What we notice shapes children’s lives
Every day, in nurseries across the country, adults notice thousands of small things. A child who hangs back at the door. A toddler who has started pointing at birds. A baby who settles more easily for one person than another. A four-year-old who, for the first time, waits for a friend to finish speaking before she starts.
Most of these moments pass in a second. Some are noted down. Many are forgotten. But every one of them matters, because what we notice is where everything else begins.
This simple idea sits at the heart of all my writing. I call it the Influence of Noticing.
The essence of the idea
What adults notice influences what they think. What they think influences what they do. What they do influences the culture they create. And that culture influences children’s lives.
It sounds simple, and in a way it is. But follow that chain through and it changes how we see the work of everyone who cares for young children.
Noticing comes first
We can only respond to what we have noticed. A practitioner who doesn’t notice that a child has gone quiet cannot ask why. A key person who doesn’t notice a new interest cannot build on it. A manager who doesn’t notice that a member of staff is struggling cannot offer support.
Noticing is not the same as looking. We can look at a room full of children all day and see very little. Noticing is looking with intent: with attention, with care and with a purpose. It means being curious about what is in front of us rather than assuming we already know.
The good news is that noticing is a skill, and like any skill, it can be deliberately developed. It grows with practice, with reflection, and with the support of experienced colleagues. The more we notice, the more we learn to notice. A practitioner who sets out to notice with intent will, over time, begin to see far more than they ever did before.
It also means noticing what is different. Often the most important thing we notice is small: a change in mood, a new bruise, a child who used to run to the door and now doesn’t. On its own, it may mean nothing at all. But it may be the first sign that something needs our attention. The habit of noticing these small changes, even when they don’t seem important yet, is what I call professional curiosity.
What we notice shapes what we think
Once we have noticed something, we start to make sense of it. This is where noticing becomes thinking.
Here we have a choice. We can explain the moment away quickly: “He’s just tired.” “She’s always like that.” Or we can stay curious a little longer: “I wonder why that happened?” “I wonder what that child is telling me?”
The way we think about what we notice matters enormously. If we notice only what children can’t do, we will think of them as problems to be solved. If we notice what they can do, what interests them and what they are trying to work out, we will think of them as capable, curious people. The same child, seen through different eyes, becomes a different child in our minds.
This is why the Influence of Noticing is always child-centred and never deficit-based. We notice in order to understand, not to judge.
What we think shapes what we do
Our thinking guides our actions, often without our realising it.
The practitioner who thinks a child is “naughty” will respond with correction. The practitioner who wonders whether that child is frightened, frustrated or simply hasn’t yet learned another way will respond with patience and support. The behaviour is the same. The response, and its effect on the child, is completely different.
This is true for every adult in a child’s life: the practitioner in the room, the teacher, the lunchtime supervisor, the cook, the manager, and of course parents and carers at home. Every one of them is noticing, thinking and acting all day long. Each of them has influence.
What we do creates a culture
When the adults in a setting share the habit of noticing, wondering and responding thoughtfully, something bigger begins to grow. It becomes “the way we do things here”. It becomes the culture.
You can feel culture the moment you walk into a nursery. It is in how staff speak to children and to each other. It is in whether a new practitioner feels able to ask a question. It is in whether someone who notices something worrying feels confident to say so. Policies matter, but culture is what actually happens when nobody is checking the policy.
A culture of noticing is a culture where children are seen, where concerns are raised early, where families are listened to, and where staff keep learning. It doesn’t happen by accident. It is built, day by day, by the choices of every adult in the setting.
And culture shapes children’s lives
This is the final link in the chain, and the reason it all matters.
Young children don’t experience our intentions. They experience our actions, and the culture those actions create. A child in a setting where adults notice, wonder and respond with care learns that they matter, that their ideas are worth hearing and that the world is a safe place to explore. Those early lessons stay with children long after they have left nursery.
From noticing to action
Noticing is only the beginning. Throughout the Strong Foundations series, I describe a simple sequence that helps practitioners turn what they notice into thoughtful action:
Notice: pay attention to what is happening, especially what is new or different.
Wonder: stay curious rather than jumping to a conclusion.
Ask: gently ask questions of the child, of colleagues and of families.
Listen: really hear what children and adults are telling us, in words and in actions.
Reflect: think about what it might mean, drawing on what we know.
Act: respond in a way that supports the child.
Review: look again later. Did it help? What have we learned?
None of these steps is complicated. Together, they turn a passing moment into good practice.
Where the idea comes from
I have worked this way for most of my career, though I only gave it a name quite recently.
As a young educator, I studied in the United States under Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp, the founders of Philosophy for Children. They believed that children are natural thinkers and questioners, and that adults should take children’s ideas seriously. That belief has stayed with me ever since.
Later, as a School Principal running nurseries and training nursery nurses, and as an inspector visiting many settings, I saw the same pattern again and again. The best settings were not always the best resourced. They were the ones where adults truly noticed children and acted on what they saw.
Why it matters now
Many of today’s nursery practitioners began their careers during or just after the Covid years. Courses moved online. Placements were cut short. Many lost the chance to learn by working alongside experienced colleagues, which is how so much of this work has always been passed on. None of that was their fault.
The Influence of Noticing gives these practitioners, and everyone who supports them, something simple and practical to hold on to. It explains not just what to do, but why it matters. Every observation, every gentle question and every moment of attention is part of something bigger.
The idea in practice: the Strong Foundations series
Each book in the Strong Foundations series applies the Influence of Noticing to a different part of nursery life:
- Professional Curiosity shows how noticing what seems different, even when it seems unimportant, is the starting point for good practice.
- Safe Sleep shows how attentive, consistent routines create a culture of safety around sleeping babies and young children.
- Trusted Partnerships shows how practitioners and families can share what they notice so that every child is surrounded by support.
- Safeguarding Culture shows how keeping children safe depends on adults who notice, question and speak up.
- Every Child Seen shows how noticing each child’s strengths and needs builds inclusion and belonging.
- Leading What Matters shows how leaders can build teams where noticing, learning and improvement are part of everyday life.
The most important work there is
Let me say plainly what all of this has been pointing towards: working with young children is among the most important work anyone can do.
The first years of life are when the foundations are laid for almost everything that follows. It is in these years that children learn whether the world is safe, whether adults can be trusted, and whether their own thoughts and feelings matter. They learn to communicate, to play, to share, to try again when something is difficult, and to make sense of the people around them. These are not small lessons. They shape how children learn, how they form relationships, and how they see themselves for the rest of their lives.
The people who care for young children are present for all of it. They comfort, encourage, notice and guide, hour after hour, day after day. Yet this work is too often described as “just childcare”, and those who do it are not always given the recognition they deserve.
It is far more than that. Every nursery practitioner is helping to build a person. There are few responsibilities greater, and few privileges as rewarding.
What you notice matters
If you work with young children, you are noticing all day long, often without realising how important it is. That smile you returned, that worry you raised, that interest you followed: each one shaped a child’s day, and perhaps much more.
What you notice matters. More than you might ever know.
