Care Routines: Why are they so meaningful for early years development?

Routines and rituals form part of the overarching curriculum. Care routines are activities that manage and support children’s health and wellbeing while encouraging their learning and development. They may include changing nappies, visiting the bathroom, mealtime, personal care, getting dressed, and rest or sleeping. 

While these activities appear mundane, if we as parents and educators encourage and communicate clearly during everyday care tasks, we will help build children’s self-esteem, self-regulation, and confidence. We can even take it one step further and turn a routine activity into a meaningful ritual to transform the monotonous into something special and heartfelt for our children.

“One can ascend to a higher development only by bringing rhythm and repetition into one's life.” Rudolf Steiner.

Albert Bandura has created a phrase, “self-efficacy,” which describes a person’s belief in their competency and potential success in succeeding at a task or situation. Self-efficacy adds to the critical development of self-esteem. It’s believed that self-efficacy starts with a young child and grows because of experiences and the reaction of others. Developing routines that offer our young children a degree of choice, control, and the chance to actively participate multiplies feelings of capability. 

Empower children to participate by considering scale, including the objects or tools used during these care routines. More achievable updates like small tongs and water jugs encourage self-service during mealtimes. More extensive commitments can include child-size tables and chairs where a child’s feet can touch the ground, stairs to access nappy change mats and children’s wash hand basins and toilets for toileting routines.

                                             

Communication is key to all that we do. Personal care routines offer moments during the busy day for a one-on-one connection between an adult and child, offering priceless moments for language to flourish.

“Every day early childhood routines are a gold mine for finding rituals. That allows you and your staff to make a psychological shift that impacts your attitudes and reactions.” Toni Christie

A beautifully set table with a tablecloth, vase of fresh flowers, and a cup of fruit tea on a cold day all welcome the child, awakening their senses and setting the tone for what is to come. 

Rituals offer a sense of wonder and delight. A lovingly implemented ritual takes a routine, adds a touch of magic, a dash of connection, and a whole lot of joy, fun, and delight. When we take time to prepare and establish rituals with our children, we’re showing them how much we care.

Incorporating aromas into care routines can help to offer memorable experiences. Research tells us that the sense of smell affects about 75% of our daily emotions and holds an important role in memory more so than any of our other senses. We may be able to think of fragrances that evoke particular memories, the scent of a home baking wafting through a grandparents' house during a childhood visit. Memory and smell are intertwined; it’s through memory that we learn to remember smells. It is powerful and fast because it is the only sense that goes directly to the emotional part of the brain without intervention along the way.

Let’s recognise that many rituals are adopted and formed throughout the day, leading processes and procedures involved in caring for a child and providing meaningful learning experiences. Believe in delivering respectful practice, which offers children the time, space, consideration, and opportunity to actively manage their body, and choices, enabling children to fulfil desires and urges while being supported by adults who acknowledge, understand, and embrace a child’s perspective and wishes.