Blue

This case study focuses on a Mum experiencing breastfeeding issues, anxiety and isolation, and her daughter Millie (not her real name; aged 2-11 months during the case study). The range of inter-linked support she received from Peep and other practitioners and families in her local Liverpool Children’s Centres highlights the value of such a connected, joined up approach.

How identified for Early Help:

Mum came in as a referral from the doctor, and wanted support with breast feeding. Mum was also experiencing other challenges that emerged during our conversations at the Children’s Centre (in italics below); the support we offered, and the impact for mum and daughter are described in the bullet points.

Support provided and impact:

Mum needed breast feeding support, as she could not get her baby Millie to latch on.

• Our Health Promotion Worker went out on a home visit to give her tips, and then Mum was able to breast feed confidently, using the techniques she had learnt.

Mum was a single parent, who felt quite isolated. Dad lives abroad and didn’t want any contact with Millie. Mum had never wanted a baby and when she fell pregnant she started feeling very anxious, which became worse when Millie was born. The doctor had mentioned medication, but Mum wanted to conquer her feelings on her own.

• Mum was encouraged to attend the Peep Baby Babble group, which she really enjoyed. At first she was quiet, but the friendly and supportive format of the group helped her confidence grow, and she started to join in the discussions more. Mum was anxious at first and didn’t want to put Millie down. With encouragement she gradually began allowing Millie to explore independently and her anxiety became much better.
• Baby Babble and encouragement from staff and other families acted as a stepping stone to trying other groups in the Centre, and she started attending both Baby Massage and the Stay and Play group regularly.
• Mum has made friends that she meets up with, outside of the Centre. She feels less isolated.

Strengthening relationships and understanding of how to support her child's development

Mum lacked confidence, as she wasn’t sure about child development and what milestones her baby should be meeting. This led to arguments with family members, when they made comments about Millie’s development. This also upset Mum and made her worry.

• Mum has a better understanding of Millie’s milestones, from what she has learnt during the Baby Babble Peep sessions. She’s enthusiastic about the help she has received and said what a difference the Centre and the Peep sessions have made to her life:
  “I really enjoy coming to Baby Babble Peep and it has brought on my daughter so much. As a parent I feel this group has really helped me with my confidence and I have made friends. I look forward to what I will learn in our classes. I like the handouts we get too, and keep them in a memory box with all the things I’ve made with Millie during the sessions.”
• We have covered topics during Peep when Mum has been concerned about aspects of Millie’s development, such as her speech and her physical skills. Mum said that this has made her more confident, especially when family members have made comments about Millie’s development.
• Mum has a better relationship with her family, as she can confidently say that she knows about Millie’s development, and challenge when family members comment that she is behind or she should be doing more.

Increasing mum's own confidence, learning and employability

Mum needed support in getting back to work. However, she was scared about leaving Millie with anyone else and was putting a lot of pressure on herself.

• Mum is attending a Confidence Building course at the moment, at one of our children’s centres, to develop her confidence further. She is due to attend a First Aid for babies and children course at the Centre.
• Mum attended the ‘Prepare to work’ course at the Centre before Christmas. She finished the course and really grew in confidence. To attend the course, Mum had to leave Millie in our crèche. Mum was really nervous at first and struggled leaving her on the first week. After Mum saw how happy Millie was when she picked her up, she was a lot less anxious about leaving her for the other weeks.
• With additional support from the ‘Ways to work’ Family Link Worker, Mum has a new job.  She is now able to leave Millie with her own mum when she goes to work without feeling anxious.

Mum has gained so much confidence. She is a lot happier and her anxiety has reduced. This allows her to care better for Millie and cater for her needs. Millie is a happy little girl and she has developed a really good bond and attachment with Mum.

March 2019. Thanks to Children's Centre Practitioner S Kilty.

