Not Just Soft Skills: How Young Children’s Learning and Health Benefit from Strong Social-Emotional Development

(2017, May) | Useful to: Parents and caregivers seeking to better understand and manage their children’s behavior, and foster a loving and responsive relationship with them. Available in English and Spanish.

The Too Small to Fall Initiative has released a white paper, Not Just “Soft Skills”: How Young Children’s Learning & Health Benefit from Strong Social-Emotional Development, which highlights research on the importance of children’s social-emotional development (SED), starting as early as birth.  The paper can be found at:
http://toosmall.org/social-emotional-development-white-paper

The Initiative has also developed resources on SED to share directly with parents and caregivers.  These resources are designed to help parents easily understand the concepts behind SED, and apply research-based tips to their everyday lives and interactions with their child.  The resources include:

• A series of videos showing that every child behavior—even a seemingly random grocery store meltdown—is driven by emotion.
• A set of complementary tip sheets that encourage interacting with children through talking, reading, and singing in sensitive, loving, and responsive ways.  The tip sheets also include helpful ideas for understanding and managing a child’s behavior.

These resources can be found in both English and Spanish:

English | http://talkingisteaching.org/big-feelings

Spanish | http://talkingisteaching.org/grandes-emociones