Fostering Emotional development

What is Emotional Development

Emotional Development involves learning to recognize, communicate and control emotions as well as cultivating empathy and social abilities is laid by the emotional development of infants and toddlers, which is intimately linked to attachment and trust. It lays foundations on infants and toddlers' personalities. The bonds or social experience during this phase is closely linked to their emotional personalities as this helps children to know and acknowledge their feeling or emotions. Recognition of their feeling or emotions contribute to children's self-directing and competency (Kaywork, 2019).

Teaching Competencies and Skills

Attachment Building: Creating strong ties by giving compassionate, attentive care, providing safe and secure environments for children.

Emotion Labelling and Regulation: Acknowledging and expressing feelings while providing advice on how to express feelings in a healthy way.

Observation and Sensitivity: Paying attention to children needs, actions and indications and respond in ways that promote emotional stability.

Guiding Social Interactions: Encouraging Constructive Peer relationships and set an example of courteous, sympathetic behavior (McLaughlin V. M., 2015).

Techniques for nurturing Emotional Development, Learning and Wellbeing:

To support infants and toddlers' emotional development, learning and wellbeing requires safe, engaging and responsive environments which allow children to feel comfortable enough to explore their feelings.

Attuned and responsive interactions: Communicating verbally and non-verbally to demonstrate understanding and empathy, respond with soft tones, suitable facial expression and eye contact.

Building Positive Environment: Encouraging greetings and farewell providing children a sense of security and order which are critical for emotional stability.

Emotionally Rich Language and Storytelling: Reading books that helps children explore emotions and engaging them into role-playing to guide and manage feelings like happiness, sadness or surprise (Promoting Social-Emotional Development in Early Childhood: Nurturing Resilience and Well-being | Bellarine Psychology, 2023).

Authentic Curriculum plan and examples

Movement and Music: Incorporating emotions on song during group time i.e. "If you're happy and you know it" and movement-based games to act out their feelings like "show me what angry looks like". This helps children with the coordination between body and mind helping children focus, process and release their emotion while developing self-awareness and regulation (Williams, 2018).

Language and Literacy: Reading books about feelings, relationship between families, friends and encourage discussion about feelings of the characteristics and comparing with their own experiences while introducing vocabulary like "happy", "sad". This is beneficial for the children to develop emotional literacy and foster empathy through storytelling as well enhance vocabulary (Teaching Emotional Intelligence in Early Childhood, n.d.).

Humanities and Social Science: Encouraging children to share about photos of their families, talking about relations between families and friends or special people and pets and what they feel about them during group time fosters a sense of community and belonging. This helps children to understand their role and develop empathy, kindness, fairness for others within the community.

Learning Experiences

Infant 0-12 Months:

Peek-a-boo with Emotion Variations:

Playing Peek-a-boo with the infants at their eye level is a great way to help children learn about various facial expressions. When we play peek-a-boo making various facial expressions i.e. happy, sad, surprised each time we cover up our faces and reappear, helps infants with awareness of the expressions.

Development focus: This simple play is one of the crucial ways to introduce infants to varied emotions, helping them become comfortable, secure with different expressions and recognize emptions.

Toddlers 12-24 Months

Emotions Flashcards with Simple Faces:

In a small group, showing different flashcards with simple expressions/emotions i.e. happy, sad, angry one by one and encouraging children to imitate the face/expressions they see in the flashcard. As they imitate the emotion, educators name out the emotion verbally.

Development focus: This experience helps children to identify and label the basic emotions building emotional vocabulary and awareness and build their sense of agency to express their feelings confidently (Teaching Emotional Intelligence in Early Childhood, n.d.) .

2-3 Years

Feelings in Box?

In a small group of children, make a circle with a little cartoon box with some pictures or cards portraying different facial expressions or emotions inside it. Call each children's name one by one to pull out a card or picture from the box. Ask them to mimic the emotion they got and let other friends guess. After their friend guess the emotion right, encourage them to talk they feel that way.

Development Focus: This game encourages children to express their feelings and connect their personal experiences, promoting self-reflection and their vocabulary growth (Teaching Emotional Intelligence in Early Childhood, n.d.).