Promoting Social Emotional Competence

Promoting Social Emotional Competence Promoting Children’s Success: Building Relationships and Creating Supportive Environments Module 1 Handout

Agenda • Introduction • Examining attitudes • Relationship between challenging behavior and social emotional development • Building relationships • Schedules, routines, & transitions • Activities that promote engagement • Giving directions • Teaching classroom rules • Ongoing monitoring and positive attention • Using positive feedback & encouragement • Pulling it all together

Learner Objectives • Participants will be able to describe the importance of building relationships with children, families, and colleagues. • Participants will be able to describe the relationship between children’s social emotional development and challenging behavior. • Participants will be able to describe how challenging behavior serves a function for children. • Participants will be able to describe the relationship between environmental variables, children’s challenging behaviors, and social emotional development • Participants will be able to identify strategies that can be used to (1) build positive relationships with children, families and colleagues; (2) design schedules and routines; (3) structure transitions; (4) help children learn rules and routines; and (5) plan activities that promote engagement. • Participants will be able to use descriptive acknowledgment and encouragement to support children’s positive social behaviors. • Participants will evaluate their work with children related to building relationships and the structure and design of their environment.

Examining Our Attitudes about Challenging Behaviors • What behaviors push your buttons? • How do these behaviors make you feel? • How does this impact your relationship with a child and his/her family?

Managing Personal Stress: Thought Control Calming Thoughts “This child is testing to see where the limits are. My job is to stay calm and help him learn better ways to behave.” “I can handle this. I am in control. They have just learned some powerful ways to get control. I will teach them more appropriate ways to behave.” Upsetting Thoughts “That child is a monster. This is getting ridiculous. He’ll never change.” “I’m sick of putting out fires!”

Managing Personal Stress: Thought Control Upsetting Thought “I wonder if the corner grocery is hiring?” “He ruins everything! This is going to be the worst year of my career.” Calming Thoughts “I feel undervalued right now – I need to seek support from my peers and supervisor.” “Having her in my class is going to be a wonderful Professional Development experience.”

Key Social Emotional Skills Children Need as They Enter School • Confidence • Capacity to develop good relationships with peers and adults • Concentration and persistence on challenging tasks • Ability to effectively communicate emotions • Ability to listen to instructions and be attentive • Ability to solve social problems • What do children do when they don’t have each of these skills?

When children do not have these skills, they often exhibit challenging behaviors • We must focus on TEACHING the skills!

“If a child doesn’t know how to read, we teach. If a child doesn’t know how to swim, we teach. If a child doesn’t know how to multiply, we teach. If a child doesn’t know how to drive, we teach. If a child doesn’t know how to behave, we……..... …….teach? ……punish? Why can’t we finish the last sentence as automatically as we do the others?” Tom Herner (NASDE President ) Counterpoint 1998, p.2)

Some Basic Assumptions • Challenging behavior usually has a message- I am bored, I am sad, you hurt my feelings, I need some attention. • Children often use challenging behavior when they don’t have the social or communication skills they need to engage in more appropriate interactions. • Behavior that persists over time is usually working for the child. • We need to focus on teaching children what to do in place of the challenging behavior.

Individualized Intensive Interventions Social Emotional Teaching Strategies Designing Supportive Environments Building Positive Relationships

Building Relationships • Helps each child feel accepted in the group • Assists children in learning to communicate and get along with others • Encourages feelings of empathy and mutual respect among children and adults • Provides a supportive environment in which children can learn and practice appropriate and acceptable behaviors as individuals and as a group

Building Relationships with Children • Why is it important? • The relationships that we build with children, families, and colleagues are at the foundation of everything we do. It is important to build these relationships early on rather than waiting until there is a problem. • Children learn and develop in the context of relationships that are responsive, consistent, and nurturing. • Children with the most challenging behaviors especially need these relationships, and yet their behaviors often prevent them from benefiting from those relationships. • Adults’ time and attention are very important to children, and we need to be sure that we are giving them that time and attention at times other than when they are engaging in challenging behavior. • Parents and other colleagues (such as mental health providers and therapists) are critical partners in building children’s social emotional competence. We should all work together to ensure children’s success and prevent challenging behavior.

“Every child needs one person who is crazy about him.” Uri Bronfenbrenner

Building Positive Relationships with Children Happy Grams Play Home visits Share Empathy Notes home Time & Attention

Individualized Intensive Interventions Social Emotional Teaching Strategies Designing Supportive Environments Building Positive Relationships

Using the Environment and Schedule • Picture Schedules • Use of Center Management strategies • Center designs • Visuals to teach and remind of expectations • Embedded expectation to promote positive behavior

Activity Analysis Using Clip Art Washing Hands 1 2 3 4 5 Get soap. Wet hands. Wash hands. Dry hands. Throw away.

Individual Schedule First Then

Giving Directions • Make sure you have the children’s attention before you give the direction. • Minimize the number of directions given to children. • Individualize the way directions are given. • Give clear directions.

Giving Directions • Give directions that are positive. • Give children the opportunity to respond to a direction. • When appropriate, give the child choices and options for following directions. • Follow through with positive acknowledgment of children’s behavior.

Circle Time Rules

Program-wide Rules

Ongoing Monitoring and Positive Attention • Give children attention when they • are engaging in appropriate behaviors. • Monitor our behavior to ensure that we are spending more time using positive descriptive language and less time giving directions or correcting inappropriate behavior.

Using Positive Feedback and Encouragement: 4 Principles • Contingent on appropriate behavior • Descriptive • Conveyed with enthusiasm • Contingent on effort

Using Positive Feedbackand Encouragement • Remember to use nonverbal forms of positive feedback and encouragement. • Individualize use of positive feedback and encouragement based on children’s needs and preferences. • Encourage other adults and peers to use positive feedback and encouragement.

If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves. Carl Jung – psychiatrist

Major Messages • The first and most important thing that we can do is to build positive relationships with every child and family. • Focus on prevention and teaching appropriate skills. • Promoting social emotional development is not easy. There are no quick fixes to challenging behavior. • It requires a comprehensive approach that includes building relationships, evaluating our own classrooms and behaviors, and TEACHING.

Promoting Social Emotional Competence