7.4: Introducing to the Foundations
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The domain of social-emotional development encompasses three areas or strands:
Early learning deeply engages the self. Most preschool children approach learning opportunities with enthusiasm and self-confidence, excited by the prospect of new discovery. Their successes (and occasional failures) shape their sense of what they can do and sometimes drive their efforts to acquire new skills. Their achievements and occasional disappointments also provoke the responses of others—adults and peers—that further influence children’s self-concept and self-confidence. Young children value learning for themselves because it is valued by the people who matter to them.
In a preschool program, learning is a social activity. Therefore, preschool children’s success in learning depends on their capacity to understand and participate constructively in the social environment. Early childhood is a period of rapid growth in social and emotional understanding in which the children’s capacity for empathy and caring is also developing. This is also a period of growth in self-regulation as young children are acquiring skills for sustaining their attention, focusing their thinking and problem-solving, managing their behavioral impulses, and controlling their emotions. Even so, lapses in self-regulation are as apparent as young children’s successes, and developmentally appropriate expectations for children’s self-control are essential.
Therefore, a thoughtfully designed preschool curriculum that supports social-emotional development devotes considerable attention to the direct and indirect ways that children’s classroom experiences shape the development of self.
The foundations for Self include those for self-awareness, self-regulation, social and emotional understanding, empathy and caring, and initiative in learning:
Self
1.0 Self-Awareness
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At around 48 months of age |
At around 60 months of age |
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2.1 Describe their physical characteristics, behavior, and abilities positively. |
4.1 Compare their characteristics with those of others and display a growing awareness of their psychological characteristics, such as thoughts and feelings. |
2.0 Self-Regulation
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At around 48 months of age |
At around 60 months of age |
|
4.2 Need adult guidance in managing their attention, feelings, and impulses and show some effort at self-control. |
2.1 Regulate their attention, thoughts, feelings, and impulses more consistently, although adult guidance is sometimes necessary. |
3.0 Social and Emotional Understanding
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At around 48 months of age |
At around 60 months of age |
|
4.3 Seek to understand people’s feelings and behavior, notice diversity in human characteristics, and are interested in how people are similar and different. |
4.1 Begin to comprehend the mental and psychological reasons people act as they do and how they contribute to differences between people. |
4.0 Empathy and Caring
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At around 48 months of age |
At around 60 months of age |
|
4.4 Demonstrate concern for the needs of others and people in distress. |
4.2 Respond to another’s distress and needs with sympathetic caring and are more likely to assist. |
5.0 Initiative in Learning
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At around 48 months of age |
At around 60 months of age |
|
4.5 Enjoy learning and are confident in their abilities to make new discoveries although may not persist at solving difficult problems. |
4.3 Take greater initiative in making new discoveries, identifying new solutions, and persisting in trying to figure things out. |
Teachers can support children’s development of the Self with the following:
There were a lot of strategies listed to for teachers to help support children’s developing sense of self. What are the top five that stood out to you? Are there any that you are unsure about?
Vignettes
A child in a wheelchair enters the housekeeping area where three children are pretending to be a family. They have dishes on the table and dolls in the doll bed. The child in the wheelchair moves closer to the table and tries to join the play but cannot get close enough. After a few minutes, one of the children takes some dishes and puts them on the wheelchair tray. The two children play together. Mr. Luke comments, “I like your idea to use Andy’s tray as a table.”
Chloe cries in Ms. Julia’s arms. Ms. Julia pats her back softly and communicates in a soothing manner. “It sounds like that hurt. You can tell Paz you don’t like that. Say, ‘I don’t like that, Paz.’” Chloe tucks her injured arm in toward Ms. Julia’s body, shakes her head slowly side to side, and looks out warily at Paz. Paz stands close with her head lowered. “Chloe is upset because you pinched her arm. It hurt her quite a bit. Is there something you think we could do to help her feel better, Paz?” asks Ms. Julia.
Paz responds softly, “Sorry, Chloe,” and reaches forward to give Chloe a hug.
Chloe whimpers and clings more closely to Ms. Julia. “When a friend is hurt, giving a hug often helps. I guess Chloe isn’t ready for a hug right now. Thank you for trying, Paz. Maybe we can ask her again later.” [5]
Group learning always involves social interaction. The ease and skill with which children interact with adults and peers (in a preschool classroom or family child care program) and the competence with which they assume their roles and responsibilities as group members significantly influence how they learn. The development of these skills in the preschool years is a foundation for children’s capacity to be socially skilled and competent classroom members in the primary grades.
For some children, unfortunately, difficulties in social interaction—because children are timid and inhibited, are aggressive or disruptive, struggle with being cooperative, or have physical or behavioral characteristics that often result in them being excluded—can pose significant obstacles to benefiting from social interactions with adults and peers. For them and for all children, attention to social interaction skills can be a significant contribution to preschool children’s learning in early childhood classrooms.
A thoughtfully designed preschool curriculum that supports social-emotional development devotes considerable attention, therefore, to the direct and indirect ways that classroom experiences shape the growth of children’s social interaction skills. This includes interactions with adults, peers, and in groups as well as cooperation and responsibility.
[1] The California Preschool Curriculum Framework, Volume 1 by the California Department of Education is used with permission
[2] Image by Mary H. Allen is in the public domain
[3] The California Preschool Curriculum Framework, Volume 1 by the California Department of Education is used with permission;
The California Preschool Learning Foundations, Volume 1 by the California Department of Education is used with permission
[4] Image by Jessica Gibson is in the public domain.
[5] The California Preschool Curriculum Framework, Volume 1 by the California Department of Education is used with permission
[6] Image by Staff Sgt. Jeff Nevison is in the public domain.