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Chapter 13 - Supporting Social and Emotional Development
Objectives:
 Review the components of social competence
 Study the social development curriculum
 Gain understanding in helping children deal with their feelings
 Recognize the impact of stress on social and emotional development
 Focus on developmental issues and their relationships to growth in these areas
Dramatic Play and Puppet families can assist children in working through stressors. A quality
program recognizes the value of guiding the growth of social skills, emotional development and the
coping strategies necessary to deal with the stress of modern life.
Social Skills - Socialization begins at birth and continues throughout childhood. It involves learning
to relate to a variety of people in many different circumstances. Different environments also affect
the social skills needed.
Single best childhood predictor of adult adaptation is the adequacy with which the child gets along
with other children. If a child cannot establish a place for themselves in the peer culture, they are
seriously “at risk”. This indicator is much stronger than IQ, school grades and classroom behavior.
Positive attributes to encourage in the early childhood classroom:
• Approaches others positively
• Expresses wishes and preferences clearly
• Asserts personal rights and needs appropriately
• Is not easily intimidated by bullies
• Participates in discussions and makes contributions to activities
• Able to take turns
• Shows an interest in others
• Can negotiate and compromise in interactions with others
• Accepts and enjoys people of diverse ethnic groups
• Uses appropriate nonverbal communication such as smiles and waves
Building a Sense of Self: - Social & emotional development strongly influence one another in
childhood.
• Self-concept - how people feel about themselves (a significant component of emotional
development and the socialization process)
• Competence - The belief that you can accomplish tasks and achieve goals
• Worth - A person’s sense of being valued by others.
• Control - The degree to which people feel they can influence events around them.
• Principles for building self-concepts • Teachers can either positively or negatively influence self-concept. Learn and use
positive strategies.
• Building a strong self-concept is not easy. It takes time & considerable energy.
• Try to influence central beliefs such as feelings about academic ability, social skills, or
attractiveness.
• Relate the successes and strengths you observe in children to one another. This
enhances those central beliefs.
• All the little things you do, such as calling students by their names and complimenting
them for positive interactions, help build strong self-concepts. When these
interactions are sincere, specific, and occur regularly, children see themselves as more
competent.
Enhancing Self-Concept - Teachers can strengthen student’s self-concepts in 2 major ways:
1. Encouragement  Smiling, a pat on the shoulder, a hug
 Spending time finding out about a child’s weekend
 Praise for work well done
 Pointing out a child’s strengths
 Displaying a child’s work
 Attending an after-school sports event
2. Planned Activities
 I like… (Choose one member of the class each day, and have students share things they like
about that person.
 V.I.P. (Very Important Person) of the Week. Give each child in the class a week when he or
she is the VIP. Special privileges can be granted, such as leading the flag salute or being first
in line. A bulletin board created by family members and the child can include pictures and
other highlights. Family members could also be invited to the classroom.
Building Teacher-Student Relationships - When teachers focus on strengthening students’ selfconcepts, relationships are also enhanced. Guidelines for building effective relationships:
 Engage in an open, appropriate dialogue
 Maintain a high ratio of positive to negative statements
 Communicate high expectations
 Take time for personal communications.
o Show interest in students’ activities
o Occasionally eating lunch with the children
o Joining in play with the children from time to time
o Sending birthday cards, etc.
Teacher-Student Relationships - Significant in development of social skills
 Teachers ability to effectively relate to the students
 Classroom climate - child friendly, inviting
 Strategies used to deal with problems
 Teachers are models of behavior that young children imitate (Bandura)
o polite language
o smiles
o eye contact
o physical touch, etc.
o problem solving techniques
 Tips:
o Avoid becoming adversarial in relationships with students
o Create an atmosphere where courtesy prevails
o Show an interest in students’ lives, and share some info. about yourself as a person.
o Ask students for advice and help whenever you can
o Develop close, caring work relationships with students.
Peer Interactions - the proving ground for children’s unfolding abilities in social development
 Affected by cognitive development levels - most young children are egocentric (they have
difficulty seeing issues from the perspective of others.).
 Children need repeated interactions with peers in play and work to help them to recognize that
others may have opinions, attitudes, and needs separate from their own.

Play is one of the best settings for development of social skills. They require effective
communication, compromise, leaders, and followers to be successful. Some of the social
skills they are developing are:
o Making friends - essential to friendship is the commitment and reciprocity between
two people who are fairly equal in power.
o Sharing and helping - taking turns with toys, sharing a snack, etc.
o Cooperation.
o Respecting rules.
o Problem solving - managing conflicts
o Expressing feelings - usually express by biting, kicking, hitting, name calling, etc.
