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2022-2026
Supporting the development of self-regulation in 3-4 year old children via Emotion Coaching
EEF Promising Programme · Early Years
Recognised as an EEF Promising Programme
Only around one in ten programmes that have completed an Education Endowment Foundation trial earn Promising Programme status. Emotion Coaching met the requirements on impact, cost, implementation, and evidence security — following an independent efficacy trial across 160 early years settings, evaluated by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and commissioned with the Department for Education's Stronger Practice Hubs.
2,467
Children aged 3–4 involved in the trial
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Co-funded by Education Endowment Foundation & Stronger Practic Hubs
216
total number of practioners trained
Cluster randomised controlled trial independently evaluated by NatCen
160
Early years settings took part across 8 regions in England
1199
Practitioners potentially reached through cascading
How Emotion Coaching Works:
Our 4-step framework:
Developed by Emotion Coaching UK and delivered in partnership with Norland College, the approach gives practitioners a shared language for handling heightened emotions — turning everyday moments into opportunities to develop children's emotional awareness and undertanding, building trust between children and adults.
01
Recognise the feeling, and empathise
Notice the physical and verbal signs of what a child is feeling, and genuinely tune in before responding.
“I can see this is really difficult for you.”
02
Label and validate it
Put the feeling into words, so the child hears that what they feel is understood — and that it's okay to feel it.
“I wonder if you're feeling annoyed because...”
03
Set expectations, if needed
All feelings are acceptable; not all behaviour is. Once a child feels understood, the practitioner makes clear about what is and is not okay.
“It's fine to feel cross but throwing is not okay.”
04
Problem-solve together
Once calm, adult and child explore what could happen differently next time, building the child's own coping skills.
“What could we try instead, next time?”
The Project:
Built to become self-sustaining
Emotion Coaching is designed to move from external training into a setting's own everyday practice — so the approach keeps going long after the initial course ends.
Adults Emotion Coach 3-4 year old children via a cascading model of training
The delivery team:
Emotion Coaching UK co-founders Licette Gus, Louise Gilbert and Janet Rose are the leaders in translating Emotion Coaching into educational and community settings in the UK. At last count, back in 2016, they had trained more than 10,000 adults in the UK, Europe and Australia. (They have since stopped counting!).
Delivery partner:
Norland University of Early Childhood is a Specialist Early Years HE Provider. The delivery partnership provided ECUK with financial structural support and trainers to support delivery.
Programme Collaborators:
The Stronger Practice Hubs (SPHs) and the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) worked together to fund Early Years settings’ access to evidence-informed programmes and study the programme’s influence on practice and children’s outcomes. 8 SPHs across England were matched to the project.
The Early Years Emotion Coaching EEF Project was funded as part of this programme.
Testing the approach at scale,
for the first time in the UK
As part of the Department for Education's Early Years Recovery Programme, the EEF funded an independent randomised controlled trial — the first EEF-commissioned early years study to focus specifically on Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED).
Evaluation Findings:
Small, consistent gains — with a stronger signal for disadvantaged children
Effect sizes describe the size of the difference between children in the trial and similar children who didn't take part
CHILD OUTCOME
Child self-regulation
Small positive effect
A small positive impact overall, rising to an effect size of 0.18 for children eligible for Early Years Pupil Premium — though this subgroup finding is based on a smaller sample.
CHILD OUTCOME
Pro-social behaviour
Children whose settings received the programme showed more small, positive shifts in pro-social behaviour, as reported by practitioners.
Small positive effect
ADULT OUTCOME
Meta-emotion philosophy
The clearest gains were in adults themselves — how practitioners react to, respond to, and reason about emotions, in themselves and in children.
Moderate positive effect
253 practitioners reposnded to the end of trial survey about changes they had noted in themselves, in the children and ease of using Emotion Coaching in their setting
How secure are the findings?
What is the cost of implementing Emotion Coaching in a setting?
3 out of 5 security rating. This means the EEF is moderately confident the impact was due to the programme rather than other factors. The EEF is now discussing a larger effectiveness trial to test the approach at scale for EYPP-eligible children.
A very low-cost way to change how a whole setting responds to feelings.
£418
Average cost per setting
£16.70
Average cost per child, per year
2-4
Practitioners trained per setting
Read The Evidence
