Institue Content: Social and Emotional Development: Bibliography

Brazelton, T. Berry, and Stanley I. Greenspan. The Irreducible Needs of Children: What Every Child Must Have to Grow, Learn, and Flourish. Perseus, 2000.

Two highly-renowned luminaries in early childhood development identify seven fundamental needs of children and strategies for meeting those needs. The seven irreducible needs identified are: ongoing nurturing relationships; physical protection, safety, and regulation; experiences tailored to individual differences; developmentally appropriate experiences; limits, structure, and expectations; stable, supportive communities and cultural continuity; international cooperation to promote equitable global interdependence and reduce the risk of biological, ecological, and nuclear catastrophes. The targeted audience includes educational policy-makers and practitioners.

Burton, Leon H. Joy in Learning: Making It Happen in Early Childhood Classes. National Education Association, 1991.

This volume of the NEA Early Childhood Education Series is based on the premise that all learning should be challenging, interesting, and enjoyable. Chapters include: (1) A Philosophy for Early Education (concerning the nature of young children, learning contexts, societal expectations); (2) Child Development (concerning independence, self-esteem, cooperative interaction, creative expression, problem solving, physical capability); (3) Joy and Pleasure (concerning categories of pleasure, joy theory); (4) The Teacher’s Role in Joyful Learning (concerning characteristics of successful teachers, design of educational encounters, teacher language and dialog, orchestration and delivery, assessment of joy in learning); (5) Establishing Enjoyable Educational Climates (concerning learning environments, educational climates); (6) Play: Importance to Joy in Learning (concerning dramatic, imitative, symbolic, spontaneous, ritual, and experimental play); (7) Presenting Content in an Enjoyable Way (concerning knowledge structures, the curriculum approach, conceptual development and sequentialism, cyclical organization, curriculum integration, styles of presentation); and (8) Joy Stimulators in Learning and Schooling (concerning a happy beginning for the school day, high quality educational experiences, rights, moods, the process of improving conditions, positive outcomes, school environments, variety of objects and events, dress, speech, vocabulary, affection and touch, the language of praise, rush-hour teaching, courteous language, the process of learning how to learn, a happy ending to the school day, and other topics).

Cipani, Ennio. Disruptive Behavior: Three Techniques To Use in Your Classroom. Council for Exceptional Children, 1993.

The purpose of this manual is to provide teachers and other instructional personnel with an understanding of disruptive behavior and effective techniques to use in dealing with children who are disruptive in the classroom. An introductory chapter describes and defines disruptive behavior, explains possible by-products of disruptive behavior, describes three techniques that have been developed and validated in the applied behavioral management research in both general and special education settings. These techniques can be used in regular classes and resource programs providing consultation to regular education teachers, as well as resource pull-out programs and special education classes and sites. The techniques include: (1) catch them being good, which involves praising the appropriate behavior of children and ignoring disruptive behavior; (2) behavioral contracting, which specifies the child’s behavioral obligations in meeting the terms of a written contract and the teacher’s obligations in providing an agreed-upon reward once the child has met his or her obligation; and (3) a variation of the "good behavior game" in which the whole class as a team or as two or three teams receive positive reinforcement for appropriate behavior. The manual concludes with a copy of the Council for Exceptional Children’s Policy on Physical Intervention.

Denham, Susanne A. Emotional Development in Young Children. Guilford Press, 1998.

From the publisher’s "Series on Social and Emotional Development," this book discusses the emotional experiences of young children and explores the connections between emotions, socialization, and healthy relationships. The introductory chapter discusses the nature of emotion, emotional and social competence, and the study of young children’s emotions. Chapter 2, "Emotional Expressiveness," describes patterns and developments in children’s emotional expressiveness. Chapter 3, "Understanding of Emotions," explores children’s growing awareness of general emotions and specific discrete emotions. Chapter 4, "Socialization of Emotional Expressiveness and Understanding," reviews evidence of parents’ influence on children’s emotional expressiveness and understanding. Chapter 5, "Emotion Regulation," explores new views of young children’s ability to regulate their emotional expressiveness. Chapter 6, "Contributions of Emotional Expressiveness, Understanding, and Coping to Social Competence," focuses on the social accomplishments supported by young children’s growing emotional competence. The final chapter, "Disruptions in the Development of Emotional Competence and Interventions To Ameliorate Them," discusses young children who develop problems in emotional competence and what can be done to help them.