They quickly learn that these approaches get in the way of friendships and being part
of a group. Help them find more appropriate ways of communicating feelings.
Ways to enhance the environment and materials to create a space for more positive interactions:
 Space to be social - a physical space that invites children to interact with one another.
Clusters of desks, child-sized tables and chairs, large throw pillows, open spaces, etc.
 Access to work and play spaces  Pictures that depict social activities
 Materials that foster cooperation - a mural for an art project, computer software that takes two
or more to play, noncompetitive board games, etc.
 Fewer options to encourage sharing.
 Books dealing with social skills. Ex: A Friend is Someone Who Likes You.
Adequate time also needs to be scheduled for children t work and play in small groups or as a class.
If time is too short, it can be counterproductive. Approximately 20 to 30 minutes minimum.
Activities & Themes  songs
 Games - should be noncompetitive
 Community workers - have local community members (firefighters, doctors, etc.) visit.
 Discussions - use a book about social relationships as a discussion starter.
 Cooperative learning Thematic teaching
 Pictures showing adults and children cooperating
 Cooperative block building
 Difficult puzzles
 Cooperative sand structures
 Mural art projects
 Group finger painting
 Post office
 Books on cooperation such as Sharing by Newman
 Commercial music recording
Helping Children with Emotional Development - Gradual growths in the ability to recognize,
label, and appropriately respond to their feelings. Must be learned through repeated interactions with
others. Emotions are feelings that come in response to other people, experiences, or circumstances.
 Research suggests that young children are genetically programmed with core emotions that
include joy, anger, sadness, and fear. They serve as the foundation for the later emergence of
more complex emotions such as frustration, annoyance, jealousy, and boredom.
Dealing with Feelings:
• Recognize and label feelings - Before they can respond appropriately to emotions, children
need to successfully recognize their emotional reaction and give it a name. Adults need to
help children with this.
• Accept feelings - children need to know it is normal to have strong feelings. Adults can help
by validating those feelings. “It is okay to be angry. Everybody gets angry sometimes.”
• Encourage appropriate responses to feelings - Help them to use words instead of kicking,
biting, etc. to deal with emotions.
Materials and Activities for Emotional Development:
• Art materials - clay, play dough, paint
• Dramatic play props - dolls, puppets, dress-up clothes, housekeeping materials all encourage
children to act out experiences that lead to strong emotions.
• Books - discuss emotions in the books
• Sand and water activities • Music - Ex: “It’s All Right to Cry” by Rosey Greer or Free to Be You and Me, Marlo Thomas
Coping with Stress: (David Elkind - most visible & well-known spokesperson for this issue)
Normal stressors - making friends, going to grandma’s house, learning about the world around them,
living in a family, etc.
Additional stressors - divorce, violence & sexual themes on television, increased pressures of school
Too much stress can make a child feel overwhelmed and developmental progress suffers.
Stress Factors for children:
 Family circumstances (most common). divorce, remarriage, two-career families, gay parents.
A young child in a two-career family may experience Change overload from being shuttled
between early morning care, school, and late afternoon supervision.
 Early Pressure to Excel  Media stress - Children have difficulty separating fact from fantasy and struggle to understand
and cope with the violence and sexual themes they regularly encounter. Television
advertising has also been criticized because of unhealthy foods, and low quality toys being
promoted. Movies, popular music and even some children’s books can also be stressful.
 Child abuse and neglect - Parents under stress may react in very inappropriate ways to
children.
 Growing Up Too Quickly - “hurried children” a pervasive element in American society.
Helping Children Cope:
• Be aware of the times we hurry children
• Analyze the effects of stress on children - look at temperament, age, developmental level, and
individual child’s perception of stress.
• Eliminate stressors whenever possible - make sure children eat right, get plenty of rest, slow
down, have time to talk about issues and concerns and avoid inappropriate TV programming.
• Take time to have fun with kids
• Be respectful of children
• Encourage childhood play - play is nature’s way of dealing with stress for children as well as
adults.
Tips for Teachers to help Parents in reducing stress at home:
• Remind without belittling. be nonjudgmental; avoid “lecturing” Remind parents about the
importance of good nutrition, etc.
• Share information from other experts • Use a variety of reminders (parent newsletter, parent meetings, video or book that parents can
check out, notice about a community event that could be a useful tool, etc.
• Avoid a critical attitude • Be a good role model
Teachers’ Personal Development - To maintain the balance needed for effective teaching, adults
working with young children need to make sure to preserve their own social/emotional well-being.
 Eat healthy foods, exercise regularly, and get adequate rest
 Maintain social relationships with other adults
 Take time for yourself with hobbies, interests, etc.
 Know your limits.