7.4: Introducing to the Foundations
The domain of social-emotional development encompasses three areas or strands:
- self
- social interaction
- relationships[1]
Supporting Children’s Developing Self
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
| At around 48 months of age | At around 60 months of age |
| 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
| 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
| 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.