Kindergartner – PSED
Emotional Development in Kindergarteners
Chapter 7.4
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Since infancy, Tia’s parents practised the habit of saying “Sorry” and “Thank you”. So it wasn’t a surprise, when with the advent of speech, these were the words that Tia spoke after mama and dada.
As a toddler she too religiously used:
‘Sorry’ even when it was not her mistake but something wrong happened.
Eg: The book fell off from dad’s hand!
And ‘thank you’ came even when she gave something to someone.:
Eg: while offering mom an apple to eat.
However, her parents worked over it empathetically, and by pre-school she got her command over its usage.
Sorry & Thank you are two basic words of etiquettes. It reinforces a likeable retraction both from adults and peers alike!
Emotional development of children determines how they acquire various emotions and how they express these emotions to – themselves, to their parents and to others. Emotions and reflection of emotions influences other areas of development, closely related with particularly social, academic, emotional and behavioural development.
Let’s Reflect
Emotions are motivating and inhibiting, they can be thought about and manipulated, and in some cases may promote or interfere with the planning and execution of behavior. Across early childhood, emotions increasingly take on a social function—without emotional competence, social competence is difficult to achieve.
Do emotions developed during infancy, affect the emotional competence of the child in later years?
Every individual, even a few-months-old baby not only has emotions, but can also obtain every important information about people just by evaluating emotions.
A child’s recognition of own emotions, understanding other people’s emotions and the skills of accurately expressing his/her own emotions enable them to easily understand classroom rules and to build friendship relationships. A necessity for the Kindergarten years.
Parent-child relationships generally precede the development of peer relationships, and therefore play a role in influencing the child’s experiences in subsequent relationships. Early secure attachment relationships lay the foundation for a sense of trust in others that will carry him or her confidently and successfully into future relationships.
A child who is securely attached with mother during infancy tend:
- To engage in more positive social interactions with peers
- Show fewer behavioral problems
- Is likely to engage in more successful play and achieve more friendships with agemates
- To be more cooperative and able to regulate tempo of play (Kerns and Gruys, 1995)
- To receive more positive responses from peers in play
- To be more likely to solve conflict by himself/herself (Suess et al., 1992) than are their insecure counterparts.
Knowledge and ability of accurately expressing negative emotions experienced, prevents the child from displaying negative behaviors. However, a child whose emotional skills did not develop in preschool period experience:
– Difficulty in establishing relationships with their peers. This may lead to loneliness, low self-esteem, and an inability to successfully develop social skills.
– Tend to use anger, aggression, rage reactions to their peers or adults (Eisenberg and Fabes, 1995)
– Failure to understand or misunderstanding of the emotions of the individual. W.r.t. to peer relationships it determines the reaction of the other child towards him/her.
Eg: If the friend is angry, and Vinay not able to interpret it right might go and tap on his back (thinking his friend is sad) can cause a backlash.
How is emotional competence necessary to fulfil social goals and needs?
- Emergence of self-conscious emotions, such as guilt, shame, and pride, can help reinforce social standards of behaviour. During primary grades, children are expected to learn how to abide by formal and informal rules, such as behaving appropriately during circle time and on the playground
- Children who can perceive emotions are more accepted by peers, as they are better at both sending and receiving important emotional cues during social situations
- Being able to manage emotions supports the effective expression of emotion and behavior towards peers, as well as allows the child to think about which behaviour will promote his own social goals without offending his peers
Emotional competence thus supports social success by allowing the child to become more aware of and in control of emotions that are relevant to social interactions, which also supports healthy relationships and social acceptance.
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