Social and Emotional Wellbeing

The development of social and emotional wellbeing

Throughout childhood and adolescence, children’s brains and bodies go through various stages of development. At each of these stages there are specific ‘developmental tasks’ that children need to complete in order to develop healthy neural pathways, and build healthy stress regulation systems. Healthy neural pathways and healthy stress regulation systems lead to well adjusted social and emotional wellbeing.

The experiences that children have during each stage of development are stored within the wiring of their brains and the nervous system, and form the blueprint for how they learn to respond to, and manage stress. Children require support to develop the skills they need to be well equipped to face life’s ups and downs. Healthy development at each of the stages, allows a child to become well-resourced to manage stress effectively, and allows them to function from their social engagement systems (relationships) rather than reacting from their stress regulation (fight or flight) or dorsal vagus (freeze) systems.

The beauty of the brain is that it is never too late to learn new skills, thanks to neuroplasticity (the ability for people to develop new and different neural pathways). As children grow, the different stages of development come online sequentially, however once they are in place they remain open to change and growth throughout life. This means that gaps or interruptions to healthy social and emotional wellbeing can be addressed at any point in our lives.

The stages of development can be broken down into six strands which summarise the fundamental aspects of learning for social and emotional development

  1. Learning to be (0-6 months)

  2. Learning to do (6 - 18 months)

  3. Learning to think (18 months - 3 years)

  4. Learning to be powerful and develop an identity (3 - 7 years)

  5. Learning to be skillful and have structure (7 - 11 years)

  6. Learning to be independent, relate to peers and become secure in your sexual identity (11 - 25 years)

Developing social and emotional wellbeing can be likened to building up a tower of blocks. Your tower will still stand upright if there are a few blocks missing, however if there are too many missing blocks, then the tower will fall over.

Life happens, and all children inevitably progress through childhood with some gaps in their social and emotional wellbeing. If there are not too many gaps, the child will likely still be able to cope with life’s challenges.

However, if there are too many gaps, the child or adult may struggle to relate to others, to regulate their emotions and to handle the sensations and feelings that come up with big emotions.

Children or adults having gaps (disruptions) in their development does not mean that their caregiver’s have failed or done anything wrong; life happens, and blame or judgement is never the answer! The key is not to dwell on why the gaps occurred, but to look forward and work to identify and then repair the gaps for the child or adult, and restore their tower back to a stable position so they can then reach their full potential.

The Thrive Approach

Here at PBSS Newcastle, we are a Licenced Thrive Practitioner. We offer assessment of social and emotional wellbeing and development, and the implementation of fun activities and practical strategies to either provide the child with the experiences they need to develop healthy neural pathways at the developmental stage they are at now, or to repair and rebuild any neural pathways that were disrupted or missed when the child or adult passed through earlier developmental stages. This sets our children up to be emotionally resilient and to thrive socially.

The Thrive Approach is evidence based and grounded in neuroscience, attachment theory, developmental psychology and trauma and provides the supports children and adults need to allow them to flourish and thrive.

We incorporate the principals of the Thrive Approach into our behavior therapy and also offer Thrive sessions to families wishing to enhance their child’s social and emotional wellbeing and ensure they are on the right track to develop into healthy, well-adjusted adults.

Depending on the person’s individual needs, Thrive sessions may be offered one on one, or in small groups with people at the same developmental stage.