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CHCFC504A: Support emotional and psychological development in early childhood

Create opportunities and provide experiences that encourage children to express their feelings, needs and ideas

Contents

Identify and monitor children’s emotional development and expression of feelings 3

Emotional development of infants 3

Emotional development of toddlers 6

Emotional development of the preschooler 8

Emotional development of the school-aged child 10

Listen to and respond to children’s expression of feelings and ideas 12

Encourage and demonstrate socially appropriate ways for children to express their feelings and needs 12

Ensure expectations about how children express their feelings are related to child’s stage of development 14

Interactions and experiences to foster emotional and psychological development 14

Provide opportunities for children to release feelings and express emotion through suitable experiences 15

Encourage children to appreciate one another’s achievements 19

2 Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCFC504A: Reader LO 9312 © NSW DET 2010

Identify and monitor children’s emotional development and expression of feelings

Emotional development of infantsAs a child progresses through infancy, we find that the child is both growing physically but also socially and emotionally. In this topic we are going to mainly discuss the emotional aspects of the child’s development. Social development is examined in a different learning topic. You will find, though, many textbooks talk about them together. This is because these two domains work very closely together. Look at the definition of emotional development in the earlier activity. We said it was the development of feelings and learning to control and express those feelings appropriately. The whole concept of expressing feelings appropriately is linked to the social acceptance of these emotions.

You can probably picture very clearly a two-year-old child lying on the floor of the supermarket screaming blue murder because Mum has said ‘no’ to a lolly at the checkout. Now picture a 12-year-old child in the same situation. Hopefully none of you are able to see that 12-year-old on their belly on the floor kicking their legs and screaming. Why is this so? A large part is of course the 12-year-old’s cognitive functioning and increased language skills which means they don’t need to resort to these extremes; however, there is also the social aspect. It is not socially acceptable for 12-year-olds to act in this way and we usually try to ensure our children are behaving in socially acceptable ways.

Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCFC504A: Reader LO 9312 3© NSW DET 2010

Liam’s emotional developmentTo begin our study of a child’s progression through emotional development, we are going to read Liam’s Mum’s description of his journey for the first twelve months of his life.

Liam, ten minutes old

Here is Liam, he is ten minutes old. He is lying in my arms, looking around, very quiet. For the past nine months he has been developing at an amazing rate; now his journey towards adulthood begins. We’ve put him on my breast soon after birth so he can drink the colostrum which will help his immunity and also to help he and I to bond. He demonstrated the moro or startle reflex when tested by the doctor. He bent his arms back and brought them in close to his body, giving a cry at the same time. This is one of the primary reflexes that the doctors will look for.

Liam one month old

Liam is now one month old. He and I have been getting to know each other. I’ve discovered that Liam can very effectively communicate his needs to us. I’ve been able to distinguish three different cries. One cry is used when he is hungry - this cry seems to be quite rhythmic and even. I got the fright of my life when he was in pain as this really shrill cry made me come running. His other cry, his mad cry, was heard when I’ve had to put him down mid-feed to help his sister. He really likes his food!

Liam three months old

In the last two months we have seen Liam growing so very quickly. He is able to communicate with us in many different ways. When he is hungry he cries, when he is happy he smiles. It was so exciting when we saw his first social smile at six weeks. He laughs when we tickle him. He lets us know when he is angry! He knows my voice and likes to be with me but will happily be nursed by other people providing he is not hungry or really tired.

Liam six months old

Now Liam is six months old and he seems such a big boy. He still shows his emotions mainly through crying and laughing. He is generally a ‘slow to warm up’ temperament type. This means that he will respond to new situations and people slowly. He appears to be a little shy. This is interesting because his sister is an easy-temperament type and responds to all people quite cheerfully.


