1. Using children’s books to support social-emotional development NAEYC Annual Conference Dallas, TX November 6, 2008 Maril Olson NAEYC Coordinator of Family and Community Initiatives Susan Friedman NAEYC Senior Editor

2. Session Outcomes  Understand how children’s literature can help support healthy social-emotional development  Recognize different kinds of literature and describe their benefits  Learn about specific titles that support social-emotional development  Obtain ideas for embedding social- emotional content of books into daily activities

3. Why children’s books?  Children need intentional support for social- emotional development: friendship skills, emotional literacy, empathy, impulse control, problem solving  Children need support to cope with a range of challenges: broken toys, friend won’t share, new sibling, sibling rivalry, moving, unemployment, deployment, incarceration, divorce, death  Helps children acquire new skills/concepts; become fluent in using new skills; maintain without prompting from adult; generalize to different settings/people/situations  Easy and fun way to be more intentional about supporting social-emotional development

4. Social-emotional books  Written explicitly about feelings/behaviors  Build feeling vocabularies and/or provide information about behavioral expectations  Direct, instructional format

5. Authentic children’s literature…  Tells a good story in its own right; well- crafted  Addresses challenging issues within a storyline: Directly as part of the storyline Indirectly by including coping/problem solving as part of the broader story Real-life situations  Engages more than books that focus on specific situations in a direct, instructional format

6. Children’s literature…  Helps children better understand life experiences  Provides insights into human behaviors, emotions, dilemmas  Stimulates curiosity  Develops problem-solving skills  Informs with facts, concepts, new understanding, demystifies  Provides comfort  Models coping strategies by walking readers through possible solutions or ways to cope

7. Using literature in the classroom…  Be sensitive to circumstances and personalities  Open communication between home and school helps create safety needed to take emotional risks  Introduce sensitive issues/content beforehand  Provide opportunities for responding to books – orally, through art, writing, movement, etc.  Honor children’s unique response to books  Read the same book for several days to provide more opportunities for children to talk about the story, predict what will come next, learn new vocabulary, talk about own experiences  Use to embed social-emotional skills building into every day activities: circle time, art, music, science, math, dramatic play

8. Small Group Activity  What social-emotional theme(s) does your book address?  How might you use this book to support social-emotional development: During large group time In centers At other times of the day Activity ideas

9. What are your ideas? How do you use children’s literature in the classroom to support social- emotional development?

10. Resources  Young Children www.naeyc.org/btj/200809www.naeyc.org/btj/200809  Teaching Young Children http://tyc.naeyc.org/http://tyc.naeyc.org/  Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning www.vanderbilt.edu/csefelwww.vanderbilt.edu/csefel  Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Interventions for Yong Children www.challengingbehavior.org www.challengingbehavior.org  Abiyoyo www.ed.uiuc.edu/sped/SPARK/abiyoyo.pdfwww.ed.uiuc.edu/sped/SPARK/abiyoyo.pdf  Glad Monster Sad Monster www.edemberley.comwww.edemberley.com