intentional pause between a child's action and the adult's response as a practical tool for developing more thoughtful and supportive interactions.

Key learning: Understanding that adult self-regulation plays an important role in effective co-regulation and developing strategies to respond intentionally rather than react automatically.

5. Co-Regulation Through Connection

Educators explore how children develop emotional regulation skills through supportive, predictable relationships with trusted adults.

The session introduces practical co-regulation strategies, including calm adult presence, reassuring communication, emotional validation, appropriate proximity, predictable routines and sensitivity to individual needs.

Participants consider how tone of voice, facial expressions, body language and the emotional availability of adults can influence children's sense of safety.

Key learning: Developing the ability to offer responsive emotional support and create conditions that help children feel safe, connected and increasingly capable of navigating their emotions.

6. The Five-Step Process: From Reacting to Responding

Participants are introduced to a structured approach for responding to children's emotional and behavioural challenges:

Pause: Recognise and regulate the adult's emotional response.

Connect: Acknowledge and validate the child's feelings and experience.

Reassure: Provide emotional safety, empathy and supportive presence.

Guide: Communicate respectful boundaries and offer genuine, manageable choices.

Grow: Support reflection, learning and the development of new skills when the child is ready.

The process is explored through everyday situations involving emotional distress, conflict, frustration and challenging behaviour.

Key learning: Applying a practical, consistent and relationship-based approach that supports emotional regulation while maintaining appropriate boundaries and promoting children's autonomy and development.

7. Positive Guidance, Boundaries and Communication

Educators explore how to combine empathy and emotional validation with clear, respectful expectations.

The session highlights the importance of using positive language, communicating what children can do, offering meaningful choices and establishing boundaries without shame or punishment.

Participants consider how communication can support children's understanding, confidence and ability to participate in resolving everyday difficulties.

Key learning: Strengthening positive guidance practices that respect children's emotions and individual needs while supporting safe behaviour, independence and social development.

8. Practical Regulation Toolkit

The webinar concludes with practical, play-based strategies to support children's regulation and emotional wellbeing.

Participants explore breathing games, movement activities, rhythmic experiences, body-awareness exercises, sensory resources and simple mindfulness opportunities.

The session considers how these experiences can be adapted for babies, toddlers, preschoolers and school-age children, recognising that individual children may respond differently to particular strategies.

Educators are encouraged to observe children's responses and adapt activities, resources and expectations according to their developmental needs and preferences.

Key learning: Gaining a range of accessible, age-appropriate regulation strategies that can be implemented in everyday childcare practice using educational resources or simple materials.

Overall Professional Learning Outcomes

Following the webinar, participants will be better equipped to:

Interpret children's behaviour with greater understanding and empathy.

Recognise potential emotional and regulation needs behind challenging situations.

Identify opportunities to support children's emotional intelligence and holistic development.

Reflect on and regulate their own emotional responses.

Apply co-regulation and positive guidance strategies in everyday interactions.

Use a structured process to support children through big feelings, conflict and distress.

Introduce playful, developmentally appropriate regulation experiences into their practice.

Reflect on their professional approach and identify practical changes that support children's wellbeing and development.

The webinar promotes a shift from simply managing behaviour towards understanding children's experiences, responding with connection and creating meaningful opportunities for growth.

It supports reflective, child-centred professional practice and reinforces the educator's role in nurturing children's emotional wellbeing, relationships, confidence and lifelong learning skills.