Liam nine months old

At nine months, Liam is laughing at lots at different things. We don’t need to tickle him to get him to laugh, just pulling faces often works or putting a nappy on his head and saying ‘boo’. He gets angry a little more often, especially if he can’t reach something or his sister takes something from him. He is now showing some attachment behaviours. He has demonstrated a variety of proximity-seeking behaviours such as crying, laughing to gain our attention and of course has started to demonstrate stranger anxiety. When strangers come along now, he tends to cling to me more and will often hide his face or cry if I go to give him to them. He appears to have become much more fearful in the past couple of months. He seems to be taking cues from us as to how to react in some situations. For example when he saw his sister and Dad approaching his cousin’s very large Rhodesian Ridgeback dog and patting him, he appeared to be more comfortable approaching the dog. This social referencing is much more apparent as he gets older.

Liam twelve months old

Now that he is twelve months old he is in the peak of separation and stranger anxiety. He wants to be with me more than anyone else, though Dad will do as well. He is still a happy and contented baby who will laugh when we do funny things but he tries to stay as close to me as possible in new situations. He appears to be a securely attached baby as he is able to explore new environments, even though he will take a little time to warm up to them and uses me as an anchor or secure base in which to explore.

Activity 1

TemperamentAn infant’s temperament will determine how well the baby ‘fits in’, the types of interactions you can have with an infant and to some extent the caregiving strategies that should be used. Complete the following activity to learn more about this important topic.

Activity 2

Caregiving and temperament typeIt is vitally important that we match our caregiving strategies to the temperament type of the child. Researchers call this ‘goodness of fit’(Berk 1999). If children are not given appropriate care for their temperament type, it may have consequences. ‘A good fit between parenting practices and child temperament helps children whose temperaments predispose them to adjustment problems to function more adaptively.’ (Berk 1999 p270) This also must apply for the caregiver


in a children’s service. Caregivers need to try to ensure a ‘goodness of fit’ between themselves and the children they care for.

When I was the Director of a 40-place children’s service where part of my role was to interview and help orientate new parents and children, one particular family came into my care. Their nine-month-old infant came and sat on my lap at the very first meeting and from then on wanted to be with me. It was almost as if he chose me to be his primary caregiver initially. The other staff initially said ‘he’s Margaret’s baby’. There was obviously an initial rapport felt between the baby and myself that we worked on to develop an attachment relationship. Of course, it isn’t always this easy and obvious. There are times when you need to work really hard to establish relationships and rapport with children.

Activity 3

Emotional development of toddlersToddlers are usually active explorers of their environment. As they are now mobile they can begin to go beyond the early confines of their immediate environment. They can quickly run across the grass or room and usually are beginning to have much more interaction with the environment and the people around them. This is of course going to impact on the emotional development of toddlers.

Liam’s emotional development through toddlehood

Read on for Liam’s Mum’s description of his emotional development through toddlerhood.

Liam at eighteen months

Liam at two years Liam at two years 6 months


Liam is now a toddler at 18 months. He is exploring his environment much more actively, but uses me as a safe harbour or anchor. He will move away a little and be engrossed in his play, suddenly realise I’m not right there, look around and come back to me. It is almost like he needs to be ‘topped up’ with security. New people or events will ensure that he seeks me out. When he looks in the mirror at himself and we ask him who that is, he will say ‘Liam’ (well, his version of ‘Liam’). He is fairly placid and even- tempered, though gets frustrated if there is something he wants and can’t have it. He has developed a secondary attachment for his carer, Dawn. He will protest initially when I leave, but will quickly calm down and is generally happy most of the day in care.

He is now two. We had our first tantrum the other day! He was lying down in the supermarket and crying and screaming for several minutes. Yes, everyone was looking! He now seems to be able to feel shame and embarrassment. When he has done something he shouldn’t and we say ‘LIAM’, he will look down and turn away from us. He sat on the toilet on his second birthday and did a ‘wee’! We were all so surprised. Every night for the rest of the week he would rip his nappy off and get on the toilet. By Saturday we put him in undies as he wouldn’t keep the nappy on. He appears to watch his sister very closely and wants to keep up with her in every aspect. He doesn’t, however, like to share any of his toys with her. Sometimes it looks like he will by giving her something, then ten seconds later will demand it back.

