Keyword: Social Development
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Meetups for Preschoolers: Have a Great Playdate!
My children grew up on a block full of kids. Occasionally, they had playdates with school friends, but usually they could step outdoors and find age-mates who were ready to play. Many parents now tell me it’s gotten much harder to get their preschoolers together with friends outside of school. That’s why playdates have become…
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Supporting Young Children’s Friendships
This toolkit includes information on the development of skills needed to develop friendships, strategies adults can use to support young children at home and in the classroom, and tips to help children reconnect after a long separation.
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Helping Children with Big Feelings
Big feelings such as frustration or being upset can lead to strong reactions in adults and children. For children who have little control over their environment, these feelings can occur for reasons adults see as inconsequential or silly. Regardless of what causes a meltdown, teaching, modeling, and supporting them to calm down in that big…
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“I’m Missing My Friends!” Supporting Young Children’s Emotions During the Pandemic
The global COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted school, work, routines, schedules, and friendships. As difficult as this time is for adults, children are also struggling to process these changes while missing their friends. We will share strategies for supporting children’s emotional well-being during this time.
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Families, Social-Emotional Learning, and the Pandemic
In this podcast, we speak with Kelly Russell, the program director of CU Early, which serves infants, toddlers, and expectant parents in Champaign, Urbana, and Mahomet. We explore how the pandemic has changed service delivery for home visits, developmental screenings, and support groups. We also delve into the changing social and emotional needs of families…
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Play
There are many pieces to the play puzzle for young children. This toolkit will define play, describe the types and benefits of play, and provide ideas and examples of play at home and in school & child care.
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COVID-19 Parenting Pep Talk: (Re)focus on Positive Guidance
In spring 2020, our world was turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. In Illinois, our stay-at-home order has caused drastic changes in daily routines for everyone. With schools, many childcare centers, and most other places closed to stop the spread of COVID-19, we have found our daily routines profoundly changed.
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Positive Guidance for Young Children: Be Thoughtful
Young children are learning to manage their behaviors and feelings. Your responses matter to children in these moments. Sometimes adults need to stop behaviors that are unsafe or extremely disruptive and help children understand how to behave appropriately.
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Positive Guidance for Young Children: Take a Break and Calm Down
Young children are learning to manage their behavior and feelings. At times, they may be “out of control” and need an adult to help them calm down and learn how to express their emotions in appropriate ways.
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Positive Guidance for Young Children: Plan Ahead
Young children are curious and actively explore the world.
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Positive Guidance for Young Children: Be Consistent
Young children are learning to manage their behaviors and feelings. They may need many reminders of what appropriate behavior looks like. Clear directions from adults in a calm, firm tone of voice help children know what to do.
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Supporting Children with the Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Preschool Classrooms
On this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Emily Dorsey, project director of the Illinois Early Learning Project.
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Social and Emotional Development
This section of the guidelines describes how infants and toddlers develop relationships with the people around them, develop a sense of self, and learn to be sensitive to the wants and needs of other people.
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Are You Being a Monkey?
In this video, we see the beginning stages of a friendship connection as we watch 3-year-old Aaron try to engage his peer, John, age 5. Children begin by observing each other and playing side by side. In time, friendships become more complex. Younger children are often very interested in the activities of older children.
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‘Look at Your Lines!’
Teachers help children develop their science skills by creating engaging activities that activate children’s curiosity and desire to discover the properties of materials. A visual art activity, such as the finger painting activity we see in this video, can be an opportunity to explore science concepts.
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What Can You Tell Me Baby?
Language development begins very early as children listen to the voices of their caregivers and the sounds and rhythms of the language being spoken around them. Very young infants even try to participate in communication by looking at their caregivers and making sounds.
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How Teachers Can Help When a Child Says, “Mommy, I Don’t Want to Go to Preschool!”
While there are many reasons a child may not want to come to school, there are a few things teachers can do to support children during this difficult time. Things that help build a sense of belonging may increase the child’s willingness to come to school. These include providing positive interactions, creating equal opportunities to…
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Try and Try Again (audio)
This podcast, based on a blog written by Dr. Rebecca Swartz, provides information about how adults can help young children develop persistence to try and try again when they encounter everyday challenges. To see the main text of the podcast, you can read the original blog post. Related IEL Resources Blog: Try and Try Again
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Supporting Young Children’s Friendships: An Interview with Dr. Michaelene Ostrosky
This podcast contains an interview with Dr. Michaelene (Micki) Ostrosky about supporting young children’s friendships. Dr. Ostrosky is the head of the Department of Special Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In this interview, Dr. Ostrosky and IEL staff member Dr. Rebecca Swartz discuss why friendships are important to young children as well as…
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Helping the Shy Ones
Anyone working with young children will surely have some experience trying to help some shy ones. The phenomenon of shyness is observed in many young children in all cultures and at all income levels.
