The Foundation for Supporting Children’s Learning & Development

Section 7 – Social Skills

Teaching Research Assistance to Childcare Providers

Social and Emotional Skills

• Form relationships (Friendship skills)

• Recognize and manage emotions (Self-regulation skills)

• Identify emotions (Empathy Skills)

• Handle difficult situations (Problem solving skills)

Children need these skills to:

Stages to TeachingSocial-emotional Skills

Sta

ge 1 Show

&

tell

Sta

ge 2 Practice

makes

perfect

Sta

ge 3 You

got

it!

Teaching Friendship Skills

• Helping each other• Taking turns• Sharing• Organizing play

Friendship Skills:

•Use role play to show puppets helping each other.

•Plan activities that involve children helping each other to complete tasks

Helping each other

•Teach board games or set up games with balls

•Plan activities where children have to take turns to complete a task

Taking turns

Friendship Skills:Taking Turns

•Use role play to show how children offer to share their toys.

•Set up activities where children work together and share materials.

•“Catch” children sharing and praise them.

Sharing

•Demonstrate ways to initiate play using “Lets…” statements. Such as “Lets play trucks.”

•Role play “right” and “wrong” ways to organize play

Play

Organizers

Practical Strategies Video

Teaching Empathy Skills

Identifying Feelings

Feeling empathy

Responding

Teaching Empathy Concepts & Skills

Physical cues

Different feelings about the same thing

Feelings change

Making predictions

Preferences

Intentional vs. unintentional

Fairness rules

Using “I” Messages

Expressing care &

concern

Teaching Empathy Brainstorming Activity

Teaching Empathy General Strategies

• Adults……– Label children's emotions

– Validate children’s feelings

– Praise children for labeling emotions

– Model/talk about their own emotions

Teaching Empathy General Strategies (Cont.)

– Model feelings using puppets

– Draw attention to how others are feeling

– Role play situations

– Reinforce empathic behavior

– Tell stories related to feelings at circle time

ALSO………..

Use visuals related to feelings in the classroom

Happy Sad Mad

Teaching Self Regulation Skills

Emotions are not the problem!

What you do with emotions can be.

Self-regulation = emotions & cognitive thinking

Teaching Self Regulation SkillsIndirect Strategies Direct Strategies

Modeling

Hints and clues

Withdraw support

Recognize emotions

Relaxation process

Self-regulation Strategy

Self-Regulation Strategies“Tucker Turtle” technique

Other Self-Regulation Strategies

Stop, breathe, and think.

Stop, count, and work out the problem

How do I feel? Take three deep breaths.Count to five slowly. Say, “Calm down.” Talk to a grown up about it.

Teaching Problem Solving Skills1. Identify & define problem

3. Decide where to start

4. Create problem-solving tools

5. Test & analyze solutions.

Problem Solving Skills

BrainstormingStrategies

Flexible thinking

Avoid judgment

Reflect on ideas

Break into smaller pieces

Open-ended

questions

Problem Solving Activity