Farber, Betty, ed. Guiding Young Children’s Behavior: Helpful Ideas for Parents & Teachers from 28 Early Childhood Experts. Preschool Publications, 1999.

This collection of articles is compiled to offer parents and teachers guidelines to help navigate between a child’s intentions and his or her behavior. The book consists of 43 brief chapters divided into 9 sections. Articles in section one, "Guiding Young Children’s Behavior," address issues of discipline, setting limits, effective rules, and dealing with unacceptable behavior. Articles in section two, "Communicating with Young Children," examine use of constructive communication and loving words. Articles in section three, "Teaching Children Responsibility," explore issues of obedience, decision-making, and self-control. The articles in section four, "Coping with Stress in Special Situations," discuss issues of child care, traveling, divorce, stress, and death, while those in section five, "Coping with Stress in Everyday Situations," focus on anger, fear, and medical care. Articles in section six, "Keeping Your Child Healthy," explore issues of good health habits, eating well, and medical visits, and those in section seven, "Exercise and Fitness for Young Children," examine issues of physical fitness, active time, and enjoying the outdoors. Articles in section eight, "Young Children’s Safety," examine preschooler safety and protecting children from abuse. Finally, articles in section nine, "Finding the Positives," address issues of promoting positive behavior and sending positive messages to children. Each of the sections ends with a listing of resources for further information.

Katz, Lillian G., and Diane E. McClellan. Fostering Children’s Social Competence: The Teacher’s Role. National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1997.

This volume of NAEYC’s "Research into Practice" series presents options for early childhood educators to consider as they make decisions concerning how best to foster the development of children’s social competence. The book maintains that social competence is most likely to be acquired and strengthened in an atmosphere of warmest acceptance, respect, and deep faith in the child’s capacity to grow and develop. Included in the text are statements, illustrations, observations, and teacher’s experiences to demonstrate approaches which may not be in the best interests of children’s social development. Examples of alternative ways teachers might address the same situations are offered. Chapter 1 of the book presents a brief discussion of the components of social competence and the factors that influence its development. Chapter 2 discusses curriculum, environment, and other contextual factors related to fostering social growth in young children. Chapter 3 outlines nine general principles of practice to be taken into account in helping children achieve social competence. Chapter 4 suggests some general teaching strategies for helping children overcome social difficulties. Chapter 5 describes ways to strengthen specific components of social competence. The appendix presents an approach to the assessment of social competence in young children in the areas of individual attributes, social skills, and peer relationships.

Kostelnik, Marjorie J., et al. Guiding Children’s Social Development. 2nd ed. Delmar, 1993.

Noting the importance of social competence for getting along in society, this book is designed as a text to help teachers of young children understand the nature of social development in young children and how to guide that development through the early childhood curriculum. The book contains a number of practical guidelines and strategies for addressing common social concerns, such as helping children develop and sustain friendships, and promoting children’s self-awareness and self-esteem. The 16 chapters are presented in a specific sequence, with chapters that focus on relationship-building skills appearing prior to those that involve behavioral cuing skills. The chapters are: (1) Professional Involvement of Young Children; (2) Initiating Social Relationships in Infancy; (3) Building Positive Relationships through Nonverbal Communication; (4) Promoting Children’s Self-Awareness and Self- Esteem through Verbal Communication; (5) Responding to Children’s Emotions; (6) Enhancing Children’s Play; (7) Fostering Self-Discipline in Children: Expressing Appropriate Expectations for Their Behavior; (8) Fostering Self-Discipline in Children: Implementing Consequences; (9) Handling Children’s Aggressive Behavior; (10) Helping Children Cope with Stress; (11) Supporting Children’s development in Sensitive Areas: Sexuality, Ethnicity, and Handicapping Conditions; (12) Influencing Children’s Social Development via the Physical Environment; (13) Supporting Children’s Friendships; (14) Promoting Prosocial Behavior; (15) Working with Parents; and (16) Making Judgments. Each chapter includes lists of objectives, specific skills, and pitfalls to avoid, as well as a summary, discussion questions, and field assignments. Six appendixes contain the National Association for the Education of Young Children Code of Ethical Conduct; friendship terms, facts, and principles; helping terms, facts and principles; cooperating terms, facts, and principles; organizations that address child abuse; and personal safety terms, facts, and principles.

