Proceedings of The 9th International Conference on Humanities, Psychology and Social Sciences
Year: 2019
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/9th-hps.2019.04.250
Four Categories of Support when Guiding Young Children in Managing their Upsets: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Literature
Douglas D. Bell
ABSTRACT:
Young children in early learning settings experience upset as part of their daily interactions with others and their environment. Young children with challenging behaviors are also on the rise in early learning classrooms. As young children navigate their responses to the way the world interacts with them, they rely on sensitive and trained adults to guide them in developing social and emotional abilities that will lead to their being productive members of society. This support in social emotional learning also increases the likelihood of the children learning in other areas and domains. Insight can be gained from the literature in a variety of disciplines to guide the teacher in early learning programs to scaffold the children in managing their upsets. Some of the contributing disciplines include but are not limited to psychology, child development, anthropology, and special education. This paper provides a synthesis of the literature and research from a variety of disciplines in supporting children in managing their upsets through the categories of promoting calm, creating a caring community of learners and establishing relationships, guiding children with expectations and appropriate expression, and supporting children in self-management and conflict resolution with accountability. These topics will be discussed with attention to impact on early learning teaching and classroom practices.
KeyWords: early childhood; challenging behaviors; social emotional learning; discipline; guidance; self-control.