Know

Emotional well-being during the early years has a powerful impact on social relationships. Children who are emotionally healthy are better able to establish and maintain positive relationships with adults as well as with peers. Social-emotional development is essential to a young child’s sense of well-being. Their first relationships help shape who they are, who they become, and their understanding of the world. The important people in young children’s lives help lay the foundation for a range of social-emotional skills such as:

• Self-regulation
• Empathy
• 打开和分享
• Positive relationships with adults and peers

Social-Emotional Milestones

Through early relationships with nurturing and responsive adults, infants and toddlers learn how to be in relationships, how to get their needs and wants met, and how to identify and regulate emotions. Since these skills develop together, this area of development is referred to as social-emotional development.

Below is a chart that highlights how infants and toddlers develop social-emotional skills at different ages. Keep in mind that individual differences exist when it comes to the precise age at which infants and toddlers meet these milestones. Milestones are not checklists with which to judge children’s development. Rather, they provide a guide for when to expect certain skills or behaviors to emerge in young children so you are prepared to meet their changing needs. Think of milestones as guidelines to help you understand and identify typical patterns of growth and development in infants and toddlers. You can continue to use these milestones to help meet the needs of the young children in your care. Although the skills highlighted in the chart develop in a predictable sequence over the first three years of life, each infant and toddler is unique. Your goal is to helpallinfants and toddlers in your family child care setting grow and learn to their potential.

It is helpful to remember that expectations about social-emotional milestones are driven by cultural values and preferences. Adults share their cultural values and beliefs with children through daily interactions. Ideas, beliefs and expectations about child development are just some of the ways cultures are unique. Becoming aware of and respecting these differences can help you better understand families’ experiences that help shape the infants and toddlers in your care.

Social-Emotional Development and Other Areas of Development

随着我们更加了解脑增长和幼儿的发展，我们继续了解成年护理人员可以支持的方式，最有效地帮助儿童发展和学习。这种日益增长的理解还包括成年护理人员如何帮助孩子培养社会情感技能。通过培养和信任关系，婴儿和幼儿了解世界。他们的大脑通过互动成熟，他们可以了解世界是安全的。通过响应于成年人的敏感，他们学习如何形成关系，沟通，响应挑战，承认，经验和规范他们的情绪。

When infants and toddlers feel safe and alert, they are more likely to observe, explore, play, interact, and experiment with people and objects. These experiences lead young children to learn and remember new things. This foundation for learning depends greatly on the quality of infants’ and toddlers’ early environments and relationships. Infants and toddlers are working toward the development of social-emotional competence.

Understanding and Supporting the Social-Emotional Development of Infants and Toddlers

Now that you have read the milestone chart, let’s revisit the definition of social-emotional development according to the organization Zero to Three:

Within the context of one’s family, community and cultural background, social-emotional health is the child’s developing capacity to form secure relationships, experience and regulate emotions, and explore and learn.

Below, take a closer look at the pieces highlighted within this definition to identify additional ways to understand and support the social-emotional development of the infants and toddlers in your care.

支持所有婴儿和幼儿

Every child is born with his or her own unique way of approaching the world. This is calledtemperament。Some young children, for example, are constantly on the move while others prefer to sit and watch the world around them. Some young children enjoy new experiences and meeting new people while others are slower to warm up in new situations.

Rothbart (1989) defines temperament as the individual personality differences in infants and young children. As Murphy and Moon (2010) describe inBabies and Their Senses, “infants and young children vary greatly in their interest in different sensory areas, in the intensity of their attention to sensory stimuli, and in their sensitivity to feelings of comfort and discomfort, familiarity and strangeness, and the emotional context in which sensory experiences occur.”

婴儿出生在一个独特的气质。没有权利或错误，好的或坏气质。通过了解气质，您可以继续使用您对婴儿和幼儿的了解，以鼓励他们的优势和支持他们的需求。在“应用”部分中，您将审核有关气质的更多信息，并考虑您作为响应性护理人员的角色意味着什么。

No matter how well you understand temperament and are attuned and responsive, there will be times when an infant or toddler in your care may not seem to be developing socially and emotionally. Some infants and toddlers may experience social or emotional difficulties. These difficulties may be related to inborn (nature) or environmental (nurture) influences. The caregiving strategies in this lesson apply and relate to all children; however, some children may require an additional level of support.

每个婴儿和幼儿具有独特的增长模式。在您与婴儿和幼儿的日常互动中，您观察每个幼儿的特殊优势和可能的需求领域。您对每个孩子的发展观察是您正在进行的日常生活的一部分，它有助于您认识和庆祝婴儿和幼儿的成就。它还可以帮助您识别红旗 - 婴儿或幼儿的发展的某些方面，这些方面并不符合预期年龄范围。

The following general strategies can help you care for infants and toddlers who experience social and emotional difficulties. Think about ways to maintain physical closeness and to offer gentle touch to help struggling infants and toddlers maintain a sense of control. You should always talk with a child’s parents to learn about any changes in home or other routines. You may recommend that parents contact their health-care provider and ask about completing a developmental screening for their child to identify any possible developmental delays. Stay informed about any additional community resources and specialists who may offer additional support to the family or to you.

• Observe the infant’s or toddler’s cues and responses to environmental stimuli. Think about ways to limit noise level, for example, or visual stimuli.
• Look for patterns of increased frustration or irritability in the infant or toddler during particular routines or times of day.
• 考虑维持身体接近的方法，并提供温和的触感，帮助挣扎婴儿和幼儿保持控制感。

See

Promoting Social Emotional Development in Infants and Toddlers

Do

You can the promote social-emotional development of infants and toddlers in several ways:

• Respond to infants’ and toddlers’ needs with caring.
• Acknowledge an infant or toddler who points to a picture of himself or his family: “That’s right, Bobby that is a picture of you and your dad!”
• Model caring behaviors and empathy during all interactions.
• Read stories about feelings and show infants and toddlers pictures of people experiencing different emotions, like angry, sad, happy, and content.
• Build strong relationships with the families of infants and toddlers in your care.