This film explains how adults support children through co-regulation, helping them manage overwhelming emotions with empathy and calm, so they can gradually develop their own emotional regulation, resilience, and confidence. It highlights the importance of caregivers staying regulated themselves, acknowledging children’s feelings, and building secure, responsive relationships that protect against toxic stress.

Curriculum Links

• Unit 1: Children’s Development – Emotional development, attachment theories (Bowlby, Ainsworth), and the development of self-esteem, self-concept, and emotional regulation .

• Unit 2: Keeping Children Safe – Safeguarding children’s emotional wellbeing, recognising and supporting feelings, and the role of practitioners in providing a safe and nurturing environment .

• Unit 3: Play and Learning – The role of play in supporting emotional and social development, and strategies for co-regulation through child-led and adult-led play .

• Unit 4: Reflective Practice – The importance of practitioners regulating their own emotions, using reflective practice to build empathy, resilience, and effective support for children .

Classroom Use

• Use the film to introduce co-regulation and link it to attachment and emotional development theories.

• Encourage students to discuss how practitioners can recognise children’s emotional cues and provide supportive responses.

• Apply to safeguarding by examining how supporting children’s big feelings is part of promoting emotional safety.

• Connect to play and learning by exploring how role play, stories, and everyday interactions can be used to practice co-regulation strategies.

Reflection Questions

1. How does co-regulation support children’s emotional development and resilience?

2. What links can you see between attachment theory and the strategies shown in the film?

3. How can practitioners use play and everyday interactions to support children through “big feelings”?

4. Why is it important for adults to manage their own emotions when supporting children?