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Helping Young Children Develop Friendships
This list contains a variety of resources associated with helping young children develop friendships.
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Supporting Children’s Social Development: Strategies for Parents and Caregivers
This list contains a variety of resources associated with strategies for parents and caregivers for supporting a child’s social development.
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Supporting Young Children with Challenging Behaviors
This resource list contains a variety of resources associated with supporting children with challenging behaviors.
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Supporting Children with Autism in Child Care and at Home
This resource list contains a variety of resources associated with supporting children with autism in childcare and at home.
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Project Work as a Context for Social Development
One of the most important goals of early education is the development and strengthening of social competence. One of the benefits of project work is that it provides many opportunities to develop and apply important social skills.
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Over Here
This interaction shows young children working together to build a block tower and the teacher providing them with support, both in completing the task and to minimize frustration or conflicts.
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A Big Tower
The video takes place in a toddler room of a university laboratory child care and preschool. Anna (28 months) is building a tower alone with large interlocking blocks. Kenyon (26 months) runs in and knocks over her new tower. Anna takes it in stride, and Kenyon helps her rebuild. He promptly knocks over their new…
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Waylon and Grandpa: A Continuous Contingent Interaction
The kind of communication we see here between Waylon and Grandpa is sometimes called continuous contingent interaction.
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Dual Language Use During Choice Time
This video shows 5-year-old Imelda interacting in English with an adult visitor and singing in Spanish during choice time in her half-day bilingual classroom.
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What’s in the Box
Many young children are not accustomed to forming questions, so the teacher has developed a guessing game in which children use questions to help them guess what is in the box.
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Two on a Trike
Prompting young children with words to use to solve social problems is an effective teaching tool.
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Tattoos and Teakettles: “Housekeeping” Conversations
In this video, three preschool girls interact with each other and their teacher in the dramatic play area during choice time.
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“She Goes First”: Cooperative “Housekeeping” Play
In the clip, Victoria (age 5), Micaela (age 5.7), and Mandi (age 5.8) are engaged in what is sometimes called “housekeeping play.” Speaking in Spanish, they put some of their ideas about family life into action as they pretend to wash dishes, prepare food, and eat together.
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Please Pass the Water
Maddie demonstrates that the children at this center are comfortable with pouring their own drinks at snack.
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One Morning in the Block Area
Many preschool programs make block play an option during choice time. In this video, three children play in the block area in a prekindergarten classroom.
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One Morning at the Construction Table
When children build something, they often address physics problems related to keeping the structure together.
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Keep It Moving: Playing With Hoops
This video shows children playing with hula-hoops in a large space for motor activities at an early childhood center.
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Explaining Cradle Construction
Children in Judy Cagle’s mixed-age prekindergarten class decided to make a crib as part of a project on babies.
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Drawing a Friend
The children have access to accessories and materials that they can use to create their writing projects. These include staplers, tape, many kinds of paper, envelopes, recycled cards, and stickers.
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Counting Crackers
Children in this mixed-age early childhood center are taking part in open snack.
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Children’s Social Competence Checklist
Social competence refers to a person’s ability to get along with others. The checklist below was created to help teachers and caregivers assess preschool children’s social competence.
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Bullying Hurts Everyone
Children have the right to feel safe—and adults have a responsibility to provide a safe environment for them.
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Work and Play Together
Here are some ways you can help your child learn to get along with others.
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Supporting Adult-Child Relationships
Young children thrive when the adults around them show they care.
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Real Work: Preschoolers Can Help
Doing simple chores helps preschoolers feel responsible and useful at home and in child care.
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Young Children Need to Play!
Here are some things to keep in mind about play.
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Things to Do While You’re Waiting: Music, Sound, and Movement
Music, sound, and movement can ease the waiting time blues!
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Manners and Preschoolers
Try encouraging good manners! Using good manners is a way to show respect for the feelings of others and to make personal interactions pleasant.
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Chores and Children: A Time to Learn
Preschoolers need step-by-step instructions for new tasks and time to practice. Keep the tasks simple. Demonstrate as needed. Most children will learn quickly from observation. Other children benefit from friendly reminders and visual supports.
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Kids Who Care
“Feeling the feelings of others,” or empathy, is an important part of children’s social and emotional development.