Thanks to Equity and Excellence Leads and Peep practitioners Heather Shorrock and Natalie Mackay, and Peep co-ordinator Gillian Forbes

As an Early Years setting (Newton Park Nursery, Wick, Highlands), self-evaluation happens on a daily basis as we work to ensure the opportunities we provide for the children offer high levels of wellbeing and involvement. As Equity and Excellence Leads* we are fortunate to have the opportunity to observe, work with our team to implement changes and network across Scotland with other Equity and Excellence Leads to share good practice. 

Mealtimes – creating an opportunity from a challenge

Through consultation with staff and our own observations it became clear that lunchtime was a stressful experience for all. Staff often felt that the process was rushed, and our own observations showed that the average time the children spent at the table was less than 10 minutes. 
We reached out to Gemma Paterson and her team in Falkirk who had embedded the Marvellous Meals approach into a number of Falkirk settings. Their lunch times had a huge emphasis on a nurturing family approach, sitting together, rich conversation and promoting self-help skills.  

Linking mealtimes to learning

As we began to implement the changes within our setting we quickly realised the huge potential for learning meal times held in regard to speech and language, social development, self help and fine motor skills, as well as the opportunities it opened up for areas of the curriculum such as numeracy and literacy. 

We began to think - if we as practitioners had not been fully aware of the potential meal times held then maybe our families were not either. Being recently Peep-trained (Peep Learning Together Programme), we were in a great position to reach out to our families to share our exciting project and talk to them about the benefits of a nurturing family mealtime. 

We wanted to break the Marvellous meals project in to smaller more manageable chunks focusing on the different areas of learning that family meals times provide. The Peep topics ‘Making the most of mealtimes’, ‘Maths in everyday routines’ and 'Becoming a writer’ linked clearly with the learning that we were now seeing during nursery snack and lunches.

Inviting parents and carers to 3 Peep Marvellous Mealtime sessions

For many of our families this was the first opportunity to visit the setting and get an insight into nursery life in over a year, due to Covid 19. After putting out the invitations and using our ClassDojo as a platform to reach families, we received over 20 families signing up for the 3 planned sessions, a third of our current nursery intake.

Taking this on board we felt that the best way to show our families the potential meal times hold for learning and development was to participate in sharing a meal exactly how we do in nursery. 

We began the session by welcoming the families with a good morning song and a look at our visual time line. First, we sing good morning, then a special activity and last a story.  We included ‘sit together for snack’ as our activity within the Peep ‘Making the most of meal times’ session plan, to give the families an insight into some of the wonderful skills the children were developing as part of the Marvellous meals approach.

Sharing ideas through activities and talk time

As the children washed their hands we introduced our message for the session: ‘Sharing and preparing meals together supports a child’s overall development.’ The families then sat and enjoyed a healthy snack together as the children demonstrated skills such as cleaning the table, washing hands, using real utensils to cut and spread, counting food as they served themselves and of course the rich conversation that happens so naturally at the dinner table.  
During the activity as a group we discussed many of the skills we were seeing from the children and how they linked to the early years curriculum or supported the different areas of  child development.

Sharing ideas through songs and storytime

Following the discussion we encouraged the group to come back together for a story and a song. We chose the story I don’t like peas which tells the story of a little girl refusing her peas and her mother’s attempts to bribe her. In the end of the story the little girl notices that her mum hasn’t eaten hers either! The moral of the story….  As parents and practitioners, meal times offer the opportunity for us to model many skills while developing children's language and communication. 

Feedback and follow-up

At the end of each session we quickly chatted about the topic for the following week, allowing families time to reflect and bring forward any comments and suggestions to the next session. We also provided them with the corresponding PEEP handouts for reading at home, along with other relevant links such as the Highland Emerging literacy website to support and extend the activities within our session into the home environment.
Following the sessions, we asked for family feedback and how they had used the information from sessions in their home environment:

“It was an eye opener to see what my child was capable of at meal time.”

“I really enjoyed the Marvellous meals PEEP sessions, it was really interesting to see that everyday tasks such as chopping their own food and pouring their own drink held so much learning.”

