CU1522 – Develop positive relationships with children, young people and others involved in their care

1.1 Explain why positive relationships with children and young people are important and how these are built and maintained.

It is very important to build positive relationships with children as it benefits both the children and us as practitioners, and is like a continuous circle. The better the relationship between a child and their key person, the more a child can flourish and develop. The benefits include:

Children taking part in activities and joining in with play as they feel secure and happy.
Children happy to separate from their parent or carer and less likely to suffer any separation anxiety.
Practitioners being able to ‘read’ a child’s emotions and understand their needs, therefore lessening unwanted behaviour and responding more effectively.
Children’s speech and language developing more quickly as they are confident enough to converse with practitioners.
Practitioners can plan far more effectively as they know the children’s developmental needs and interests.

It is also just as important to continue to build on and maintain relationships as it is to develop them in the first place them as children need consistency and to know that they can always rely on you, regardless of whether you are feeling your usual self or not. You should always keep any promises made to children as something that might seem minor to you, is in fact a big thing to them and children do remember! If you keep breaking your promises to children, this will have a negative effect on your relationship as they will feel that they cannot trust you.

All children are individuals and have different interests and likes and a good way of building on these is to offer them more toys or activities that they have an interest in, which in turn will help with their developmental needs. It demonstrates to children that you respect them and have listened to them. You should also treat children how you would like to be treated yourself, give them the respect they deserve and be courteous, this is so important as children mirror behaviours that they see..

Communication is also a factor in maintaining and building relationships, you need to be able to communicate effectively with children and adapt your communication depending on a child’s age and stage of development. It isn’t just verbal communication that you need to take into account but also body language, facial expressions and gestures.

1.3 Evaluate your own effectiveness in building relationships with children or young people.

I feel that I am an effective team member and that one of my biggest strengths is building relationships with children in our setting. I always try to ensure that I interact with all of the children every day to continue to build on my relationship with them. Regardless of whether I am a child’s key worker or not I always go out of my way to build