Supporting children's social and emotional development
Professor Marc de Rosnay discusses what healthy social-emotional development looks like in early childhood and how parents can best think about the development of their children’s social-emotional skills. He also provides advice on how best to support your child through new and challenging experiences.
Here are some key messages from the Expert Insights talk for you!
Young children, even very young infants, understand emotions in much the same way an adult might, but do not have the language to communicate these emotions or understand how other people might feel emotions differently. Social-emotional skills are the set of skills that allow a child to translate that understanding into action and response.
Children learn to respond to others through observation and supported scaffolding from parents and carers. Prompts from an adult are helpful to support a child through new or challenging ways of thinking. You can help your child understand how to help others instead of being overwhelmed or confused by scaffolding their behaviours.
We build social-emotional skills through experiences. It’s important to allow your child to act freely, choose their own experiences, and make independent friendships to practice their social-emotional skills. Adults can add a lot to those environments and experiences by stepping in to guide interactions when necessary, discussing them afterwards or role-playing with toys to practice social situations and relationships.
All children are different and will develop socio-emotional skills at different rates and ways. Some children will need much longer to understand these skills, and repletion and gentle, consistent support help to reinforce socially positive and helpful behaviours. Social-emotional skills are complex and can take time to learn and lots of practice to do it with confidence.
Want to learn more about what's happening at Early Start? Find out here.
