Princess of Wales vows to help children manage their emotions better
The Princess of Wales has vowed to help children better manage and regulate their emotions and to build better relationships.
She revealed that a major new campaign to be launched next week will focus on the “building blocks and the scaffolding” that allows children to better develop social and emotional skills as an adult.
The Princess was speaking to a new team of expert advisers at Windsor Castle.
The panel of eight academics, representing sectors such as neuroscience, psychology and policy, will help guide her through the next stage of her work focusing on the importance of early childhood, meeting twice a year.
Catherine said that a key area was how to “develop the social and emotional skills which are vital for later life”.
She added: “Today, I just want to think about and discuss what’s next. How do we keep this conversation going? This campaign is really to try and raise the awareness of the importance of this issue. And it’s what can we do collectively to keep the conversation going and what we do next?
“This campaign is really laying the foundation of why early childhood matters.”
The Princess said their work would focus on what helps shape us, what shapes our relationships and the emotional experience of childhood.
It was also about creating the “building blocks and the scaffolding” for how we first start to understand ourselves and others, she added.
“These are really complicated, big issues to look at,” Catherine continued. “But I think, from the centre’s point of view, one of the main key areas is how do we develop the social and emotional skills which are vital for later life. How do we better manage and regulate our emotions? How do we build better relationships?”
Dr Alain Gregoire, a consultant perinatal psychiatrist and founder of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, said: “Everybody knows that having a baby who weighs the right amount is kind of important, even if they don’t know why.
“But people don’t fully understand how critically important relationships that we have with babies from birth are to their future health, to their future wellbeing.
“Just getting that across and understood, not just to parents – this is not about parents, this is about the whole of society – nurturing families with young children, supporting families with young children.
“You can do that through social structures. But you can also do that just through the relationships that we have with families and as other human beings in society. We need to value children more.”
The Princess created the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood to bolster her work and to help research and influence new national policies for children.
