8 Summary of Session 3

Now that you have completed this session, you will hopefully have gained an understanding as to why mental health promotion and education is important. You have also looked at the ‘ingredients’ of good mental health. You may now have a visual overview of the processes involved in attachment, and what is meant by emotional containment. The activities should have helped you to think about how early support can lessen the long term negative effects of adverse childhood experiences.

You have also started to explore early childhood transitions from home to other care settings and how these might be managed. You have also been introduced to the concept of resilience, and how the development of a child’s resilience is affected by different interactions and influences within the different systems around the child that you first encountered in Session 1.

You should now be able to:

• understand what is meant by mental health promotion and education
• explore some of the key ingredients of ‘good’ mental health in young children
• reflect on the main components of attachment theory
• consider the effects of attachment relationships on young children’s mental health and wellbeing
• examine ways to prevent and minimise the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
• have an awareness of how perseverance and resilience can be promoted in the early years.

In the next session, you will focus on a more global view of children’s mental health and wellbeing. You will consider how wider geographical, social, cultural, economic and political factors can have a huge impact on how children are perceived and also the lives children lead.

You can now go to Session 4 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .