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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Resources  Young Children  Teaching Young Children  Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning  Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Interventions for Yong Children  Abiyoyo  Glad Monster Sad Monster