Developing Social and Emotional Skills in the Early Years

Benefits

Developing Social and Emotional Skills in the Early Years is designed to:

• use a whole-school approach to create a positive learning environment
• direct and focus learning opportunities in both whole classes and focus groups
• support pupils to learn social and emotional skills and consolidate those already learned
• provide continuing professional development for the whole school
• reinforce appropriate and safe ‘play’ skills in a range of contexts
• enable parents/carers to develop an understanding of social and emotional skills and to encourage the generalisation of these skills into the home context.

Summary of contents

Developing Social and Emotional Skills in the Early Years is a practical resource designed to develop your pupils’ social and emotional learning skills. The programme provides opportunities for CPD and training activities for teachers and support staff as well as parents and carers. With an introductory PowerPoint presentation and facilitator notes, Developing Social and Emotional Skills in the Early Years will provide you with the practical and relevant resources you need to support your pupils’ social and emotional development.

Developing Social and Emotional Skills in the Early Years will support early years practitioners in teaching pupils to:

• develop the basic skills of communication
• develop a vocabulary for basic emotions
• define a friend and to be able to make and sustain friendships
• model genuine and appropriate social and emotional responses
• feel valued and nurtured
• improve their self-concept
• promote self-respect and respect for others’ differences and values
• be reflective and monitor and evaluate the development of their own skills
• identify and distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate social behaviours.

Chapter breakdown

Part 1: The 20-Session Programme for Young Children

This section is split into four groups: School Behaviours; Our Feelings; Friendship Skills; and Social Skills. Each group includes a variety of sessions, looking at different topics from within each theme. Each session is then structured to introduce a key skill, feeling or topic. An audio recording of two young children and their teacher is used to illustrate each skill, feeling or topic in a non-threatening and supportive environment.

Each session follows the structure of:

• Introduction and aims
• Warm-up Game
• Scenario (on audio CD)
• Question Time
• Practical Time Activities
• Plenary

Group One: School Behaviours
This group includes sessions on Good Looking, Listening Well, Good Speaking, Sitting Up!, Working Well, Being Safe in Class and Being Safe Out of Class.

Group Two: Our Feelings
In this group there are sessions on Feeling Sad, Feeling Angry, Feeling Afraid, Feeling Surprised and Feeling Worried.

Group Three: Friendship Skills
This group includes sessions on Making Friends, Being Friends and Keeping Friends.

Group Four: Social Skills
Sessions in this group look at Taking Turns to Talk, Taking Turns to Play, Playing with a Partner, Playing in a Group and Playground Play.

Part 2: The Staff Training Programme

This section provides a PowerPoint Presentation accompanied by facilitator notes and training activities for early years teachers and support staff.

An accompanying CD-ROM provides resources and PowerPoint files. A second CD-ROM provides an audio recording of the 20 stories.

Part 3: Appendices

Part 3 includes a selection of key resources:

• Certificate of Achievement
• Pre and Post Course Checklist
• Letter for Parents / Carers
• Information Sheet for Parent / Carers
• Referrals to Specialist Agencies

Description