Pruett, Kyle D. Me, Myself and I: How Children Build Their Sense of Self: 18 to 36 Months. Goddard Press, 1999.

Although targeted to parents, this book may well help educational practitioners to enhance the growth and development of toddlers in their care. Chapter 1, "The Importance of Being Two," explains why toddlerhood is the best time for providing an emotional foundation. Chapter 2, "The Young Child’s Brain and Mind," discusses how recent findings on brain development have changed thoughts about growth, nature, nurture, and personality. Chapter 3, "Temperament and Style," discusses how to identify parent and child temperament and style and how children’s temperament shapes their perception of the world and their connection to parents. Chapter 4, "‘Me Do!’," focuses on the roots of autonomy, self-reliance, self-regard, and the difficulties two-year-olds present for parents. Chapter 5, "The Thinker," describes learning, memory, curiosity, and intelligence and their measurement. Chapter 6, "Communication through Show and Tell," discusses language explosions and difficulties toddlers have in saying what they mean. Chapter 7, "Play, Learning, and the Dawn of Imagination," focuses on the role of play and differentiating the real from the imaginary. Chapter 8, "Limits and Affection," addresses the power of relationships in shaping children’s behavior and sense of self, negotiation with toddlers, and spoiling. Chapter 9, "The World beyond Mom and Dad," focuses on the power, effect, and variety of experience with other caregivers. Chapter 10, "Boys and Girls Together," discusses sex differences, gender identity, and behavior management. Chapter 11, "A World of Difference," discusses how culture, tradition, and family style shape how one’s parents and how children develop. Chapter 12, "Ages and Stages," highlights how growth in cognitive, emotional, and social areas occurs and meshes chronologically.

Wolfgang, Charles H., and Mary E Wolfgang. The Three Faces of Discipline for Early Childhood: Empowering Teachers and Students. Allyn and Bacon, 1995.

Disciplining is an active teaching and learning process of helping young children become cooperative people who can acquire self-discipline. This book provides three broad philosophies for dealing with misbehavior and difficult children. Chapter 1 offers an overview of the Teacher Behavior Continuum. Chapter 2 provides a detailed explanation of Relationship-Listening techniques. Chapter 3 presents Confronting-Contracting techniques. Chapter 4 describes Rules and Consequences techniques. Chapter 5 describes the levels of crisis through which a child will progress during incidents of assault and violence. Chapter 6 presents a theoretical framework for viewing aggressive and passive children and techniques for intervening with such children, while Chapter 7 introduces a step-by-step intervention process for helping problem children through developmental play techniques. Chapter 8 provides guidance in teaching values and proper behavior. Chapter 9 guides the teacher in how to arrange space and materials to prevent misbehavior, while chapter 10 provides the teacher with concrete techniques for handling misbehavior during critical time periods. Chapter 11 provides a way of viewing intervention problems and suggests a set of guidelines for teacher action. Chapter 12 provides steps to follow in establishing a staffing approach for dealing with problem children. Chapter 13 describes the importance of play, its value, and how the teacher may evaluate and facilitate the child’s play. An appendix provides information on medication given to children with behavioral problems.

Bibliobriefs

DeMoulin, Donald. "Giving Kids a Good Emotional Start." Children and Families 17, no. 4 (1998): 22-27.

Focuses on I Like Me! program (just prior to its availability to Head Start centers) that promotes emotional health in children through self-concept. Notes two components of self concept, self-efficacy and self-esteem, are developed at home from ages 2 through 6. Twelve week program originally developed for kindergarten by Kindergartners Count strengthens self-concept through literacy and attitude toward learning.

Epstein, Ann. "'The Behavior Part is the Hardest': Montessori Teachers and Young Children with Challenging Behaviors." Montessori Life (Fall 1998): 24-25.

Used interviews, observations, and surveys to identify how Montessori early childhood teachers make accommodations to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Found that teachers were developing effective strategies to support children with challenging behavior, including modifying activities, using flexible scheduling, and incorporating creative environmental designs.

Honig, Alice Sterling. "Creating a Prosocial Curriculum." Montessori Life 11, no. 2 (1999): 35-37.

