The Sleep Smart Guide to Safe Rest in ECEC

In this episode of Learn Play Thrive, we explore the vital role of sleep and rest in early childhood settings with the team from Sleep Smart Australia.

Quality sleep is a cornerstone of child development, yet navigating sleep routines in an ECEC environment can be complex. We dive into how Sleep Smart Australia is revolutionizing this space by bridging the gap between safe sleep guidelines and nurturing, responsive practice. We discuss their unique approach, which integrates evidence-based safety standards with the Circle of Security® framework, ensuring that sleep time is not just a routine, but a moment of emotional connection and security.

Whether you are an educator looking to refine your rest-time pedagogy or a leader seeking to align your service with the latest health and safety standards, this conversation offers practical insights into creating calming, respectful, and evidence-informed sleep environments for every child.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to Learn Play Thrive the podcast, the ultimate early learning podcast for educators and leaders in the sector. Let's learn, play, and thrive together.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

The Learn Play Thrive podcast was recorded on the land with the Dark and Jung people. We pay our respects to the traditional custodians, past, present, and emerging. Hands up, hands down, later on Dark and Jung land.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Welcome to Learn Play Thrive the podcast. Today I have Natalie and Brooke. They're from SleepSmart Australia, which is accredited by the Australian Council of Healthcare Standards. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast and welcome. Can you tell us a little bit about SleepSmart now recognises Australia's leading authority in infant and toddler safe sleeping?

SPEAKER_03 0:45

Yeah, sure, Simone. So SleepSmart's been around since 2008. So we are a program from Safe Sleep Space. So Safe Sleep Space has always been known for their infant-focused mental health approach. So we focus on cueing into children and looking at their needs, cues, and capabilities. SleepSmart was born from the need for educators to be able to recognise those sort of cues in children and being able to work together as a team as well as being in partnership with families to create a beautiful, safe sleep space in early learning.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

And what is the Sleep Smart specific, gentle, responsive approach to sleep and settling early education settings?

SPEAKER_03 1:28

With the specific strategies, it is obviously very unique. Like all of us, we are all we all show different tide cues at different times, our temperaments are all really different. So where we come from is about educating educators in terms of looking at the unique child and working on how they can meet the physical guidelines that we all have to meet in terms of providing that beautiful, firm, flat surface in a cot for sleep, all that type of thing. But understanding what our children will show when they're ready for sleep. And as we all know, early learning can be really, really busy and such a really crazy environment. So sometimes it's hard. We miss those little cues. So just getting educators to understand what they are as a team, how we can work on them, getting those children into sleep when they show those beautiful tide cues can actually support their transitioning to sleep and it can be a lot more smoother and calmer.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

And what are some of the common cues that you see in general?

SPEAKER_03 2:28

Well, we've got some great, actually, the conference has been fantastic because we've got a little quiz at our our stall at the moment. So it's been a big talking point in terms of some of the tide cues, and one of the ones that has promoted a lot of questions and um just want some advice on is red eyebrows. So red eyebrows are really common as a tide cue for children when they're they're starting to get a little tired. Some children will show that that when they're really overtired. But yeah, red eyebrows, obviously the really strong ones, the the yawning, the rubbing eyes, the pulling ears. And fists, fists, yeah, closed fists, especially for our little ears under four months of age. That's a really, really common jerky movements, that type of thing. For our older children, it can be sort of showing disinterest in play, the good old emotional outbursts all of a sudden, really quickly all the time. Our little children, it may be just that window of time when they're just lovely and quiet, and then they start to arc up with their busyness in the world, or they're getting try to engage with something, but they're really not focusing on the outcome of that. They're not looking at that open-ended play, they're just doing something repetitively.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

And what are some of the step-by-step strategies that educators can use to create both emotional and physical safe sleep environments for infants and publicers?

SPEAKER_03 3:50

Yeah. So for us, when we look at the um strategies, we always want to make sure that they're linking in with the guidelines that's that are set up. So we're following the six key recommendations set up by Red Nose Australia. So they're meeting those needs first. In terms of creating that emotionally and secure, safe sleep space. It's about getting educated to work as a team. So we all have our good and bad days, and there'll be days where sometimes a little person's cry can be really challenging for us. So being able to put your hand up and know that there's somebody in your corner that will say, Hey, I've got this, I can get the create that beautiful connection to that little one today and help them settle to sleep. We do a lot of focusing on or just educating educators as a group to get them to sort of understand what they can do as a team. So simple things like making sure they're really consistent with the same sleep messages. So in the baby's room, for instance, they're all saying the same thing as they're winding a child down. Or they're all giving the sort of pre-warning as quiet time approaches. But it's really similar so that those children can feel really secure and safe and know that they're getting the same message from all those uh educators that are looking after them, and that's obviously going to support their attachment.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Yeah, beautiful. Well, thank you so much for this podcast and your time and expertise. At the end of our podcast, we do usually do three takeaways: one theory-based, one practical, and one inspiring. What theory-based takeaway would you like our listeners to take from?

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Oh, that's a good one. Theory-based, I think it would be tuning into the infant mental health approach, looking at circle of security in terms of a bit of a base to support your work around that would be fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

And practical, what are some practical ways educators can support the children in their care? And I think even if they've missed the queue, what are some ways that they can step in?

