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Promoting Social Emotional Competence

Social Emotional

Teaching Strategies

CSEFEL2

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Agenda

• Introduction• Identifying “teachable moments”• Positive relationships as an essential

foundation• Friendship skills• Emotional literacy• Controlling anger and impulse• Problem solving• Dealing with common peer problems

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CSEFEL’s Key Principles

• Intensity

• Clear Criteria for Efficacy• Cost and Time Efficiency• Long-term Essential Outcomes• Family Centeredness• Cultural Sensitivity and

CompetenceCSEFEL

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Learner Objectives

• Participants will understand when and where the most effective “teachable moments” are related to social skills and emotional regulation.

• Participants will understand why rules are essential for early childhood classrooms.

• Participants will be able to identify the criteria for developing rules with young children.

• Participants will be able to identify friendship skills and how to teach them.

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Learner Objectives

• Participants will be able to define emotional literacy and identify five activities that build “feeling vocabularies.”

• Participants will understand why children need to learn to control anger and handle disappointment and will be able to identify four strategies to teach anger management skills.

• Participants will understand the importance of teaching problem solving and will be able to identify the four stages of problem solving.

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Promoting Social Emotional Competence

Creating Supportive EnvironmentsCreating Supportive Environments

Building Positive RelationshipsBuilding Positive Relationships

Social Emotional Social Emotional Teaching StrategiesTeaching Strategies

Individualized Individualized Intensive Intensive

InterventionsInterventions

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Identifying Teachable Moments

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Building Positive Relationships with

Children

Play Time &

Attention

Home

visitsShare

Empathy

Notes

home

Happy

Grams

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Friendship Skills

• How to give suggestions (play organizers)

• Sharing toys and other materials• Turn taking (reciprocity) • Being helpful• Giving compliments• Understanding how and when to

give an apologyCSEFEL

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Play Organizers

• Rationale• Describe

– Get friend’s attention– Give friend a toy– Give idea what to do with toy or play

idea• Demonstrate

– Right way– Wrong way

• Practice• Promote

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Sharing

• Rationale• Describe skill

– Child has materials– Offers or responds to request from

peer for materials• Demonstrate

– Right way– Wrong way

• Practice• Promote

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Turn Taking

• Rationale• Describe skill

– Get friend’s attention (look, tap, call)– Hold out hand– Ask for toy

• Demonstrate– Right way– Wrong way

• Practice• Promote

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Being Helpful/Teamwork

• Rationale• Describe skill

– How to help at home– How to help at school

• Demonstrate– Right way– Wrong way

• Practice• Promote

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Giving Compliments

• Rationale• Describe

– Verbal – say things like:• “Good job _____!”• “Great _____!”• “I like the way you _____!”

– Physical – Do things like:• Hug• Pat on the shoulder• High Five

• Demonstrate– Right way– Wrong way

• Practice• Promote

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Knowing When and How to Give Apologies

• Rationale• Describe skill

– “I’m sorry that___”– “I didn’t mean to ___”

• Demonstrate– Right way– Wrong way

• Practice• Promote

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Setting the Stage for Friendship

• Inclusive setting• Cooperative use toys• Embed opportunities• Social interaction goals and

objectives• Ethos of friendship

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Strategies for Developing Friendship Skills

• Modeling principles• Modeling with video• Modeling with puppets• Preparing peer partners• Buddy system• Priming• Direct modeling• Reinforcement

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Enhancing Emotional Literacy

• Learning words for different feelings• Learning how to recognize feelings in

self and others

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Increasing Feeling Vocabularies

• Direct teaching• Incidental teaching• Use children’s literature• Use songs and games• Play “How would you feel if?”• Checking in• Feeling dice and feeling wheels

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Feeling Activities

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Identifying Feelings inSelf and Others

• Learning ways to relax• Empathy training

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Relaxation Thermometer

Take 3 deep

breaths…1..2..3

Adapted from Incredible Years Dinosaur School

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Identifying Feelings inSelf and Others

Empathy Training

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Key Concepts with Feelings

• Feelings change• You can have more than one feeling

about something• You can feel differently than

someone else about the same thing• All feelings are valid – it is what you

do with them that countsCSEFEL

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Controlling Anger and Impulse

• Recognizing that anger can interfere with problem solving

• Learning how to recognize anger in oneself and others

• Learning how to calm down• Understanding appropriate ways to

express angerCSEFEL

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Questions about teaching young children to control anger and handle disappointment?

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Problem Solving

• Learning problem solving steps• Thinking of alternative solutions• Learning that solutions have

consequences

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Would it be safe?Would it be fair?How would everyone feel?

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Problem Solving

• Learning to evaluate solutions- Is it safe? Is it Fair? Good Feelings?

• What to do when a solution doesn’t work

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Problem-Solving Activities

• Problematize everything– “We have 6 kids at the snack table

and only one apple. We have a problem. Does anyone have a solution?”

• Play “What would you do if…?”• Children make their own “solution

kits”• Children offer solutions to problems

that occur in children’s storiesCSEFEL2

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Supporting Young Children with Problem Solving

in the Moment

• Anticipate problems• Seek proximity• Support • Encourage• Promote

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Dealing with CommonPeer Problems

• Teaching alternative responses to being teased, bullied, or yelled at

• Teaching children to speak up when something is bothering them, “Please stop”

• Teaching children to be good ignorers (using a “Teasing Shield”)

• Teaching aggressors skills to initiate play and to feel sorry

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Key Points

• Intentionally teach – Friendship skills– How to recognize feelings in

oneself and others– How to “calm down”– How to control anger and impulse– How to problem solve– How to deal with common peer

problemsCSEFEL2

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Promoting Social Emotional Competence

Creating Supportive EnvironmentsCreating Supportive Environments

Building Positive RelationshipsBuilding Positive Relationships

Social Emotional Social Emotional Teaching StrategiesTeaching Strategies

Individualized Individualized Intensive Intensive

InterventionsInterventions