1. Emotional and Social Development from 4-6
Standard(s): 2.4, 2.5, 9.2, 10.6
Workplace Skill(s): 1. Complex Communication

2. Test your knowledge . . .
Next to each statement write true or false: __ “5-year-olds are more cooperative and receptive to rules than 4-year-olds” __ “Competition is unhealthy for children” __ “Children from 4-6 behave in acceptable ways only to escape punishment or win approval”

3. General Emotional Patterns
4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds face many changes
School takes kids from their homes and into new environment that they share with unfamiliar faces
Start to assume more responsibility
Feelings of independence and self-worth helps kids develop initiative

4. What are easy ways to give kids praise? What can you say to them?
Importance of Praise
Giving praise is essential for children this age: it affirms their sense of self, builds confidence, and creates a more independent child
What are easy ways to give kids praise? What can you say to them?

5. 4-year-olds
Intent on asserting independence; more self-centered, impatient, bossy than they were at three
Use language with enthusiasm; like to use bathroom terms to see how others react
Rather difficult phase of normal emotional development

6. 5-year-olds
Enter a quieter period of emotional development, similar to age three
Practical, sympathetic, serious
Have better memory and attention span
Adult criticism is hard for them to take
Conform to rules more easily

7. 6-year-olds Like 4-year-olds, often stubborn and quarrelsome
Resent directions and think they know everything
Have rapidly changing moods
Difficult age because they are in school all day for the first time
Crave praise and approval and are easily hurt and discouraged

8. Rules for caregivers . . .
Children from 4-6 have difficulty handling criticism
With the people at your table develop a list of 4 rules for caregivers to use when they try to correct the behavior of a child during this period

9. Specific Emotions
During these years children need help recognizing and expressing their emotions
Caregivers should accept and help children identify all emotions they experience anger, fear, jealousy, stress

10. Specific Emotions, cont’d
Anger –
Kids will express their anger in different ways, but parents need to set good examples, teach self-control, and encourage using words, not bodies
Fear –
Many kids will be afraid of school/new environment, so parents should accept their fear, let them express it, and help them face it

11. Specific Emotions, cont’d
Jealousy –
Sometimes parents can make it worse
Takes form in tattling, criticizing, lying
May result in nail-biting, bed-wetting, tantrums
Stress –
Parents should find the cause, give kids chances to get rid of tension
May result in nail-biting, twirling hair, rapid blinking

12. Family Relationships
4-year-olds: want to feel important in the family, are proud to perform household chores, bicker with siblings
5-year-olds: proud of parents and delight in helping, play better with siblings
6-year-olds: in less harmony with their family members, self-centered, argue with adults, rough with siblings

13. Moral Development
Definition: the process of gradually learning to base one’s behavior on personal beliefs of right and wrong
Parents have responsibility of helping kids develop a moral sense that will guide their behavior
Around age 5, kids begin developing a conscience

14. General Social Patterns
Developing social skills at this time is a major task
As children spend more time outside the home, they refine skills in getting along with peers
Adult authority figures other than parents gain more importance
There are general patterns at each age

15. General Social Patterns
What social skills should we expect of kids at this age?
Grab a piece of construction paper and fold it into thirds
At the top of each column, write 4, 5, and 6
Using pages jot down what social skills kids have at these ages