“I had never really thought about how maths and writing skills can be taught at meal times.”

Child comment:  “Is Mum coming to nursery again? I will show my brothers what I can do all by myself.”

Following each session we began to receive lovely photos via our ClassDojo app of the children at home developing their independence and helping prepare for meal times at home.

[ * The role of Equity and Excellence Leads is primarily focused on closing the attainment gap in nursery settings in Scotland’s most deprived areas. The EE Leads are teachers or early years graduates, working with the children (but not in the adult-child ratio) and their families, and helping to upskill fellow practitioners.  Find out more in the Care Inspectorate findings report focusing on Equity and Excellence Leads (March 2021), including an example of Peep being used in a Dumfries and Galloway nursery.]

Sorting and matching encourages children to be curious and investigate their world. They'll also be learning about things that are the same, similar or different - and discover that the same things can be sorted in different ways (e.g. size, colour, purpose, etc). 

The way that babies feel about themselves is influenced by their relationships with the important people in their life. Their self‑esteem and confidence are built through positive, loving and caring interactions with others – right from the very beginning, and long before they can talk.  This also gives them the secure base they need to explore their world and become a confident learner. 

Our four-minute 'What is Peep?' video shows Peep groups with families, babies and toddlers, and you'll hear from Peep practitioners and parents:

You can also see a shorter 2-minute version here: 'What is Peep? Two-minute snapshot video'

Peep groups are for parents and carers and their young children - some are for babies, toddlers, pre-schoolers (3-5) or young school-age children, while others are for mixed age children. 

In Peep groups, practitioners and families share ideas and simple, low-cost activities that support your child’s learning in everyday life - talking, singing, sharing books and playing together. They're also a great way to get to know other families.

As a parent or carer, your baby or child will already be learning so much from you, as you chat, play, sing, cuddle, and do all your usual day-to-day activities. Research shows that these things that you do together have a big impact on how children's brains develop in these early years, and on how they get on at school and in later life. 

By emphasising the importance of parents, it doesn't mean that it's your fault if things don't always turn out as you hoped! There are lots of influences and things going on in children's and our busy lives. It doesn't matter how you got on at school, or whether you're a stay-at-home parent/carer or you go out to work - you're just as important to your child. There's no such thing as a perfect parent - being a parent or carer is about enjoying the up times and helping each other through the down times, not about feeling guilty.

Peeple is a not-for-profit charity. We developed the Peep Learning Together Programme and the Peep Antenatal Programme, and we train practitioners from around the UK, Ireland and Australia. Contact your local children's or family centre or hub, nursery or family information service, to see if there are Peep sessions near you.

We share tips and ideas to support children's development on our social media pages -  @PeepleCentre on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Do join us there, or check out a few Peep tips here. You can also find some parents' experiences here.

'Finally I am folding up my stretchy songband professionally after starting my first Peep Group in 2003. Apart from ageing a wee bit, and making sure my grandchildren love a song, I have loved every bit of my adventure with the Peeple organisation that is now all grown up.

As an educational psychologist for almost 40 years, my challenge was always to help people see how practical experience and insight into early learning builds trusting relationships, confidence and a hunger for education. When I started my journey, education and psychology were in a very different place.

Early years and disability were always my passion. Peep helped me forge a new relationship with families. I found my Peep groups helped parents - who might be feeling temporarily lost and overwhelmed by the enormity of parenting - find solutions, through our joint experience, not my ‘expert’ knowledge. It was a very important lesson for me to work collaboratively to find solutions, and made me a better psychologist.

Through it all I have met wonderful people committed to making every single persons’ lot the best experience possible. There have been many changes for Peep along the way, some I have liked and some I have questioned!  Training, materials, delivery, research, to name just a few, have been scrutinised and developed. This has always been done with the unswerving knowledge that making a difference to parents, carers and families - together with those working in Early Years in their communities - is the only way forward in developing a literate, numerate and socially resilient society.

