Learning & Development: Emotional Literacy - Feeling fine

The revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) recognises that a cornerstone of effective learning and development is a child's ability to socialise and express their feelings and emotions. Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) has, therefore, been identified as one of three prime areas of learning within the curriculum, to be implemented from September 2012. But what does this mean for early years settings and what steps can practitioners take to help nurture a child's emotional development?

Babies and children are influenced by the people they are with. As early years practitioners we need to be well enough informed to help provide children with the skills and confidence to manage their emotions both within the setting and at home. Children and families are faced with many challenges nowadays: fast-paced lifestyles, both parents working or one parent raising the family, healthy eating, poverty, bullying, high crime, and much, much more.

Upon reflection does the learning environment, interactions with adults and learning opportunities within your setting support the emotional literacy skills of babies and children?

WHAT IS EMOTIONAL LITERACY?

Developing Emotional Literacy (EL) is essential to children's learning and development, supporting them to identify and communicate their feelings. The term, Emotional Literacy, is still relatively new and continues to gain recognition within early years as a life skill that practitioners can begin to nurture in young children.

Emotions are feelings that arise from our circumstances, mood or relationships with others. Literacy means a practical process or concept where one can be taught to read. Therefore, the term refers to a person's ability to recognise, understand and express their emotions, contrasting any negative feelings with positive ones. Fostering an emotionally literate environment, mediated by caring adults, leads to children developing a strong sense of character, high self-esteem and lasting relationships.

In the English language there are thousands of words which describe our emotions; we do not really use many of them. One of the reasons for this is that as children we may not have been encouraged to express our feelings using a range of feeling words. Therefore, the first step to supporting emotional literacy is to create such opportunities for children during the daily routine such as:

• listening as they share their news at circle time or in small groups

• introducing activities based on their interests to support learning and development

• a well-planned settling in process, involving the child and parents for a smooth transition

• using puppets and role play to explore characters from story books and rhymes

• listening, observing and interacting as children express their feelings through verbal or non-verbal cues.

Another opportunity is to role model good practice through communication by using simple, short sentences such as 'I feel happy, 'I feel excited'. This will encourage children to develop the language skills and support them to listen and empathise with others.

Remember that children must feel able to communicate their feelings in order to gain the emotional support from practitioners.

Emotional literacy is also often referred to as Emotional Intelligence (EI). This term was first introduced by Daniel Goleman in the mid-1990s.

He studied the work of Peter Salovey and John Mayer and came up with five domains of emotional intelligence; his emotional competence framework has five components:

• motivation

• relationship awareness

• relationship management

• self-awareness, and

• self-management.

Emotional development occurs from birth in various stages, with the role of the adult central in supporting children to becoming independent, developing self-esteem and confidence in a range of social situations. Emotional Literacy can be defined as a type of social intelligence. Developing (EL) abilities in children encourages them to manage conflict with peers, resulting in positive outcomes as they learn to empathise with others.

STRATEGIES FOR CREATING AN EMOTIONALLY LITERATE ENVIRONMENT

Children experience a lot of emotional ups and downs, just like adults. Developing their emotional literacy is a key skill to enable them to feel confident when expressing their feelings. As practitioners, taking time to establish a sense of belonging for each child helps to create an inclusive and caring environment. The Early Years Foundation Stage (DCSF, 2008) states that both babies and children experience emotional well-being when their needs are met and their feelings are accepted. Strategies for achieving this might include:

• Work within the principles of the EYFS to plan experiences that are age and stage appropriate for the children within your setting, so that they are able to plan their learning and do things for themselves to gain confidence and independence. This could mean babies choosing materials and resources or holding their bottle, or toddlers and pre-schoolers tidying up, getting dressed and being encouraged to make decisions and express their emotions through creative play opportunities.

• Check your own feelings and emotions on a daily basis. How well are you able to identify and manage your feelings? In fact, adults with good EL skills are more likely to feel empathy for others and read their emotions. Learn to stay calm when dealing with stressful situations, recognising how you are feeling and then managing your emotions in a positive way.

