Helping young children to think about race in the early years

Racism can present itself in different ways in a young child’s life. A child may have direct or indirect experiences of racism, but the impact can be felt all the same.

For early years practitioners, it can be difficult to talk about race and racism, especially if you have never experienced it or talked about it yourself. Our Helping young children to think about race in the early years resource has been written by Dr Pamela Hamilton and Dr Bisi Showunmi, two Child Psychologists. Both have delivered anti-racism sessions for schools and local authorities, with the second author writing her thesis on race and identity development in school children.

The purpose of this booklet is to:

• highlight the various ways that race and racism impact children in the early years

• introduce the idea of racial socialisation and how it supports child development

• start to think about ways to support racial socialisation in the early years

• identify some ways to facilitate your journey in supporting racial socialisation in your setting.