Proposes that providing prosocial curricula in child care facilities will aid in resolving problems related to potential antisocial behaviors. Describes 30 teacher tools for creating a classroom environment to facilitate prosocial interactions and cognitive competence, including teaching words for feelings, using bibliotherapy, being aware of children’s goals for their behavior, and encouraging positive sociodramatic play.

Jurek, Dianne Miller, and Michaela Velazquez. "Teaching Peace: Alternatives to Violent Play." Early Childhood News 7, no. 5 (1995): 39-40.

To help combat the effects of violence on children and improve the quality and nature of play, early childhood teachers can: define violence by helping children become aware of the issue, help children resolve their own conflicts, create a peace place in the classroom, intervene when violent play occurs, evaluate media and toys, and educate parents about violence.

Letourneau, Nicole. "Fostering Resiliency in Infants and Young Children through Parent-Infant Interaction." Infants and Young Children 9, no. 3 (1997): 36-45.

This article reviews research showing that high-quality parent-infant interaction is important in the promotion of child resiliency and should be emphasized in family-centered early intervention programs. Research on risk factors that threaten the quality of parent-infant interaction and thus resiliency in infants and young children is also reviewed. Clinical guidelines for assessing and promoting parent-infant interaction are suggested.

Lowenthal, Barbara. "Strategies that Promote Social Skills in Toddlers with Special Needs in the Inclusive Setting." Infant-Toddler Intervention: The Transdisciplinary Journal 5, no. 1 (1995): 15-22.

This article describes strategies to assist toddlers with special needs in inclusive settings to acquire social interaction skills. Strategies include: (1) arranging the environment; (2) group affection activities; (3) imitation of peers; (4) teacher prompts; (5) teacher reinforcement; (6) correspondence training; and (7) peer-mediated interventions.

McCloskey, Cele M. "Taking Positive Steps toward Classroom Management in Preschool: Loosening Up without Letting It All Fall Apart." Young Children 51, no. 3 (1996): 4-16.

Ensuring healthy and happy classrooms requires being committed to students and acting in ways worthy of their respect; helping children improve their self-esteem; employing consistency, structure, and routine where appropriate; being clear and honest about expectations; offering students choices; allowing opportunities for all types of questions; and being willing to readjust your plans to meet student needs.

Pohlman, Craig, and R. A. McWillliam. "Paper Lion in a Preschool Classroom: Promoting Social Competence." Early Childhood Education Journal 27, no. 2 (1999): 87-94.

Notes that full inclusion of special needs children into regular early childhood settings is supported by research in terms of social and behavioral outcomes. Details observations of an inclusive preschool classroom utilizing integrated therapy for three special needs children. Highlights the themes revealed: integrated therapy and teacher facilitation require similar services and components; and social competence is ultimate goal.

Schreiber, Mary Ellis. "Time-Outs for Toddlers: Is Our Goal Punishment or Education?" Young Children 54, no. 4 (1999): 22-25.

Notes that time-outs have become a preferred method for setting limits with preschool children, and illustrates why this method is not developmentally appropriate for use with toddlers. Suggests that caregivers should join young children at play, be alert for learning opportunities, and develop practices to minimize conflicts.

Yockelson, Suzanne J. "Identification of Infants and Young Children with Social-Emotional Problems." Infants and Young Children 10, no. 3 (1998): 10-18.

Discusses the importance of screening infants and toddlers for social-emotional problems and the benefits of using parent-completed questionnaires in the screening process. Six screening tools that rely on parent report, including three experimental tools, are reviewed. Additionally, challenges to screening for social-emotional disorders are discussed and cautions for practitioners suggested.

Videos

Teacher/Child Interaction. Magna Systems.

The purpose of this video is to demonstrate the direct implications of developmentally appropriate practice for teachers of young children. One implication is that teachers understand child development and individual uniqueness. This thirty-nine minute tape explores how teachers process this information to come up with the best possible resolution for each situation. There are times when several techniques are tried before the best solution is found. Whatever techniques the teachers choose, they strive to be gentle, good humored, and firm. They keep in sight the youth and inexperience of the children. These teachers believe that children have the capacity to learn to control themselves if they are in an environment which provides order, security, respect, and affection.

Preventing Discipline Problems. Educational Productions.

Series helps convince viewers that time spent on preventing discipline problems will reduce problems and further curriculum goals.

Social and Emotional Development

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