Who is the course for and what is it all about?

ROAR Early Years focuses on the response to mental health and wellbeing of our infants up to the age of five.

Developed in partnership with the Royal Foundation, this course is for staff members who work in an early years setting, such as nurseries, children’s centres, childminders, baby and toddler group facilitators, etc.

Thanks to emerging research from all over the world, we know the importance of early years and mental health, and now more than ever, it is time to start talking about how what happens in childhood can shape us in our later life.

Why ROAR Early Years is it so important?

We know that experiences in childhood can be the root cause for outcomes in later life and often an indicator of the reasons behind things such as addiction, mental health problems, family breakdown, suicide and homelessness.

Despite this, historically, the conversation around this impact has been quiet. MYA RAISE Team conducted a training needs analysis across the early year’s sector in Liverpool, and the following areas were highlighted as areas of interest for further training. ROAR Early Years looks at attachment, parental mental health and the impact of judgement, social and emotional development, developmental trauma, and brain development.

We know that small changes can have a big impact on creating longer-lasting positive futures for our infants. Our ROAR Early Years course explores these things with professionals to support parents and carers and, ultimately, our infants.

What does the ROAR Early Years course cover?

The Royal Foundation for Early Childhood found that 98% believe that a child’s future is not pre-determined at birth. However, only 1 in 4 understand the importance of the early years.

The aim is to make early years’ mental health everyone’s business using the whole school approach framework. It explores the other five big insights from the research:

• tackling stigma
• reduce judgement
• create a more shame-sensitive culture
• normalising the difficulty of parenting; and
• the importance of self-care for all.

As well as exploring the risk factors that impact infants and young children’s mental health and the protective factors we can nurture to support family resilience, the courses equip senior leads to develop awareness they can disseminate, spot signs, reflect on observation skills, improve the information for support and self-care, provides practical ways to support and develop resilience.

The ROAR Early Years course also provides a practical element that allows delegates to explore arts, craft and design as a fundamental vehicle to support child development, school readiness, infant and child mental health and wellbeing along with a tool to express mental distress and develop positive coping strategies to underpin the delivery of all areas of the EYFS curriculum.