He is 2 years 6 months and no longer seems like a baby. He is very vocal and can certainly make his feelings known. He is quick to smile and laugh and yet will just as quickly cry and be angry. I’m starting to see a little bit of jealousy happening. If his sister is having a cuddle because she has been hurt, for instance, he will come up and want to cuddle as well. When he has done something he shouldn’t he will look guilty. We had an interesting time with fears in the last six months. Every night before we went to bed, we said, ‘sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite’. This was fine until he saw a computer game that had lots of dinosaurs on it. One night he woke up in the middle of the night extremely upset and said: ‘the bed bugs are getting me.’ He spent the rest of the night in our bed. The next night as I was putting him to bed, he refused to get in as the ‘bed bugs’ were going to get him. This fear seemed very real.

Activity 4

Emotional opportunities for toddlersToddlers at times appear to be constantly demonstrating their emotions. Toddlerhood itself appears to be a time of great highs and lows, extreme happiness and delight to extreme frustration and anger. As caregivers, part of our primary role is to ensure that toddlers can begin to express themselves


emotionally in a constructive and appropriate way. This is of course difficult, as the toddler usually has limited language and reasoning skills

Activity 5

When people are under emotional pressure it is sometimes hard to name our emotions. By giving them the words, you are helping children realise that it’s OK to feel. It’s OK to be angry, happy, sad, etc. What is usually not OK is to hurt someone else or damage property, so we need to ensure that we model socially acceptable ways of dealing with our emotions.

Activity 6

Activity 7

Play and emotional developmentPlay is essential to children’s wellbeing within all domains of development. Emotional development is no exception. Play allows children to deal with their emotions, especially difficult or complex emotions.

Emotional development of the preschoolerThree- to five-year-olds are now becoming much more independent and socially more competent. They are beginning to be able to control and express their emotions much more appropriately than the two-year-old child. They are also beginning to use their initiative to manage and control their play situations and home lives. Read on for Liam’s Mum’s description of his emotional development through his preschool years.


Liam’s emotional development

Liam as a preschooler

Liam’s preschool years have been absolutely delightful. He is developing a lovely personality and appears to be a happy and settled child. He loves giving people cuddles and usually has a big smile on his face. However, saying that, not all situations are rosy! He started preschool when he had just turned three, one day a week. It was fourth term and there were lots of big five-year-olds who were very ready for school. He was visibly upset every morning which made it quite difficult to leave him. We persevered and breathed a big sigh of relief when the Christmas holidays came around. He was not happy about being in the Christmas concert at preschool. While everyone was singing the songs, Liam sat in the front row with his hands cupped around his jaw and a distinctly unhappy look on his face. ‘You might say I’ve got to be here, but it doesn’t mean I have to join in or enjoy it’ was the message that was conveyed to the audience. Half-way through, he got up and went and sat on Dad’s lap for the rest of the concert. It was obviously too much too soon for my ‘slow to warm up’ lad. Fortunately after the Christmas holidays, when he came back to preschool, he settled in very quickly, with little or no separation anxiety. It’s almost like he knows what to expect now so it’s OK to be here. He quickly made friends with some of the other children.

He is becoming very aware of emotions and can tell us if he or someone else is feeling happy or sad. He is able to identify and name some emotions. He can also understand the cause of someone’s emotion – ‘Elizabeth is sad because her guinea pig died’. He will offer comfort to others who are sad. He is beginning to regulate his emotions—I don’t see any temper tantrums any more. He shows both guilt and pride but doesn’t use those terms. He looks guilty when he does something wrong. I can tell straightaway when he has done something he knows he shouldn’t have.


Liam responds well to positive reinforcement

Liam responds really well to positive reinforcement; he will eat his dinner or sit quietly if hearing his sister being praised for this. Positively praising his behaviour appears to make him more positive in his behaviour. He is able to be empathetic to others, using his language to console his friend when someone was ‘mean’ to him. He uses his initiative to come up with ideas for us to do something: ‘I’ve got a good idea Mum, let’s make pikelets for afternoon tea.’

Activity 8

Emotional opportunities for preschoolersPreschoolers are much more self-sufficient than they were in their toddler years. This is of course leading to a whole new set of problems, issues and emotional awareness, not to mention sources of conflict. The preschooler’s world usually begins to expand during this stage to include friends and others not directly linked to the family. These relationships will be discussed in later learning topics when we are focusing on social development. For now, though, we need to look at how we can support children as they navigate through the sometimes emotional minefield that they may encounter.