At this point I could wax lyrical about the funny experiences I have had, and am reminded I frequently did just that on my training courses. Recently my experience has been over the internet, which breaks down regularly around me, but to my surprise it is possible to connect with group leaders and infuse them with my passion for all that is Peep. I am in awe of the continuing ingenuity of practitioners to engage with the families around them and help spread the word and learning around child development in such an accessible way.

There have been many moments that have shown me the excitement that comes from recognising that an opportunity offered and modelled in an interaction has helped a child and parent know or do something more often. That helps everyone feel good about themselves and their achievements.  That smile, that understanding, that job well done gives immeasurable pleasure even when the world seems to be hard to negotiate. I know I have been a ‘good enough’ advocate for Peep and sometimes just managed to be the best I can be.

Keep using the best educational resource of things to do with children from 0 - 5 ever put together, that is the Peep Learning Together Programme - and spread the word.  Good luck, have fun and know you are making a difference. It has been a privilege to be a small part of what has been achieved.'

by Anne Littlefair, (retired) Peep Practitioner, Peep Trainer and Educational Psychologist 

Many thanks to Anne from all of us at Peeple, for all your amazing work with Peep families, your passion, your invaluable role as a critical friend and advocate, and for helping to train and inspire the next generation of Peep practitioners!

Thanks to Gillian Forbes (Highland Council Peep Co-ordinator) and Mairianne Nairn (Highland Council, Community Early Years Practitioner) for sharing their case study

"We offer a mixture of online and face-to-face Peep Antenatal sessions for expectant parents. Initially, we wanted to help support pregnant mums/families within the area during the pandemic, which we did with the support of Highland Council's Midwifery Development Officer and her team.  We adapted elements of the Peep Antenatal Programme so that we could deliver it flexibly online with families with wide‑ranging needs.  We received positive feedback from the parents and professionals involved in the pilot sessions, and it was agreed to continue offering sessions, particularly to families with additional support needs.

Once referrals are received from the midwifery teams, we make contact with each parent to introduce ourselves and the course, and answer any questions. Parents-to-be start the course around 26+ weeks of pregnancy.  We offer online and face-to-face groups. This enabled parents to get to know other parents-to-be, support each other, and integrate more into their community. Isolation was a particular issue for families during the pandemic, but becoming a new parent can be daunting at the best of times, and getting to know others in the same boat is invaluable.  

From our first involvement with the families we actively encouraged the pregnant mums to invite husbands/ partners or family members to join the sessions as a source of support.  During the 1-1 sessions and small groups we had several dads joining and engaging. We were conscious that the sessions had to offer lots of opportunity for discussion and for the parents to feel comfortable asking questions and sharing personal information. 

> Find out more about our 1-day Peep Antenatal training

course content

The Programme supports parents perinatally (i.e. before and after the birth) to reflect on their developing baby, tune in to their baby's feelings and behaviour and respond sensitively (known as reflective functioning). This helps parent-baby bonding and attachment, and reduces the risk to the early parent–baby relationship, helping to prevent isolation, anxiety and low-level depression.

All sessions are a mix of discussion, video clips, sharing of relevant research and advice, songs/rhymes and story sharing, all underpinned by the focus on reflective functioning.  After the initial phone conversation with the parent/s, we offer five group sessions of about an hour each, focusing on:

1. Getting to know each other
2. Supportive networks
3. Transition to parenthood
4. The developing brain, and emotional support
5. Baby states

Following these five sessions, we offer a reunion session once the babies are born.  Throughout the course we also signpost parents to other groups or provision within their local community.

outcomes and feedback

All families that attended our sessions kept in touch and let us know when baby was delivered.  Several of the families have continued to stay in touch with each other, creating WhatsApp groups and meeting up.  Having that social network in their own local community is vital for community engagement and maintaining positive mental health."

parents’ feedback

'I think it was very interesting and informative to learn about how to talk to our baby and what to do to communicate.  I didn’t think to read to them since I didn’t think they would understand but I definitely will be reading to them as early as possible.'