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Step back in, yeah. That would be the ability to sort of we talk a lot about that stop, reset, and then re-offer approach. So if we miss that window where those tie cues have come and we they're getting that second wind, it will be about looking in when or having some practical resources of okay, you know what, it's time for them to start to show some tie cues again. How can we quiet a play and support this next wave as I go into sleep?

SPEAKER_02 6:15

Nice and inspiring. How would you inspire educators to create a warm and safe space for sleep? That's a beautiful one.

SPEAKER_03 6:22

The best thing that I would recommend would be just working in partnership with families. So the big thing that we focus on is creating that village, and a lot of the time educators become the village for families. So if families know that their educators are on board with them and that they're going to support them in their sleep journey, um, that's just so comforting for the children. It just provides that beautiful, secure attachment, but really supports those families at such a tricky time in their life as well.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

And I think when we're talking about sleep routines, we're talking about what that looks like at home and then implementing what home life looks like in the childcare centre. So it's the same message that is going out for the children, and as you said, the same language that is happening throughout the service. But I'm also wondering sometimes, so Red Nose Australia and the safety standards, sometimes uh children may have a cuddly toy or something that they're used to going to sleep with. What does that look like, or what would you suggest educators do when settling a child when they do have a cuddly toy and then potentially needing to take it away?

SPEAKER_03 7:24

That's always a really tricky one, especially at the yeah, at the moment, because you know, with red nose guide guidelines and a sequest come on board in terms of saying that there shouldn't be a comforter in a cot, physically in a cot, physically in a cot under 12 months of age. So children that and we all know that children go through separation anxiety between seven to nine months, and a comforter comes in, you know, plays a vital role in that, and it can be something that parents can feel really uh content knowing that their child's got something of security there. So just a really easy way to be able to manage that and make sure that you're still sticking with the guidelines is have the comforter out in those quiet times so that it's there as a connection tool between the educator and the child. If they do need to fall asleep with it, the best practice with sleep and settling your child is always constant supervision. And so often the best approach would be that if a child did fall asleep with that comforter and we needed to lie them down in their cot, then once they were settled, we'd be taking that out, unfortunately. Yeah, it's the best approach.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Beautiful, and you can also relate that to the families to say if if you do this at home as well, and we do this here, when they wake up, they're not going to be missing that object because they're being used to that routine.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the best way. And if yeah, if we can create that partnership and parents and have an understanding of where educators are coming from, there's often you know a lot of understanding, and and they're actually willing to sort of jump on board and practice that at home as well. So that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

And you also have other partnerships programs that you deliver. So, what does that look like?

SPEAKER_01 8:59

For centres that partner with us, we do have some extra things that they can offer their parents and we offer a discount through that partnership. We have a platform called Nourish Baby, and so Nourish Baby is an antenatal and early parenting online education program that they can do from the start of pregnancy all the way through to three years of age of the child. We then also have a really nice little grandparents' guide because obviously things have changed since they've raised their children. Um, so it's really nice to tune back into what the current parenting guidelines and safe parenting looks like.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

What does that include? So, what outcomes are you looking to provide the families with? Is it more knowledgeable surrounding the safety guidelines and how to develop a routine?

SPEAKER_01 9:45

So it covers quite a few different topics across the different chapters. So we have a guide to a healthy pregnancy, which goes over nutrition, exercise during pregnancy, all your options for birth coming up to birth, so pain medication, what options you have for your labour, etc. etc. Yes. So and then we also touch on post-birth, so pelvic floor, we touch on um CPR for babies and infants, um, and and much more. So it sort of goes through a guide to healthy pregnancy, a guide to a positive birth, we have a guide to feeding success, and then a guide to birth to three years as well.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Amazing. So that's that's sleepsmart.com.au.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Yeah, so sleepsmart.com.au is for our educators, and then nourishbaby.com.au is that parenting platform as well.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Incredible. Yeah. Is there anything more that you'd like to add?

SPEAKER_01 10:39

I guess just in touching on safe sleep, yes, bringing it back to sleepsmart, we do offer our parents as well private sleep and settling calls just to align their sleep knowledge along with what the educators that their child is going into to be on the same page. We often find that there's a lot of different information out there that parents are getting told and they're coming into the educators and you know requesting 30-minute naps. And then obviously it's the educators' position to say to them, unfortunately, that's not in our sleep and rest policy.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

So, what we try and do is bridge that gap in that knowledge and be able to provide both parents and educators the same education and support in being able to be collaborative and exactly.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Yeah, so that's the nice little touch that we also do.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

Yeah, amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming on to the podcast for having a lot of people. Really appreciate you both. Beautiful. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Learn Playthrive the podcast. We hope you found inspiration and valuable insights to fuel your journey in early childhood education. Remember the key to fostering learning, promoting play, and empowering young minds lies with your dedication and creativity. Stay connected between episodes by following us on Instagram at learnplaythrive underscore and join the conversation on Facebook at LearnPlaythrive Australia. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please like, subscribe, rate or review our podcast on your favourite platform. Your feedback helps us to continue to deliver content that resonates with you. And don't forget to visit us at our website at learnplaythrive.com.au for additional resources, blog posts, and professional development opportunities. Until next time, keep learning, keep playing, and keep thriving. We'll see you in the next episode of Learn Playthrive the podcast.