As with the other stages of development, the caregiver input is going to directly influence how preschoolers handle emotions and situations during this time. Try the following activity. If you cannot initially think of any of the answers, you have a variety of textbooks at your disposal in the form of the Curriculum Framework, QIAS documents and of course the websites we have previously identified.

Emotional development of the school-aged childOnce children leave preschool and embark on the adventure of ‘big school’, we see major changes in this child’s emotional development. They are no longer so dependant on their immediate family for their feelings of self-worth. Peers and school teachers begin to have more of an impact on the child. The child will feel


pride and shame, but unlike earlier years they won’t need adults to provide the motivation for this. That is, adults don’t need to say ‘well done’ for the child to realise they have achieved something (Berk 1996).

School-aged children begin to realise people can experience more than one emotion at a time, that it is possible to be excited but also scared, happy but also sad. They are much more aware of others’ thoughts and feelings.

Emotional opportunities for middle childhoodIn middle childhood, we now have children usually very able to communicate. They are able to label the emotions and most children have developed acceptable ways of communicating these emotions. However, providing children with opportunities to relieve stress, tension and emotions is still as vital as in the preschool and toddler years.

As the children are older, they are usually beginning to need to deal with some of the more complex emotions like envy, greed, disappointment and so on. In the school years we need to ensure that we are:

• helping children interpret the emotions of others• redirecting unacceptable emotional expression (aggression, verbal

abuse, etc)• providing encouragement of non-stereotypical behaviours, skills

and play• encouraging autonomy, initiative and industry, choices and

decision making at different stages• encouraging children to see consequences and accept

responsibility for their actions, when appropriate• developing optimism and resilience.


Listen to and respond to children’s expression of feelings and ideas

Encourage and demonstrate socially appropriate ways for children to express their feelings and needsExpressing our feelings and needs is a vital skill. How you express your feelings will be dependant on what was modelled to you and what was considered acceptable in your family and early care situations. Discovering what is acceptable and not acceptable is always a challenge.

Caregivers need to use language that shows clearly their own emotions and the emotions of the children in order that children can begin to express their feelings and needs appropriately. For example, caregivers will need to ensure that they are using emotion words to describe how they are feeling and also to label how the children are feeling. ‘Simon, I can see that you are feeling very happy today with all that laughing.’

Hyson (1990), in her book, The emotional development of young children, outlines several strategies that will encourage emotional understandings for children. These strategies are:

• emphasising activities that support understanding. These types of activities are centred around dramatic play. Some examples are described under the next heading.

• mirroring children’s emotional expressions by sharing emotional expressions with children, eg smile when they smile

• responding to the children’s feelings by being in tune and sensitive to children’s feelings and responding appropriately, for example a hug when the child is hurt or sad

• labelling children’s emotions• talking about causes of feelings—informally talking with the

children about why they are feeling in certain ways.

All of these strategies will ensure that we are encouraging children to express their feelings and needs in an appropriate manner which also gets the right


message across. Providing opportunities for children to express their emotions in a safe environment helps them work out what is and is not acceptable.

It is important also to listen attentively to children to encourage them to express their needs and feelings. Practising active listening techniques with children is just as important as with adults. Children need to know that you are listening to them. You can show people you are listening by:

• being at the same level as the people you are listening to: don’t stand over them—if they are sitting, sit down also

• making eye contact with them—looking at people tells them that you are listening and attending

• don’t interrupt but give encouragement through non-verbal responses such as nodding your head or making ‘umm’ or ‘uh hu’ sounds.

You will be able to identify and name the children’s feelings by ensuring you are listening and responding appropriately to the children. It is also important to avoid negative labelling of children. Using words such as silly, naughty, bad, stupid, dummy and so on will help children to retain negative images of themselves and their abilities, thus damaging their emotional development. We need to be giving children a range of strategies for dealing with adverse and positive situations.


