Children need a stable relationship with a caring adult who helps them feel safe to express emotions, responds emotionally, and models empathy. An adult who sets expectations, encourages social skills, and creates opportunities for problem solving. This type of nurturing attachment is crucial to a child’s social and emotional development.
Here are two ways to help:
Bridge the gap
Connect families to resources to help them build their children’s social and emotional skills. These could be toys, games, or books, playgroups or parenting classes, or mental health counseling, depending on a family’s needs.
Remember a role model
Ask the parent or caregiver to think of an adult who made them feel cared for and loved as a child. Ask what made that relationship important to them, and how that adult related to them. Help them figure out how they can bring positive interactions like they experienced with that person into their relationship with their own child.