ABSTRACT
In England, it is a statutory requirement that all children in the Early Years Foundation Stage have a key person. The quality of the key person relationship has a direct bearing on young children’s potential to learn, inexperienced or staff who respond only to a child’s physical needs will impact on the level of stress the child experiences. Exposure to stress can be dangerous for young children; the stress hormone cortisol can interfere with brain growth and development. When two-year-old children feel confident with their key person, they are more likely to seek them out and spend quality time together; in return, this has an impact on young children’s communication and language development. Settling young children into a nursery can be difficult. Separation anxiety is a normal response from any young child, making it imperative that before young children are separated from their parents, they need the opportunity to build a relationship with their key person.