Ensure expectations about how children express their feelings are related to child’s stage of development

Interactions and experiences to foster emotional and psychological developmentFostering emotional and psychological development should occur in every interaction we have with children. The messages we are sending them in our interactions should be that ‘you are an important and special person to me’. We do this through our basic caregiving strategies, the way we greet and farewell children, the provisions we implement for children, the way we interact with their family and so on. Respectful interactions with the child and their family are the key here. Complete the following activity on respectful interactions from the NSW Curriculum Framework to further your understanding of what these are.

Modelling appropriate behavioursAs childcare workers, it is vital that we ensure the behaviours we exhibit are appropriate to the situation. Children imitate adults and other children. Unfortunately, though, they will imitate both the appropriate and inappropriate behaviours. Why is this so? It usually happens because the child has received some sort of reinforcement. You can probably picture the situation where the two year old repeats a swear word for the first time. What was the reaction of the people around? It is usually disbelief and often accompanied by laughter. The child sees this and thinks: ‘That was a good response, I’ll do it again.’ This works equally well with appropriate behaviours too.

The same situation occurs when we bite children back. We are reinforcing the behaviour. It is negative reinforcement. It might initially stop the behaviour but it


is also telling the child that it’s alright for bigger people to bite little people, rather than telling the child that biting is unacceptable.

So, how can we in a centre ensure we are modelling appropriate behaviours? One strategy is to ensure that all caregivers in the room agree what is appropriate and what’s not. Once this has happened caregivers can ensure that they are consistently modelling to the children and each other the behaviours that they want to see replicated.

Praise and reward appropriate behaviour. It is really easy to fall into the trap of constantly punishing negative behaviour and ignoring the positive behaviour. Ensure that the behaviour you are modelling is appropriate for the understandings of the child. Read this following scenario:

Activity 9

Hopefully you can clearly see that we need to ensure we are modelling developmentally appropriate skills and understandings. We need to ensure that we are explaining why we do certain things.


Encourage and demonstrate socially appropriate ways for children to express their feelings and needs

Expressing our feelings and needs is a vital skill. How you express your feelings will be dependant on what was modelled to you and what was considered acceptable in your family and early care situations. Discovering what is acceptable and not acceptable is always a challenge.

Caregivers need to use language that shows clearly their own emotions and the emotions of the children in order that children can begin to express their feelings and needs appropriately. For example, caregivers will need to ensure that they are using emotion words to describe how they are feeling and also to label how the children are feeling. 'Simon, I can see that you are feeling very happy today with all that laughing.'

Hyson (1990), in her book, The emotional development of young children, outlines several strategies that will encourage emotional understandings for children. These strategies are:

• emphasising activities that support understanding. These types of activities are centred around dramatic play. Some examples are described under the next heading.

• mirroring children’s emotional expressions by sharing emotional expressions with children, eg smile when they smile

• responding to the children’s feelings by being in tune and sensitive to children’s feelings and responding appropriately, for example a hug when the child is hurt or sad

• labelling children’s emotions

• talking about causes of feelings—informally talking with the children about why they are feeling in certain ways.

All of these strategies will ensure that we are encouraging children to express their feelings and needs in an appropriate manner which also gets the right message across. Providing opportunities for children to express their emotions in a safe environment helps them work out what is and is not acceptable.


It is important also to listen attentively to children to encourage them to express their needs and feelings. Practising active listening techniques with children is just as important as with adults. Children need to know that you are listening to them. You can show people you are listening by:

• being at the same level as the people you are listening to: don’t stand over them—if they are sitting, sit down also

• making eye contact with them—looking at people tells them that you are listening and attending

• don’t interrupt but give encouragement through non-verbal responses such as nodding your head or making 'umm' or 'uh hu' sounds.

You will be able to identify and name the children’s feelings by ensuring you are listening and responding appropriately to the children. It is also important to avoid negative labelling of children. Using words such as silly, naughty, bad, stupid, dummy and so on will help children to retain negative images of themselves and their abilities, thus damaging their emotional development. We need to be giving children a range of strategies for dealing with adverse and positive situations.

