“Every child needs a warm and sensitive adult presence, interaction, and emotional support for their well-being.”

As a special education teacher in early childhood education, strengthening children’s social-emotional skills and an accessible learning environment that is built around children’s interests and needs to be a physically, psychologically, socially and pedagogically safe place to experience world are close to my heart. Alongside a safe and accessible learning environment, adults who recognize children’s skills, articulate their strengths and enable experiences of success are also needed. In everyday life, I am particularly inspired by communal, sensitive moments where children have the space to be genuinely heard and seen.

I have worked for a long time as an early childhood education teacher, an early childhood special education teacher and in various early childhood education expert positions. I have been able to model and train early childhood education personnel in the use of art- and narrative-based working methods from the perspective of strengthening children’s social-emotional skills. It has been my great joy to be involved in producing content on topics dear to me, such as art-based working methods, immersive reading moments and family reading – while learning more about the topics all the time. The joy of learning and development and working together are also strongly present in the new RALLA team.

I believe that well-being grows in a compassionate culture, where children’s characteristic way of acting is through play, artistic expression and experiencing, without forgetting the functionality. Children need us adults to be mirrors of their emotions, co-regulators and lyricists of strong emotions. All of this is made possible in a children’s group through comprehensive and playful experiences, in high-quality everyday pedagogy.

Education: Master of Education, Early Childhood Education Teacher, pedagogical qualification

#childhood #childhoodesteem #play #inclusitivity #social-emotional skills #artistic orientation #observation

anu.lamminen@ralla.fi