Social-emotional health in young children means successfully developing the capacity to:
- Form secure relationships
- Experience and regulate emotions
- Explore and learn1
Social-emotional health and regulation of emotions are critical building blocks for children’s learning. Emotional health and social skills allow children to engage in school and form good relationships with teachers and friends.
Compared to their peers, children who are socially and emotionally healthy and exhibit self-control:
- Have better oral language development and skills2
- Have better interpersonal skills3
- Have fewer behavioral problems4
- Are more successful in elementary school and beyond5
- Have better physical health6
- Have better lifetime employment outcomes and higher income7
Boys and children living in low-income families are more likely than their peers to been seen as having low self-regulation skills.8
0
9-14%
(Source:
Helping Parents, Helping Children: Two Generation Mechanisms. (2014). The Future of Children, Princeton and Brookings.
)
up to 35%
(Source:
Joseph, G. E. & Strain, P. S. (2003). Comprehensive Evidence-Based Social-Emotional Curricula for Young Children: An Analysis of Efficacious Adoption Potential. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 23(2), 65-76.
)What Can We Do About It?
What supports children’s social-emotional health?
- Caring, supportive relationships with parents, caregivers, and other adults they encounter on a daily basis
- Early and regular screenings, assessments and intervention, as warranted
- School-based Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) practices and programs
Caring, Supportive Relationships
The relationships that children have with their parents and other primary caregivers builds the foundation for developing social-emotional health. These relationships begin at birth. Positive back-and-forth parent-child interactions (sometimes called serve and return) are how young children learn social norms, learn to regulate their emotions, and develop empathy, trust in others, and interpersonal skills. Non-nurturing, non-responsive or abusive relationships between parents and their young children can disrupt children’s social and emotional health and development.1
Screenings, Assessments and Interventions
To ensure the early detection and treatment of social-emotional health needs, young children need:
- Early and regular social-emotional health screenings. This is simple checklist or parent questionnaire that identifies infants and young children who may be at risk for social-emotional health problems.
- Comprehensive assessments. This is a more in-depth process of gathering information about a child from multiple sources and settings (parents, teachers, etc), over a period of time.2 Children identified as being at risk by a screening should receive a comprehensive assessment.
- Effective treatment. If warranted by an assessment, treatment can often mitigate or eliminate future social-emotional health conditions, like depression, attention problems, or conduct disorders.3
Without intervention, behavioral and social-emotional challenges in young children may be less easy to overcome after age eight.4
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Practices and Programs
Young children’s social-emotional health can be supported and strengthened by child care, preschool, and elementary classrooms that promote the continued development of children’s social skills, emotional competence, empathy and self-regulation, also called Social-Emotional Learning.5 A recent meta-analysis of 213 studies reveals an 11 percent gain in academic achievement for students who participated in evidence-based Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) programs over those who did not. SEL students improved their classroom behavior and their ability to manage stress and depression, and had better attitudes about themselves, others and school.6
Pathways to Grade-Level Reading Design Teams co-created the Pathways Action Framework, focusing in on three areas that directly impact third grade reading proficiency:
- Social-emotional health
- High quality birth through age eight care and education
- Regular school attendance
Featured Resources
Report/Fact Sheet/Issue Brief
Research Basis for Pathways Measures of Success Framework
This resource provides data definitions of the Measures of Success and shares the research for each measure, demonstrating the connections between the measures and third-grade reading proficiency. A list of sources is included for each group of measures.
Report/Fact Sheet/Issue Brief
Investing in North Carolina's Healthy Future
A fact sheet to highlights the interconnectedness of health and learning.
Report/Fact Sheet/Issue Brief
What Works for Third Grade Reading: An Overview of the NC Pathways to Grade-Level Reading
The paper provides an introduction to a series of 12 working papers that offer research-based policy, practice and program options to states and communities working to improve third grade reading proficiency. Read this document first before delving into the papers.
Report/Fact Sheet/Issue Brief
The North Carolina Foundations for Early Learning and Development (Foundations)
The North Carolina Foundations for Early Learning and Development (Foundations) provides guidance on the importance of play. This resource could be used to train teachers of young children, develop curricula, and create shared goals across early education and kindergarten programs to re-focus on play and hands-on learning. The Foundations are a set of developmental standards that describe children’s learning and development from birth to age five.