Social and emotional learning

Social and emotional learning in the early years

Birth to school age is the period of greatest growth and development. The early childhood years are not only a time for taking first steps or for saying first words. They are also when, through their relationships with others, children are building expectations about their world and the people in it and are developing their first:

• sense of self including feeling good about themselves and what they can do
• social skills to get along in life with others
• emotional skills such as recognising, expressing and managing a wide range of feelings.

These first skills are very important as they form the foundations for children’s ongoing development and affect their mental health and wellbeing, now and into the future.

Families can support children’s developing social and emotional skills by:

• being affectionate and warm
• providing security for children by being consistent and predictable
• having frequent face-to-face interactions, including making eye contact, smiling and laughing together
• responding to your child’s signals and preferences (e.g., knowing when to stop playing when your baby turns away signalling they have had enough for now)
• talking with children about what is happening and what will happen next
• being comforting and helping children to manage their feelings
• encouraging children to explore, play and try new things
• using social and emotional skills yourself and showing children how they work (e.g., by talking with children about your own mistakes and saying sorry you show them that these are a part of life and can be learning opportunities for everyone)
• describing and labelling emotions (e.g., ‘I enjoyed doing the puzzle together with you. It was fun!’ or ‘Are you feeling sad today because your friend is not here?’)
• storytelling, playing games, singing, dancing, and imaginary play
• supporting children to make choices and solve problems as appropriate for their developmental level (e.g., ‘Do you want to wear your red dress or your blue dress?’)
• providing opportunities for interactions with others (e.g., going to play groups with other children, inviting a child to your home for a play, going to the park where there are other children playing).