We all want the best for the children we nurture and teach. We want our children to know that they matter and that it is good to be them. However, we are regularly bombarded by a sea of disparate and often-conflicting information about emotional well-being. Making decisions about supporting children can, at times, feel like guesswork. How do we recognise the key components of children’s emotional experience? How does support in one aspect of wellbeing impact other aspects?

7 Dimensions: Children’s Emotional Well-being introduces a framework designed to help adults make simple sense of the plethora of information available about young people’s feelings, thoughts and ways of responding. Based on up-to-date neuroscience and the positive, interactive approaches that are supported by brain research, the 7 Dimensions framework offers a way to support the emotional well-being of children in their everyday environments, including those who experience significant challenges.

Concepts and practices are presented through the book in ways that demonstrate the framework’s relevance to a wide range of education practitioners’ work, including that of teachers, counsellors and psychologists. Although examples in the book are from the school environment, the 7 Dimensions’ principles are equally relevant for parenting.