Promoting Kindness and Compassion in Young Children

“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build the youth for our future” Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Social Emotional Learning is a vital aspect of early childhood education. Our goal at Earthplace Preschool is to provide the tools that children need to build the foundation for success with interpersonal relationships now, and later in life.

“Qualities like self-awareness, empathy, peaceful problem solving, and self-regulation need to be learned and practiced over time in order to develop consistent behavioral gains.” Ponischill, K. (2014, December 8)

Young Children Learn From Their Caregivers:

In our classrooms, we use many strategies to help our students practice these skills. The first, and possibly most important strategy, is to build a trusting relationship between the child and the teachers. 

“The warmth and support of the caregiver in a child care setting also influence the development of important capabilities in children, including greater social competence, fewer behavior problems, and enhanced thinking and reasoning skills at school age. Young children benefit in these ways because of the secure relationships they develop in such settings, and because of the ways in which the caregivers provide cognitively stimulating activities and support for developing positive relationships with other children.” National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. (2004).

Beginning with home visits prior to the start of the school year, our teachers take the time to become familiar with each child’s interests. We also become acquainted with family members and favorite things about home. Meeting one’s teacher prior to the first day of school in a comfortable setting reduces separation anxiety. 

Once the school year begins, teachers spend the first six weeks of school focusing on the five areas of Social Emotional Learning (as identified by CASEL – Collaborate for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning):

1. Self-awareness: The ability to accurately recognize one’s emotions and thoughts and their influence on behavior. This includes accurately assessing one’s strengths and limitations and possessing a well-grounded sense of confidence and optimism.
2. Self-management: The ability to regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations. This includes managing stress, controlling impulses, motivating oneself, and setting and working toward achieving personal and academic goals.
3. Social awareness: The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others from diverse backgrounds and cultures, to understand social and ethical norms for behavior, and to recognize family, school, and community resources and supports.
4. Relationship skills: The ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups. This includes communicating clearly, listening actively, cooperating, resisting inappropriate social pressure, negotiating conflict constructively, and seeking and offering help when needed.
5. Responsible decision making: The ability to make constructive and respectful choices about personal behavior and social interactions based on consideration of ethical standards, safety concerns, social norms, the realistic evaluation of consequences of various actions, and the well-being of self and others.

Our teachers model kindness in their communication and interactions with one another, and they facilitate prosocial interactions between children throughout the school year. Other strategies we use to facilitate Social Emotional Learning include:

• Using children’s literature as an example of positive and negative interactions.
• Asking each child to draw or write in a feelings journal to describe interpersonal interactions and their impact.
• Have You Filled A Bucket Today? By Carol McCloud - a children's book that uses the concept of an invisible bucket to explain how easy and rewarding it is to express kindness, appreciation, and love by "filling buckets."
• Positive Guidance - Guiding children's behavior is something done throughout the day, not just when a child acts in a way that is unsafe or unacceptable. The teacher guides behavior by establishing predictable routines, setting clear rules with children, and modeling kindness and respect.
• High Scope Method of conflict resolution - ensures that each person has the opportunity to tell his or her side of the story and can engage in finding a solution to the problem.

Citiations:

National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. (2004). Young children develop in an environment of relationships. Working Paper No. 1. Retrieved from https://www.developingchild.net

Ponischill, K. (2014, December 8). Cultivating Kindness and Compassion in Children. Retrieved from https://depts.washington.edu/ccfwb/content/cultivating-kindness-and-compassion-children-0