This is the most important section of the NEST Framework. It is about the vital role that the proximal grown-ups have in helping babies, children, and young people, with their mental health and wellbeing.
Having someone close by who they can turn to when feeling sad, or who understands that anger might be about something deeper that is worrying them is so important. Trusted adults can help babies, children, and young people to learn to manage their feelings by listening and empathising, by helping find words for difficult emotions, by showing ways of managing difficulties, and by helping to sort problems out.
Co-regulation, where strong emotions are contained by someone trusted, is fundamental to self-regulation and is a vital building block in psychological development. Trusted adults who feel supported to provide this, alongside being able to focus on an individual’s strengths, encourage them to not give up, and celebrate their achievements, no matter how small, and provide the ‘everyday magic’ that is so important to positive mental health and wellbeing.
We all need experiences of this; but children of all ages who don’t experience enough of it in their lives for all sorts of reasons, need it even more. Trusted adults help prevent mental health difficulties and they help to address them if they develop.
Hosted in conjunction with T4CYP and Gwent Attachment Services