Activity 10

Provide opportunities for children to release feelings and express emotion through suitable experiences

Encouraging emotional expression through creative, dramatic and sensory experiencesPlay gives us a unique opportunity to help children release emotional tension or express feelings on issues that they are dealing with. Through play we can provide soothing experiences for the tense child. We can provide dramatic play situations for the child who needs to work through difficult issues. We can encourage friendships for children who need to feel secure in the environment. This brings us to the question of how caregivers can encourage children to express their emotions through play. To begin to answer this question, we are going to look at three different types of experiences: creative experiences, dramatic experiences and sensory experiences.


Activity 11

Some examples:

Creative play Dramatic play

Linking opportunities with emotional expression 1So now we have a range of opportunities at our disposal, the question is how do these link with emotional expression? Have you ever observed a group of adults who are near playdough? They without fail tend to pick up the playdough and squeeze it between their fingers, massaging and manipulating it. They usually continue to do so for some time and are often unaware of their squeezing and manipulation. Why do we do this? Playdough can be an excellent way of helping us release stress. Just that simple repetitive movement releases tension that we didn’t even know we had. It is soothing and calming.

Finger painting is another activity that can be very satisfying and soothing. Often I plan to use finger painting in my class of adult students for around 5–10 minutes. We sit around large tables, music playing in the background, and paint directly onto the table so that paper doesn’t tear or get in the way and we simply finger paint. Most people tend to use large movements, eventually getting both hands in. (There are always one or two people who initially resist getting their hands messy.) Every time I have used this activity with students, my 5–10 minute session lasts 20–30 minutes. The students usually appear calm and often are reluctant to stop. When we talk about the experience later, words like soothing and relaxing are usually used to describe the experience. Both of the above activities are stress- or tension-relieving art-type experiences.

Both creative and sensory activities will provide children with opportunities to work through different emotions. If you are feeling irritated, for example, it could be very satisfying to get a dish mop and whack it on the paper, watching the splatter of the paint and feeling the irritation slowly seep away at every satisfying splat! Painting when you are feeling happy is a great way to express this. Working with clay, coming back to nature, can help soothe feelings of anger or frustration. Having essential oils such as lavender in the playdough is another way of providing


a calming activity for children. Providing these opportunities for children will help their emotional development.

Dramatic play provides another opportunity for children to express and work through emotional experiences. Children of all ages are negotiating difficult situations in their lives. Try this next activity.

Activity 12

Linking opportunities with emotional expression 2At any one time you will find a child, or in some cases many children, being involved in difficult situations. When I was the director of a preschool, a child’s mother died very unexpectedly. She was the secretary of our parent committee and a well-known member of the preschool community. This had a devastating effect on all the parents and staff in the preschool, which had to be explained to the children. Her child actually came to preschool that day, telling everyone: ‘My Mummy died last night.’ He, of course, at four had no concept what that meant. As you can imagine, many emotions were in evidence that day. In this situation we needed to get outside help straightaway. Fortunately this doesn’t happen very often but there are many other stresses that appear in children’s lives almost every day. How can we help children deal with these?

Dramatic play is an excellent medium in which children can work through their emotions. The sensitive caregiver will be aware of what is happening in the children’s lives and plan appropriate experiences around that. When my son had to go to hospital for a hernia operation, he came back to preschool with the signed teddy bear that had been given to him by the hospital staff and a variety of other things like syringes and the oxygen mask that he had been given by the hospital staff. The staff at his preschool had also turned the dramatic play area into a hospital where he could then go and work through the experience. He brought in his equipment from the hospital to show everyone and engaged in dramatic play with his friends.


Dramatic play is an excellent medium in which children can work through their emotions

When children have a new sibling, often dramatic play areas become baby-bathing areas and nappy-changing areas so that the child can work through the experience. The above ideas are only a few of the planned experiences we can implement.


Encourage children to appreciate one another’s achievements

Finally we should encourage children to encourage each other. When we are encouraging a child by praising, for example, a drawing or a helpful behaviour, we could also include the other children by suggesting that they also agree that the painting is good, or that the helpful behaviour was indeed very helpful. We cannot always rely on modelling— sometimes a little more is required.


clips word template - tafe nsw€¦ · web viewwhen my son had to go to hospital for a hernia...

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