The Helping Hands Build Little Brains Learning and Development Programme and Resource Toolkit explores the importance of working with young children in early years settings to promote early intervention and raise awareness of these concepts in safe and creative ways. It builds upon Women’s Aid Federations’s success in preventative education at a primary school level and increases accessibility of Early Years Practitioners to quality assured preventative education approaches and resources. The overall aim of the programme is:
The Learning and Development Programme is CPD accredited and is delivered over two days, based upon a three-module approach as follows:
- Domestic abuse and its relevance to your early years setting
- Brain development and neurosequential model
- Building capacity – practitioner skills, response and tools
The Helping Hands Build Little Brains Resource Toolkit
All Early Years Practitioners who complete the two-day Helping Hands Build Little Brains Learning and Development programme receive a practical toolkit to take away and use in their setting. This helps consolidate learning and promote transfer to practice in the Early Years Setting. WAFNI has developed the Helping Hands Build Little Brains Resource Toolkit to support practitioners to deliver proactive preventative education approaches in their Early Years Settings.
The Helping Hands Build Little Brains Resource Toolkit contents:
- Practitioner Information and Support Handbook
- Helping Hands Build Little Brains Activity booklet
- Building Little Brains set of books
Building Little Brains is a series of children’s books created especially by Women’s Aid Federation for this programme. The books are designed for Early Years Practitioners and parents to read with young children, helping them explore the key themes within the Helping Hands Build Little Brains Learning and Development Programme and Resource Toolkit.
Through fun and engaging rhymes, the books introduce important topics such as self-esteem, feelings and emotions, personal safety, asking for help when needed, and the importance of kindness and compassion.
Young children naturally enjoy rhymes. They are fun, memorable, and help make learning easier to understand and absorb, while also stimulating both listening and thinking skills.
Each rhyme also includes an “act it out” version, encouraging children to use actions and movement. This supports self expression, keeps children actively involved, and helps reinforce learning in a playful and meaningful way.
All of the rhymes have been written to match the familiar tunes of the nursery rhyme “This Old Man” or the Barney song “I Love You, You Love Me”, making them easy for children and adults to learn and sing together.
The Helping Hands Build Little Brains Learning and Development programme and Resource Toolkit has been developed based upon extensive consultation and planning internally with Women’s Aid groups and externally with Subject Matter Experts including Stranmillis University College and Surestart.
The rhymes in this series are matched to each building block of the programme and include:
- I am special, I am me
- I have feelings every day
- My oh oh! signs
- Feeling safe
- Kindness is the best
The development of the Helping Hands Build Little Brains Resource Toolkit has been supported by The Executive Office, End Violence against Women and Girls, Change Fund. Delivery of the two-day Learning and Development Programme to Early Years Practitioners has been funded by the Department of Education NI.
The Helping Hands Build Little Brains Learning and Development programme and Resource Toolkit has been developed based upon extensive consultation and planning internally with Women’s Aid groups and externally with Subject Matter Experts including Stranmillis University College and Surestart.