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(Unit 3) Topic 1: Social and Emotional Development

2 Clock Hours of Early Childhood Education

Toddler Emotional Development

Topic 1 Page 7

Warm, accepting, close relationships provide the foundation for healthy emotional development for toddlers.

You should encourage toddlers to do things for themselves, such as feeding and dressing. Plan activities that allow for independence, yet be careful not to frustrate them with an activity that is still too difficult. Their verbal skills are not developed enough to respond with words, so they may resort to biting. Toddlers often respond to situations without being aware of their emotional state. You should help toddlers sort out their feelings by giving words to them when they are scared, angry, or excited. Helping toddlers identify their emotions and use language is an important part of your job. For example, some toddlers may bite their playmates when angry or frustrated.

To meet the emotional needs of toddlers, make sure you:

Allow them to feed and dress themselves and encourage the development of self-help skills when they are ready
Encourage and support their developmental achievements such as walking, talking, and climbing
Listen and expand toddlers’ emerging language.

An example of expanded language is:

Child says, “Truck!”
You say, “Yes, it is a big, blue truck that makes a lot of noise.”

Social skills need to be modeled, repeated, supported and encouraged, a process similar to what is needed for children’s language acquisition or for development of physical skills. Children under the age of two or three are egocentric and have very few prosocial skills, especially with their peers. Toddlers rarely share, wait, or take turns! This is the age of “mine–mine–mine,” and “I want what I want when I want it!” and curious exploration. When toddlers play with other peers they usually engage in what is called “parallel play.” That is children are playing next to each other but are not initiating interactions with each other and they are probably unaware of what each other is doing because they are so absorbed in their own discoveries.

While this is normal developmental play for this age, you can still begin social teaching with toddlers. For social skills such as sharing, asking, being polite, listening, waiting, and taking turns are determined both by a child’s developmental abilities and temperament as well as by the coaching a child receives from interactions with adults. You can begin to encourage children to learn appropriate social skills by modeling, prompting, practicing, and praising specific social skills.

To meet the social needs of toddlers, make sure you:

Talk, sing, and play with each child daily on a one-to-one basis and in small groups
Respond and expand upon emergent language coming from the child
Interpret their actions to other children to help them get along in the group (“Gloria had it first. Would you like this one?”)
Show toddlers how to clean up after themselves
Assist toddlers in social interactions. (“Tyrell is playing with the blue ball; let’s play with the red one until he is finished.”)
Step in quickly when there are disputes to provide information, solve problems, or redirect children to new activities
Display the play materials down low to encourage the development of independence and competence
Model taking turns (make sure you provide more than one of many play materials and equipment)

Toddlers’ speech is developing rapidly. They are learning up to nine new words a day. You should listen carefully and with interest to what toddlers have to say, repeating and expanding their messages. Even though they might not yet be talking, they are collecting and storing words and learning their meanings. They need caregivers who talk to them and interact with them, sing, tell rhymes and fingerplays, and read to them. This not only encourages bonding and positive social interactions, but it also lays the groundwork for learning to read and write and for later school success.

Social/Emotional Development in Toddlers

What Most Toddlers Do at 18 Months:

Likes to hand things to others as play
May have temper tantrums
May be afraid of strangers
Shows affection to familiar people
Plays simple pretend, such as feeding a doll
May cling to caregivers in new situations
Points to show others something interesting
Explores alone but with parent close by

The little boy in this video is having a temper tantrum, an 18-month social/emotional milestone.

What Most Toddlers Do at 2 years

Copies others, especially adults and older children
Gets excited when with other children
Shows more and more independence
Shows defiant behavior (doing what he has been told not to)
Plays mainly beside other children, but is beginning to include other children, such as in chase games

In the first part of this video, a little boy plays next to a little girl. In the second part of the video, he attempts to play ball with another child. Playing mainly beside other children but beginning to include them is a 2-year social/emotional milestone.