ELCFV

8 Ways to Support Your Child’s Social-Emotional Development

Social-emotional development consists of three main areas of a child’s ability to self-regulate.

  1. Acting – behaving appropriately in social environments and in ways that foster learning.
  2. Feeling – the ability to regulate their own emotions and understand the emotions of others.
  3. Thinking – the ability to regulate their attention and thoughts.

You can support your child’s social emotional development by simply modeling each of these three main areas in your own behavior. Show your child how to be kind and show empathy towards others. Teach your child about sharing and taking turns.

Here are some other ideas:

  1. Use puppets to model interactions with other children
  2. At birthdays or holidays, send thank you cards
  3. Model good manners (saying please and thank you)
  4. Give your child hugs and plenty of praise
  5. Encourage your child to try new things
  6. Use words that will help your child identify their own or others’ feelings
  7. Practice asking your child to describe how they’re feeling
  8. Share a book when reading or crayons when coloring

Want to know more? Complete the Ages & Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-SE) to see how your child’s social/emotional skills are developing. Just visit Help Me Grow and select I am completing the ASQ:SE-2 questionnaire.

Questions? Contact us!
Crystal Burns, Help Me Grow Specialist
(386) 317-3386
cburns@elcfv.org