Free articles and training for early childhood teams
The questions I keep coming back to when behaviour, regulation and everyday practice become complicated
This is where I write about the things I keep noticing in early childhood rooms, including the small body cues that can appear before behaviour escalates, why movement matters, what co-regulation actually looks like when a room is busy, and how we can become more curious about what a child may be communicating before reaching for another strategy.
Some articles come from research, some from conversations with educators, some from my work as an Exercise Physiologist and Developmental Educator, and many begin with a small moment involving a child that I cannot quite stop thinking about.
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The articles explain the thinking behind my work. The Regulation Ladders are designed to help teams use that thinking when a difficult situation is actually happening. Open the free example and see how educators, managers and families can look at the same moment from different perspectives before deciding what to try next.
Regulation, behaviour and professional practice
Start with the situations your team keeps coming back to
These articles look at the gap between knowing the theory and making a decision in a real early childhood room. They are written for teams who want to become better at noticing, reflecting and adapting rather than simply collecting more strategies.
Regulation and professional learning
When Your Team Has Already Done Regulation Training, But the Same Problems Keep Returning
Why knowing regulation theory does not always help educators decide what to do when the same difficult situations keep returning in the room.
Read the articleCo-regulation
What Does Co-Regulation Actually Look Like in a Busy Early Childhood Room?
What co-regulation can look like when the room is noisy, several children need support and educators are trying to hold safety, connection and routines at the same time.
Read the articleBehaviour and educator judgement
Why the Same Behaviour Strategy Does Not Work for Every Child
The same visible behaviour can be happening for very different reasons, which is why strategy lists can only take educators so far.
Read the articleEducator capacity
What Does Educator Capacity Building Actually Mean in Early Childhood?
Capacity building becomes meaningful when knowledge turns into stronger observation, reflection, professional judgement and everyday decision-making.
Read the articleProfessional development
What Makes Professional Development Actually Change Early Childhood Practice?
Why the most important part of professional learning often happens after the webinar or training session has finished.
Read the articleQuality improvement
Using Professional Learning Within Your Quality Improvement Plan
How professional learning, reflective practice and the everyday situations educators are already discussing can become part of meaningful quality improvement.
Read the articleFunding, reform and quality improvement
Professional learning within changing state systems
Funding and reform language can change quickly. These articles connect current state initiatives with practical questions about educator capability, professional learning and quality improvement without assuming that every service has the same eligibility or funding conditions.
New South Wales
Start Strong 2026: What Does Quality Uplift Mean for NSW Early Childhood Services?
A practical look at quality uplift, professional learning and educator capability within the current NSW Start Strong context.
Read the articleSouth Australia
Preparing Educators for 3-Year-Old Preschool in South Australia
What the rollout of 3-year-old preschool may mean for transitions, participation, co-regulation, environments and professional learning.
Read the articleFeatured free training
The Vagus Nerve, Children's Regulation and the Playful Activities I Use in Early Childhood
When a child appears to move from coping to overwhelmed very quickly, I often wonder what was happening in their body before the behaviour became obvious to us. This article explores the vagus nerve and parasympathetic nervous system within that much bigger picture, without treating either of them as a magic switch for regulation.
I have also included my full training video for free, where I talk through the window of tolerance, early body cues, my own lived experience of childhood trauma, and the playful breathing, sound, movement and sensory activities I use with young children.
When someone tells me a child goes from zero to one hundred, I often wonder whether that child was actually already sitting at eighty.
The larger behaviour may be the first thing that catches our attention, but it is not always the first thing that changed. Squinting, chewing clothing, touching the face, hiding, moving faster, becoming louder or suddenly struggling to process language may have been telling us something much earlier.
Start with what your team is already talking about
You do not need to read these articles in order.
If your educators are talking about behaviour, start there. If group time keeps becoming difficult, think about participation and movement. If a child seems to become overwhelmed very quickly, begin with body cues and regulation.
I would rather an article help your team have one useful conversation about a real situation than become another piece of professional learning everybody saves and never returns to.
Behaviour and regulation
Look underneath what is visible and consider arousal, sensory load, movement, connection, predictability and what happened before the behaviour.
Explore this topicCo-regulation
Think about the adult nervous system too, including voice, pace, proximity, language, expectations and what the child is experiencing within the interaction.
Explore this topicEducator judgement
Move beyond collecting more strategies and help educators become more confident at noticing, reflecting and deciding what to try next.
Explore this topicProfessional development
Explore what makes early childhood professional learning more likely to influence real practice rather than becoming another one-off session.
Explore this topicChildren, nature and the ability to notice
A series that began with some very ordinary moments outside
These articles began after watching children struggle to remain on a picnic rug for a short conversation, seeing one child become excited about an aeroplane that almost nobody else looked up to notice, and watching worms being handled without much awareness that these tiny living things needed care.
None of those moments made me think that children were uncaring or that something was wrong with them. They made me wonder about the amount of stimulation surrounding childhood, how little empty space is left in many children's days, and what may be lost when we become so accustomed to moving immediately towards whatever comes next.
Attention, regulation and nature connection
Are Our Children Losing the Ability to Slow Down and Notice the World Around Them?
What happens when children become so used to moving towards the next thing that sitting outside, hearing a bird, noticing the clouds or sharing an ordinary conversation no longer seems to hold them for very long?
Empathy, impulse control and caring for living things
Before We Teach Children to Care for the Planet, Do They Know How to Care for a Worm?
A reflection on worms, snails, plants and the small everyday experiences through which children begin learning gentleness, responsibility and respect for other living things.
Place connection, gardens and body awareness
Our Gardens Should Not Just Be Somewhere Children Run Through
Why children need enough time in familiar natural places to notice what changes, develop affection for where they are and begin treating gardens as living environments rather than scenery.
“Perhaps there are times when children do not need another strategy added to their day. Perhaps we need to become better at noticing what is already happening around them and inside their body.”
Robyn Papworth
Specific practice questions
Resources that may be useful for some teams, but not every team
Some services have told me their educators are second-guessing physical comfort after child-safety training. Other services feel completely confident in this area and do not see it as a current need. These resources are here for the teams who are actually having that conversation.
Safe touch and responsive care
Safe Touch in Early Childhood: When Educators Start Second-Guessing Comfort
For teams who are genuinely uncertain about comforting distressed children, this article looks at child cues, professional boundaries and thoughtful responsive care without suggesting that every service has this concern.
Read the articleEducator reflection
Before I Offer Comforting Touch: A Quick Reflection Checklist for ECEC Educators
A short reflection framework for teams that want to think more carefully about child cues, context, professional boundaries and safe responsive care.
Read the articleRegulator Champions
Reading can start the conversation, but teams still need help making decisions in the room.
Regulator Champions takes the same noticing-first approach into practical Regulation Ladders, recordings, questions and implementation support, so educators are not simply left with another article, webinar or list of strategies and expected to work everything out alone.
Some teams begin with the cards. Others want the broader six-month or twelve-month program. The important part is starting with what your educators are actually dealing with rather than asking them to complete learning that has no connection to the room they are standing in.