At Meerilinga, we’re reimagining how young children experience transitions, from BIG changes like moving rooms at Early Learning or starting school, to the daily emotional moments of change: from home to care, from play to rest, from indoors to outdoors.
These moments can be challenging, especially for children who have experienced trauma, instability, or disconnection.
To help us in smoothing these transitions for the children in our Centres, we launched a 16-week professional learning and action research project across our Services in 2024. Funded by the Preschool Reform Agreement, this project supported Educators to explore how trauma-informed, rights-based practices can create more connected transitions for every child, especially through four key strategies from Hand in Hand: Stay Listening, Special Time, Play Listening and Listening Partnerships.
Stay Listening
Emotional expression is not behaviour to manage. It’s communication to honour.
Stay Listening is the practice of sitting with a child as they express strong emotions, without interrupting, distracting or rushing them to move on. At our service, our Educators consider how to hold space for a child’s feelings during drop off. When children may cry or cling at the door, our Educators make sure to be present so that children feel heard during a moment that may otherwise feel rushed or easily dismissed by adults.
Special Time
Connection doesn’t need to be big, it just needs to be real.
Our Educators make sure to lean into short, intentional moments of child-led connection. We offer to be more present by slowing down routines and embracing rituals to emotionally anchor children. This could be as simple as providing a special role at group time, a secret handshake at goodbye or a welcome song. These small, consistent moments grant children agency, predictability and value.
Play Listening
Risky play builds a foundation for regulation.
Play Listening supports emotional release through silly, boisterous games where children take the lead. We reframed big body play as an emotional need, not a risk. If our Educators identify that children are restless before or after a transition, they might invite them to a game where they could be the strong one, the fast one or the silly one. This is co-regulation through joy, allowing children to explore power in a world where they rarely hold it.
Listening Partnerships
To offer emotional safety, we must experience it ourselves.
Our Educators need safety and space too and we make dedicated time for Educators to reflect and feel heard without judgement or advice. This doesn’t need to be formal but can be structured in or around rest periods or staff meetings, allowing Educators to take turns speaking and listening without interruption. When Educators have space to reflect, they’re more likely to respond with patience and curiosity – a great example for the children they teach!
Whether you’re a parent, a carer or an Educator, you can explore more about the Hand in Hand principles by heading to their website or receive three months of free parenting support from Hand in Hand Mentors here.
Meerilinga is also offering free local workshops for parents and carers while Educators can find support and teaching tools that fit with Hand in Hand principles at our Learning Hub.