'I really enjoyed the course and will miss our weekly chats, however I’m delighted to have met some new people who will hopefully become lifelong friends, and Bump’s new friend group to grow up with.'

'All sessions were very positive and upbeat with some great ideas, we have been able to adapt to our own pregnancy and planning for the baby’s arrival.  I definitely felt the sessions boosted my confidence.'

'It has been great to meet other mums-to-be as Covid made it feel very isolating and alone, but knowing there are other mums experiencing the same things as me is very comforting.'

'The sessions felt relaxed and were supportive.'

'The discussion around bonding and communicating with your baby helped prepare me for my baby being in SCBU [Special Care Baby Unit]. By singing and talking to her, she was able to recognise my voice.'

referrers’/ midwives’ feedback

'I think every parent would benefit from this service as we cannot put a price on the wellbeing of the next generation.'

'The weekly update received following each session [with parents’ permission] is great, and I add this to their maternity notes.'

'My client thoroughly enjoyed the sessions - she stated she felt she was doing something practical to improve her parenting knowledge and skills, and that this was at a comfortable pace.' 

'My client was struggling with anxiety and social isolation due to the pandemic, she has been complimentary on the emotional support she has received from the Peep Co-ordinators.'

feedback from the Midwifery Development Officer

'The Antenatal Peep sessions have been universally welcomed and supported by all the Community Midwife Teams across the whole of Highland. It fits well within the GIRFEC framework (Getting it right for every child), and with families recommended for additional support at the Health Plan Indicator (HPI) wellbeing assessment around 16 weeks of pregnancy. 

The flexibility of the programme being delivered online or face to face, and either in a 1:1 or group format, has been most welcomed. The Antenatal Peep Programme helps maternity services reach parents who have been historically difficult to engage in more traditional parentcraft groups, such as young parents, parents in more remote areas, and parents who are isolated or have anxiety as well as those using substances.

The sessions fill an important gap in welcoming fathers to take an early and active role in developing loving and secure attachment through deeper understanding of how to connect with their unborn babies, and to consider some of the social and emotional aspects of transitioning to parenthood. The potential to connect with other parents albeit virtually was particularly vital during the Covid 19 pandemic. The classes are an important intervention in assisting with developing positive parent and infant mental health, and will complement the work that will be undertaken in Perinatal and Infant Mental Health teams.

Feedback from service users has been very positive. The topics covered were found to be fun and informative, often expanding on the basic knowledge they already had, at a pace and time that was suitable. The coping skills developed during the course proved to be very useful once the baby was born, and parents felt that they were able to understand their baby’s feelings more easily and figure how best to respond.'

• If you're an Antenatal Peep practitioner, log into the Antenatal Area for further delivery tips.
• Follow the link to find out more about the Peep Antenatal Programme and Training.

“I attended my local Peep group with my youngest child, when she started nursery.  I started going along so that I could help my child with her learning.  As we went along every week, I started to really enjoy the sessions and when I was asked if I’d like to do the Peep Progression Pathway accreditation, I decided to do Early Literacy.  I enjoyed this so much that I decided to complete the Early Maths accreditation at level 5. 

Going to Peep really helped my confidence to grow.  I was learning so many new things about child development that I realised that I would love to work with children in a school setting.  Before I could apply to work in school, I had to go to college to complete Core 3 in Maths, I was able to do this in 8 weeks.  Then I applied for a job as a learning assistant, and I am now working in the nursery class in my local primary school.  I absolutely love my job and wish that I had made the move sooner but without going to the Peep group I would never have been confident enough to do it! 

After the summer holidays I am hoping to continue my learning by completing an HNC in Early Learning and Childcare.” 

Stacey, Dumfries and Galloway

> Find out more about Peep Progression Pathway accreditation for parents and carers