Socio-emotional learning is one of the most important skills that parents must focus on when rearing their children. You have the responsibility to promote these key skills in order for them to have a trusting and safe relationship that they can nurture in their lives up until they grow up and face the world around them. Wondering how you can introduce socio-emotional learning to your little one at home? Here are tips to help you with.
Create a good connection with your child
A good connection is one that is trusting and safe. In order to create this, you must spend time taking to your child about what he feels and what it is he is thinking at a given situation. You must exercise this in such a way that your child will open up to you about anything that he thinks of. Allow some space or give your child the chance to talk so that he will know how you care.
You should have a routine
A routine will help create an open and safe space for your child. A routine must be stable enough to help your child become more familiar to certain situations. This will reduce the chance that your child will become anxious about a given situation as well as will help foster socio-emotional learning skills.
Be a model
Your child spends most of his time with you at home. He sees you every day and he will notice the way you act. He will copy your behaviour later on as he grows. You have to make sure then that you only show him what is good so he can copy what is good. If you want your child to be confident then you must in no way show that you feel down.
Praise and support is important
This is especially applicable with any positive behaviour that your child shows. Praise and support can build the child’s confidence. If he demonstrates cooperation in a given task, learns how to share, or always follows the rules, you should always give positive reinforcement.
Remember that encouragement is very important
He will need this especially when he is struggling with a certain situation or task. Offering encouragement will make him believe in himself. Words of encouragement will be important not just in building your child’s self-esteem but also in developing his own sense of optimism.
Allow him to express his emotions
Never dismiss your child’s feelings. Instead, you should encourage him to explain how he feels with a particular situation he is facing. Never stop him from crying if he feels pain. Just ask him what is wrong. Help him manage his emotions in such a way that he will realise the importance of expressing himself and that there are other solutions to responding to what he is feeling at the moment.
Teach him to manage emotions
There are many things you can introduce to a child who is still learning to manage his emotions. One is a calming breathing exercise and another is through a mindfulness activity where you also get involved as a parent. These activities will let your child learn how to cope with his own feelings while also promoting healthy emotions.
Allow your child to reflect
Your child may respond to different situations according to how he feels. When he sees another child upset, you may ask him what he feels about it and why he behaved in the way he did. Encourage this type of behaviour and give him merit by saying that you liked how he acted very kind in that situation.
Together with child care centers, you can work to develop your child’s socio-emotional learning. It is best to introduce this during early childhood education so that he will become the person you want him to be in the future.