About
Communicating for Connection is a practical, relationship-focused workshop that supports educators across education and care settings to create warm, responsive and meaningful interactions with children and young people in everyday moments.
Grounded in research and real-world practice, the workshop explores how attuned communication and relational presence shape children and young people’s sense of safety, belonging, wellbeing and participation. Educators examine how behaviour reflects a person’s best attempt to meet needs for connection and regulation, and how adult responses can either strengthen or strain these relational moments.
Through discussion, reflection and practical strategies, educators build confidence in using communication that supports language, social and emotional development, and shared regulation across a range of ages and contexts. Particular attention is given to supporting children and young people who are experiencing dysregulation, with a focus on responses that prioritise connection, calm and co-regulation rather than control.
With a strong emphasis on everyday practice, Communicating for Connection equips educators with tangible strategies to proactively plan for, notice and respond to moments of connection, fostering relationships where children and young people feel seen, safe and supported to thrive.
We will
- Explore the shift from viewing behaviour as “attention-seeking” to understanding it as “connection-seeking” and needs-driven.
- Discuss practical communication approaches that nurture belonging, co-regulation and trust.
- Engage in reflective conversations and activities that deepen relational practice.
- Learn how educators’ own regulation, wellbeing and Skill to Fill contribute to children’s sense of safety.
- Work together to develop strategies for strengthening secure, responsive and emotionally attuned interactions.
Participant Outcomes
By the end of this workshop, participants will have:
- Increased confidence in identifying and responding to connection-seeking behaviours with empathy and clarity.
- Enhanced communication practices that support children and young people’s belonging, becoming and wellbeing.
- A stronger reflective practice that improves the quality and intentionality of everyday interactions.
- Insight into how to fill your own Connection Cup and maintain your Skill to Fill in challenging moments.
- A personalised plan to strengthen self-regulation and co-regulation with children and young people who are experiencing big feelings.
Theoretical underpinnings
Humanistic & Psychology
Martin Seligman & Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Emphasises unconditional positive regard and the centrality of belonging and emotional safety for wellbeing and learning. Highlights the role of warm interactions, strengths and belonging in building wellbeing, resilience and emotional capability.
The Phoenix Cups Framework
Sandi Phoenix
A model of human needs that positions connection, safety, freedom, mastery and fun as essential drivers of behaviour and wellbeing. Connection is a core basic-human life for all children and young people. Supporting educators to identify and support needs for connection.
Guidance Approach
Dr Louise Porter
Focuses on children and young people being supported rather than controlled, prompting educators to respond with empathy, skill-building, and relationship-based practice rather than consequences or rewards, using empathy proactivity to support children’s skill development.
Contemporary Neuroscience
Dr Lisa Feldman-Barret
Children and young people learn to understand their unique emotional experience through exploration of their world and rich interactions. Supports the understanding that stress, dysregulation and unmet needs affect behaviour when the brain systems are overwhelmed.
National alignment
Quality Area 1 – Educational Program and Practice (Elements 1.1.2, 1.2.1): supports child-centred practice and responsive communication that builds learning and wellbeing.
Quality Area 5 – Relationships with Children (Elements 5.1.1, 5.1.2, 5.2.1): strengthens warm, respectful interactions, dignity and rights of the child, and co-regulation.
Quality Area 7 – Governance and Leadership (Element 7.2.3): promotes professional reflection and educator capability in relationship-based practice.
Standard 1.2 – Know learners and how they learn: This deepens understanding of children’s emotional needs and relationship-based development.
Standard 4.4 – Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments: strengthens connection, belonging and co-regulation practices.
Standard 6.2 – Engage in professional learning: enhances ongoing reflective practice and communication capability
Principle 1 – Child safety and wellbeing are embedded in organisational leadership, governance and culture. Support a culture where children’s rights, needs and wellbeing guide every decision.
Principle 2 – Children participate in decisions affecting them. Promote children’s agency, voice and active participation in relationships and routines.
Principle 4 – Equity is upheld and diverse needs are respected. Elevates inclusion and belonging, reducing barriers to equitable participation.
Principle 5 – People working with children are suitable and supported. Provides educators with skills that prevent harm and support safety.
Principle 6 – Processes for responding to complaints or concerns are child-focused. Encourages listening, attunement and responsiveness, ensuring children are heard and respected.
Access & Inclusion
- Promotes relational, needs-based and trauma-informed practice that reduces barriers to participation.
- Helps educators adapt environments and interactions to meet diverse needs.
Culturally Safe, Inclusive and Responsive Practice
- Encourages communication that honours each child’s identity, background and needs.
Social & Emotional Learning
- Builds children’s emotional safety through co-regulation, connection and predictable relational patterns.
- Strengthens educators’ understanding of stress responses and how to support children through attuned communication.
Oral Language & Literacy
- Increases opportunities for sustained shared thinking, conversations, serve-and-return interactions and relational language.
Executive Function
- Co-regulation supports the development of impulse control, emotional balance and sustained attention.
- Fosters self-regulation and shared regulation through connected, attuned interactions.
Communication (language, literacy and numeracy)
- Increases high-quality verbal interactions, sustained shared thinking and relational conversation, building the foundations for language development.
Wellbeing (social, emotional and executive function)
- Supports children’s emotional development and co-regulation skills through connection-focused communication.
- Helps educators respond to dysregulation with attuned, needs-based strategies rather than behaviourist interventions.
Access, Inclusion and Participation.
- Promotes relational, needs-based and trauma-informed approaches that honour children’s individual experiences and contexts.
- Reduces barriers to engagement for children experiencing vulnerability by strengthening safety, predictability and connection.
Online Course Option
Prefer to engage in this training from the comfort of your own home? We get it!
That's why we created the self-paced online course, with video content and downloadable workbooks.
More on connection seeking
Interested in connection seeking: reframing attention seeking? You can read all about it in our blog.