Recent research has increased the awareness of parents, educators, and policy makers about the importance of the early years of life. The remarkable transformation that occurs in all areas of development during the first 5 years of life lays the foundation for all future learning. How children will learn and the pace at which they learn will be influenced by the environments they encounter. Environments, which encourage children’s development, will support them physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually. Physical needs will be supported through programs that improve, support, and enhance their growth and physical development. Emotional, social, and intellectual development will be supported through programs that use an integrated approach to programming. These types of programs allow children to develop skills that will enable them to adapt to and seek mastery of their surroundings as well as provide a foundation which will ensure lifelong and meaningful learning.
The Global Children’s Initiative is a great program to ensure healthy development in all domains. Physical and mental health are significant determinants of school readiness. Teaching teams learn about specific strategies that ensure children can achieve their maximum potential in these areas. Overall health and physical fitness include three elements: gross motor skills, fine motor skills, and health status and practices. Social-emotional development includes the child’s experience, expression, and management of emotions and the ability to establish positive and rewarding relationships with others (Cohen and others 2005). It encompasses both intra- and interpersonal processes. The core features of emotional development include the ability to identify and understand one’s own feelings, to accurately read and comprehend emotional states in others, to manage strong emotions and their expression in a constructive manner, to regulate one’s own behavior, to develop empathy for others, and to establish and maintain relationships. (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child 2004, 2)
Cohen, J., and others. 2005. Helping Young Children Succeed: Strategies to Promote Early Childhood Social and Emotional Development. Washington, DC: National Conference of State Legislatures and Zero to Three. http://www.zerotothree.org/policy (Outside Source)(accessed on December 7, 2006)
National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. Winter, 2004. “Children’s Emotional Development Is Built into the Architecture of Their Brains,” Working Paper No. 2. http://www.developingchild.net (Outside Source)(accessed on December 5, 2006)
Tameka-
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post. You provided so much interesting information and resources for me to explore. I especially appreciate the information on children's emotional development and their ability to relate to others and regulate their emotions. I am passionate about this topic and I think it is as important as a child's academic development.
Katherine
I agree with your mention of educating the public about early care and learning research. So often I think people, even parents of young children, do not realize how important quality care is in the development.
ReplyDeleteEmotional Literacy (being able to identify emotions in self and others) is a critical developmental point for social emotional development. Without this, the social skills that our young learners need to develop for success are difficult at best to accomplish.
ReplyDeleteTameka-
ReplyDeleteI am in the same boat you are-my contact have not responded either. It is very frustrating, I feel that I am missing out on something great.
On the issue of over all health-it is very important. If a child is not healthy it is hard to expect them to perform at the same level as a child with good health. Emotional development or lack of was something that I saw when I taught Kinder. There was a large gap between children who could manage their behavior and express their feelings and those that just did not have the skills. In talking with parents it was apparent why. Thank you for the great post.