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
• 共情
• 打开和分享
• 与成年人和同龄人的积极关系

Social-Emotional Milestones

通过早期关系和培养，敏感的互动，婴儿和幼儿学习在关系中的方式，如何获得他们的需求并希望遇到，以及如何识别和规范情绪。因为这些技能发展在一起，这一发展领域被称为社会情绪发展。

以下是一个突出婴幼儿和幼儿在不同年龄发展社交情感技能的图表。请记住，当涉及婴儿和幼儿符合这些里程碑的精确年龄时，存在个别差异。正如在认知，物理和通信课程中突出的那样，里程碑不是判断儿童发展的清单。相反，他们为何时期望幼儿出现的某些技能或行为提供指南，所以您已准备好满足他们的需求。将里程碑视为指导方针，以帮助您理解和识别婴儿和幼儿的增长和发展的典型模式，或帮助您了解他们发展时要何时寻找。您可以继续使用您对这些里程碑的知识来帮助满足您在您的护理中的婴儿和幼儿的需求。尽管图表中突出显示的技能，在生命的前三年的可预测序列中，每个婴儿和幼儿都是独一无二的。你的目标是提供帮助全部infants and toddlers grow and learn to their potential.

记住关于社会情绪里程碑的期望是有助于通过文化价值观和偏好的推动。理论别墅Lev Vygotsky表示，成年人通过日常互动与儿童分享他们的文化价值观和信仰。关于儿童发展的想法，信仰和期望只是文化是独一无二的。意识到和尊重这些差异可以帮助您更好地了解家庭的经验，帮助为您的护理造成婴儿和幼儿。

将社会情感发展与其他发展领域的联系

With our evolving understanding of brain growth and young children’s development, we continue to learn about the ways adult caregivers can be supportive and most effective in helping children develop and learn. This growing understanding also includes how adult caregivers can help children develop social-emotional skills. Through nurturing and trusting relationships, infants and toddlers learn about the world. Their brains mature through interactions, and they can learn that the world is safe as adults are responsive to young children’s needs. They also learn how to form relationships, communicate, respond to challenges, and how to recognize, experience, and regulate their emotions from relationships with caregivers. 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.

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

现在您已阅读里程碑图表，让我们重新审视社会情绪发展的定义，根据零三：

Within the context of one’s family, community and cultural background, social emotional health is the child’s developing capacity to形成安全的关系，体验和规范情绪，探索和学习。

Below, take a closer look at the components 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 her or his unique way of approaching the world. This is called气质。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) defined temperament as the individual personality differences in infants and young children. As Murphy and Moon describe, “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.”

Infants are born with a unique temperament. There is no right or wrong, good or bad temperament. By understanding temperament, you can continue to use what you know about infants and toddlers to encourage their strengths and support their needs. In the Apply section you will review more information about temperament and consider what it means for your role as a responsive caregiver.

No matter how well you understand temperament and are attuned and responsive, there will be times that 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.

Each infant’s or toddler’s relationship experiences and pattern of growth is different. In your work, you observe and track each young child’s particular strengths and possible areas of need. Your screening and assessment process is part of your ongoing routine, and it helps you to recognize and celebrate infants’ and toddlers’ accomplishments. It also helps you to identify red flags—some aspect of the infant’s or toddler’s development that is outside the expected age range.

以下一般策略可以帮助您关心正在经历社会和情感困难的婴儿和幼儿。您还可以与您的主管，培训师或教练讨论其他社区资源和支持您的计划的专家，他们可以提供额外的支持。

• Observe and notice the infant’s or toddler’s cues and responses to environmental stimuli. Think about ways to limit noise level, for example, or visual stimuli.
• 观察并询问自己如果您发现在特定惯例或一天中的婴儿或幼儿中提高了令人沮丧或烦躁。
• 考虑维持物理近距离的方法，并提供温和的触摸，帮助婴儿和幼儿保持控制感。

See

在婴儿和幼儿促进社会情感发展

Do

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

• Respond to infant and toddler’s needs in caring ways.
• 承认一个指向自己或他的家人的照片的婴儿或幼儿 -“That’s right, Bobby, that is a picture of you and your dad!”
• Model caring behaviors and empathy during all interactions.
• Read stories about and show infants and toddlers pictures of different emotions.
• 与您的护理中与婴儿和幼儿家属建立强有力的关系。