Encouraging Healthy Social and Emotional Development in Young Children

By Sarah Landy, Ph.D.

Healthy social and emotional development in young children — an area often overlooked in the past — is now recognized as a crucial part of ensuring positive developmental outcomes later in life. In this comprehensive guide, professionals, paraprofessionals, home visitors, and students will fully address this aspect of child development, discovering not only how to interact positively with children and their families, but also how to improve parents’ interactions with their children.

Readers will explore nine social and emotional domains of children from birth to 6 years: a sense of body self, attachment to caregivers, play and imagination, language and communication, self-esteem, morality and conscience, emotion regulation, concentration and problem solving, and empathy and prosocial behavior.

For each domain, readers get an entire chapter that includes

• a breakdown of major theories and descriptions of key research findings
  
  
• a detailed, age-specific description of how young children develop in each domain
  
  
• easy-to-implement suggestions professionals can use to help caregivers — and help themselves — interact with children and guide their development
  
  
• tips to help professionals interact positively with caregivers
  
  
• group exercises and activities that help caregivers enhance development, both in themselves and in their children
  
  
• discussion questions for preservice and inservice professionals and suggestions for further reading
  
  
• an appendix of assessment tools that will help measure the child’s progress

Whether used as a teaching resource for preservice and inservice training or as a resource to use with caregivers in the field, this engaging and versatile text gives professionals the guidance they need to work with families and to help build a foundation for children’s healthy social and emotional lives.

Appropriate Courses

• Child Development
  
  
• Child Psychology
  
  
• Child and Adolescent Development
  
  
• Infant and Child Care

About the Author
Foreword
Joy D. Osofsky
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Starting on the Pathway

1. Understanding Early Child Development and Temperament
   
   
2. Helping Children Develop Body Control and a Positive Body Image
   
   
3. Developing a Secure Attachment
   
   
4. Encouraging Play and Imagination
   
   
5. Encouraging Language and Communication
   
   
6. Laying a Foundation for Positive Self-Esteem
   
   
7. Disciplining to Encourage Self-Regulation, Morality, and a Sense of Conscience
   
   
8. Encouraging Emotion Regulation
   
   
9. Encouraging Concentration, Planning, and Problem-Solving
   
   
10. Encouraging Social Competence, Empathy, and Caring Behavior

Epilogue: Putting the Pieces Together
Index