• Be a good listener and follow children's interests without interrupting. Get down to their level so that they feel their contribution is important. Give children time to think and formulate their thoughts, questions or ideas. An important part of promoting emotional literacy is to have an understanding of gender differences and equal opportunities as well as active listening skills, empathy and warmth for each child.

• Welcome each child with a smile, and pay them a compliment. They will begin to respond to your body language and words, with attachments being formed. Create a friendly, calm and welcoming environment for children and families, by taking time to talk and listen to parents and carers.

• Act as a positive role model as children can identify emotion in the tone of voice or body language.

• Provide a gentle start to the day, where children can choose and direct their own learning and play, finding opportunities to give encouragement and taking account of differing needs.

• Involve children in discussions, asking open questions such as 'How are you feeling today?', 'What do you like about this story?' Children who are given opportunities to communicate their emotions can be supported to recognise their emotions and work towards naming and managing their feelings.

Conscious awareness in extending the vocabulary of feelings supports children to understand their thoughts and feelings.

• Offer resources that support emotional literacy such as puppets, storytelling, conversation, rhymes and songs. Such activities encourage feelings to be expressed and observed through facial expressions, actions, body language, sounds and words.

• Provide good natural lighting, gentle music and familiar resources and situations, all of which create strong emotional connections to children's experiences within the setting and support those new to the setting.

• Establish collaborative relationships with families from the start and involve them in helping out and being part of the daily routine.

• Use picture cards or a personalised timetable for children to develop independence in choosing activities and helping them to settle into tasks, discovering their interests and involving them in planning their learning opportunities.

• Maintain a bright and attractive play-based setting, with children having access to resources independently.

Living the emotional literacy curriculum day to day is important in managing feelings, promoting self-esteem, managing conflict, acquiring communication skills and building strong foundations to learning and development.

Emotions are very powerful and should not be ignored. The role of the practitioner is to enable children to embrace and manage their feelings in a positive way. Sometimes children have strong feelings that can trigger challenging behaviours, or their feelings will affect their ability to communicate, learn and develop. Early years practitioners can implement strategies to enable children to grow and maintain good relationships.

It is the ability to recognise and manage a range of feelings and to understand that it is okay to share these with others that will increase a child's ability to maintain good relationships and develop confidence and self-esteem when coping with new, challenging or stressful situations.

WORKING WITH PARENTS AND FAMILIES

Children respond to life through their emotions, and parents discover that from birth their child experiences many emotional ups and downs.

As practitioners, you can work with and support parents to help develop their child's emotional literacy. For example, reading storybooks at home will:

• help the parent interact and talk about the experiences and feelings of characters in the story - events and emotions that the family itself may be experiencing

• encourage the parent to interact with their child so they have opportunities to identify and communicate their feelings from an early age.

It is the responsibility of the parent, carers and practitioners to role model and enable children to share their feelings and to tune in and listen to children on a daily basis. The skill of communication is vital here, as helping children to name and understand feelings will enable them to manage their emotions and resulting actions in an appropriate way, becoming emotionally literate.

FURTHER READING

• Building Emotional Intelligence: Techniques to Cultivate Inner Strength in Children by Linda Lantieri and Daniel Goleman (Sounds True Inc)

• Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman (Bloomsbury)

• Developing Positive and Trusting Relationships by Jessica Johnson (Learning Matters)

• Emotional Literacy in the Early Years by Christine Bruce (Sage)

• How To Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

• Working with Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman (Bloomsbury)

• Young Children's Personal, Social and Emotional Development by Marion Dowling (Third Edition) (Sage)

• Emotional Intelligence: Key Readings on the Mayer and Salovey Model by Peter Salovey, Marc A Brackett and John Mayer (Natl Professional Resources Inc)

7 strategies for an emotionally literate environment

• Involve parents and families to share their experiences with children

• Lead by example: smile, welcome and greet to ensure a smooth transition to the day

• Provide experiental play opportunities: children select stories, rhymes and own activities

• 'Scaffold' learning, listen and make each child feel valued

• Circle times to enable children to express their feelings (draw, write, verbalise)

• Develop children's interests - celebrate and recognise achievements

Yasmin Mukadam is an early years lecturer at Kingston University London