Supporting children’s emotional wellbeing and resilience. Unit 7 – supporting Children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development.

Supporting children’s emotional wellbeing and resilience: There are several ways in which adults can work with children to help them feel secure and also develop independence. Having a sense of independence will in turn help to make children more resilient. Resilient – being bale to recover quickly from different or difficult situations.

Providing Choices: Providing choices for children can help them to develop self-efficacy. This is because they learn to make decisions for themselves. How much choice children should be given and over what, needs to be tailored to the child’s stage of development. It is not fair for children to be given a choice only for the adult to intervene because their choice was inappropriate – choices have to be genuine ones.

Child-initiated Play: Child initiated play is one of the key ways in which most early years settings give opportunities for children to make choices. In additional, there are other simple ways of giving children choices, fro example: Cooking activities – choosing what to put into a salad or how to bake a cake. Books – choosing which books to share with an adult. Mealtimes – choosing where to sit and even the colour of plates and beakers.

Encouraging Independence and Praising Effort: As well as providing opportunities for choice, from the earliest age children need opportunities to show some independence. This may be through child-initiated play rather than just adult- directed activities, but also through day-to-day activities such as dressing, serving their own food, pouring drinks and choosing when to go to the toilet. It often takes more time for a child to feed and dress themselves, but it is extremely important for children’s emotional development and, as we have seen earlier, it supports children’s sense of self-efficacy.

How to support children: Enough time. Efforts are noticed. Praise and encouragement. Acknowledgment.

Not every moment of the day needs to be regulated as this can be stifling and unstimulating, but there are some key points each day where establishing a routine can be helpful. Routines Routines – Most babies and young children thrive on a little bit of predictability. This means that having some routines is important for children. Key activities in a daily routine: Greetings when children arrive. Nappy changing. Nap times. Mealtimes and snack times. Goodbyes when children leave.

Realistic Boundaries: Children seem to need boundaries in order to become secure. They need to know what is and is not acceptable behaviour within the setting. Boundaries should relate closely to the children’s age and stage of development, so while we might expect a 4 year old with typical development to wait to take their turn when playing a game, we may need to remind a younger child or accept that a toddler will struggle to wait.

Setting Boundaries: Boundaries should be set with a clear rationale, such as health and safety, fairness and being considerate towards others. The rationale should be explained calmly to children. With older children, it is good practice for them to be involved in some boundary setting as this is good for their own development.

The importance of friendships:

Cooperative Friendship – when children negotiate play or agree what to do with each other. Reciprocal Friendship – when children take equal or similar pleasure in being in each other’s company. Reciprocal and cooperative friendships begin when children are around 3 years old. Friendships are very important to children as they develop. This starts early on with babies being very excited by looking at other babies. Toddlers will often enjoy copying and playing alongside other toddlers.

Friendships help children in a variety of ways. They are bedrock of many play activities, which in themselves can support children’s overall development. Children’s self-concept is developed through friendship as they note how their peers respond to them. Children who have positive responses from peers are likely to become more confident in dealing with others. Children who have a shaky start may be less confident about approaching and playing with other children. By the age of 5 years, most children should have at least one strong friendship.

Observing Friendships: Note whether children are starting to make friends. Are they being excluded? Are they confident?

How to support children to develop social skills: Children need a variety of social skills in order to develop relationships and friendships. There are some features that other children look for in choosing a playmate.

Cooperativeness Turn taking. Friendliness and playfulness Empathy Social skills that children need to acquire. Why do children need to acquire these skills? How can we support children? How will this support long term develop ment?

Supporting children’s group learning and socialisation: For many children, friendships develop fairly easily if they have acquired social skills and the confidence needed to interact with others. If you observe that a child does not appear to have friends, consider why this may be. It may be that the child has lower levels of language and so is not able to join in or is over-boisterous or just shy. If any of these are the case, the first step is to work on the underlying reasons. Playing alongside – model play behaviours: listening, joining in, taking turns. Giving hints – working with parents, share strategies, thoughtful and flexible children.

Any questions: