Five to Thrive

What is Five to Thrive

The Five to Thrive approach, developed by Knowledge Change Action (KCA), uses building blocks to outline a sequence of relational activities:

• Respond
• Engage
• Relax
• Play
• Talk

These activities promote secure attachment and help build healthy brains in young children and maintain healthy brain function throughout life. The simple key words offer a bridge between professional understanding of neuroscience and everyday experience.

The Five to Thrive approach will support the workforce to:

• support secure attachment: building healthy relationships which are essential to wellbeing
• promote self-regulation and resilience: better support people to manage their emotions and behaviours positively which will help strengthen their ability to recover quicker from difficulties
• be trauma informed: understand the potential impact of trauma on children and young people and know how best to respond
• understand the impact of adult responses to the behaviour of children, young people and families to improve outcomes
• develop a common language and understanding

What are the five steps

Five to Thrive steps

Normalising not stigmatising

Five to Thrive is a model that can be used when working with anyone to promote healthy brain development and also in a targeted way with those who need more support.

We are all vulnerable

We all have attachment needs when we feel unsafe

We are all resilient

We can all contribute to meeting the attachment needs of other people

People need people

Five to Thrive interactions are important throughout the life course providing us with the healthy nourishment our brains need.

When attachment needs are being met

Safety and mattering are essential for a healthy functioning nervous system.

When attachment needs are being met in children and young people it supports them to form a strong sense of identity, to develop their ability to self-regulate and to build resilience. In turn this enables them to form positive relationships and to integrate well into the community.

Attachment needs manifest throughout our lives and Five to Thrive provides a model to help us understand the importance of addressing this and how to fulfil these needs most effectively across the life course.

The first 1001 days (conception to 2 years) of a baby's life are most critical for laying the foundations for future cognitive, emotional and behavioural development due to the rapid development of the brain in these early years. Babies are born without the ability to self-soothe and rely entirely on a responsive, attuned primary carer to meet their attachment needs. Healthy Five to Thrive responses from a carer are necessary for healthy brain development and the development of self-regulation.

When attachment needs not being met

When attachment needs are not being met a range of different behaviours and/or challenges can be observed including those listed below. Recognising these behaviours and/or challenges among children and young people and relating them to Five to Thrive can indicate which steps in the sequence may benefit from more focus from a calm, supportive adult.

Whilst the focus here is on supporting children and young people these challenges are not unique to children and can be observed into adulthood. Five to Thrive support can, therefore, be applied in the same way.

What is trauma informed practice

Trauma is brain injury caused by exposure to events that cause overwhelming stress, sometimes known as 'toxic' stress. Humans are not born able to regulate stress but develop this ability through being with self-regulating, responsive adults. Support from caring adults protects children from trauma. It is, therefore, vital that everyone who works with children and young people understands trauma and is able to embed this learning into their practice.

Adults can also experience overwhelming levels of stress and will need the support of other caring adults to recover. If the stress is complex and has been affecting their emotions and behaviour since childhood, the support they will need is likely to be intensive and lengthy.

Most people recover spontaneously from traumatic life events however, some are left traumatised. Until they recover people affected by toxic stress struggle to: self-regulate; process information and manage the world around them; and make and maintain relationships.

Five to Thrive is an easily accessible model that can be woven into everyday interactions to support recovery from trauma. It is not a replacement for intensive therapy that some people may need, but it is supportive and accessible to all. The Five to Thrive steps reflect a process of co-regulation, guidance and support needed for families, children and young people in this situation.

For more information and resources

Five to Thrive training is suitable for: Pre-Schools, Day Nurseries, Childminders and After School Clubs in Central Bedfordshire, and is being delivered by our School Readiness and Childcare Team, The Virtual School, Early Years SEND Team and Health Visitors. In addition to this, our Children’s Centres and Early Help team are also using the approach when working with children and young people and their families.

This programme and training can be accessed through the Learning Central Learning Management System (LMS), which you can access through the Learning Central webpage. Once on the webpage, please select ‘Log in / register to access learning offer’. This will then take you to the log in page. If you do not yet have an account on our Learning Management System (LMS), then you can register for one on the log in page. Once logged in, search for Five to Thrive Approach, clicking on See Classes to select a suitable date for training. If you require support with accessing this programme, please contact us at learningcentral@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk.

Prior to attending the classroom course you may wish to watch a Five To Thrive Webinar delivered by Kate Cairns, co-author of the Five to Thrive approach, available through Learning Management System (LMS).

You may also wish to complete the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) online training before attending, also available via Learning Management System (LMS).

After attending this training, attendees will have access to a range of resources and online training available from KCA to support embedding of the approach into setting routine and practices.

Terminology

What are attachment needs?

Attachment needs occur when someone feels critically unsafe or that they do not matter. This then triggers attachment behaviours.

For babies, attachment behaviours include; crying, screaming, back-arching (aversive attachment behaviours) or smiling, gurgling, cooing (attractive attachment behaviours). Attractive attachment behaviours stop if there is no response.

In later childhood or adulthood, unregulated stress can trigger aversive attachment behaviours such as fight, flight or freeze.

What is a strengths-based model?

Five to Thrive is to be used as a model that empowers people and builds on their strengths. It enables practitioners to:

• recognise the positive impact of 'Five to Thrive' interactions when working with children, young people and families
• support parents to notice when positive Five to Thrive interactions are happening and to share the knowledge that this interaction is promoting healthy brain development and/or supporting healthy brain function as well as promoting self-regulation and resilience
• support young people to understand the basic principles of healthy human interaction and how this can help them and others

This strengths-based approach is encouraging and empowering for practitioners and parents and motivates them to repeat this style of interacting.