I. Social-Emotional Learning and Fostering the Development of Young Children's Self-Regulation
a. Parenting and Caregiving Approaches to Discipline that Foster the Development of Self-Regulation and Reduce Challenging Behaviors
Activities Guide: Enhancing and Practicing Executive Function Skills with Children from Infancy to Adolescence http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/activities-guide-enhancing-and-practicing-executive-function-skills-with-children-from-infancy-to-adolescence/ Format: pdf, 2 pages for each developmental level (6-18 months, 18-36 months, 3-5 years, 5-7 years, 7-12 years, & adolescents) Audiences/age groups: parents, professionals/infant-adolescent Summary: Explains how the development of executive function is closely linked to the development of a child’s capacity to regulate emotion and how parents and caregivers can support this development in the context of their everyday interactions. Offers games and activities parents and caregivers can do with children that foster the development of self-regulation and executive function.
Bullies on the Block: The Early Childhood Origins of “Mean” Behavior https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-_df-AgmmAzcWtpeVpsczI0dlE/view?ts=57cede10 Format: White paper, 32 pages Audiences/age groups: professionals, parents, caregivers/infant-kindergarten Summary: Discusses the research on three potential antecedents to early bullying behavior: attachment, parenting styles, and maltreatment. Explains how other factors (parental bias, exposure to violent media) may also be linked to bullying. Offers recommendations to early childhood care providers for strategies for promoting prosocial behavior and evidenced-based interventions for preventing and addressing bullying behavior.
Connect then Redirect Refrigerator Sheet http://www.drdansiegel.com/pdf/Refrigerator%20Sheet--NDD.pdf Format: refrigerator sheet, 2 pages Audiences/age groups: parents, professionals/preK-pre-teen Summary: Summarizes the “Connect and Redirect” strategy from Dan Siegel and Tina Payne-Bryson’s No Drama Discipline and The Whole-Brained Child, providing step-by-step instructions. This strategy can help parents and caregivers help parents and caregivers when children’s capacity to manage strong feelings is overwhelmed and the child is high-jacked by his emotional brain. The strategy helps parents to co-regulate with their child to create the safety that will help self-control develop.
Developing Self-Regulation in Kindergarten https://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200803/BTJ_Primary_Interest.pdf Format: pdf, 3 pages Audiences/age groups: professionals, parents, caregivers/kindergarten Summary: Explains how self-regulation develops and how kindergarten teachers can promote children’s development of self-regulation.
Developing Young Children’s Self-Regulation Through Everyday Experiences https://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/201107/Self-Regulation_Florez_OnlineJuly2011.pdf Format: pdf, 6 pages Audiences/age groups: professionals, parents, caregivers/preK, K Summary: Discusses 1) what self-regulation is and how it involves integration and development of multiple systems, 2) how teachers can foster the development of self-regulation, 3) how teachers can use everyday classroom experiences to provide scaffolding for building self-regulation and provides examples.
Low and Slow Approach http://www.thebolickhouse.com/docs/Low%20and%20Slow%20Handout%5B1%5D.pdf Low and Slow (adapted for little kids)(based on Bolick, T.) http://autism.outreach.psu.edu/sites/default/archive_files/16_2_Handout.pdf Format: pdf, 2 pages Audiences/age groups: parents, caregivers, professionals/PreK-adolescents Summary: Summarizes the low and slow approach for supporting children who are overwhelmed and melting down. It emphasizes nonverbal and paraverbal approaches that help children feel safe and calm down & recover from overwhelming experiences. It also includes Dos and Don’ts for processing the incident with the child in ways that will produce growth in the child.
Time’s Up for Time Out http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/12/times-up-for-timeout/383897/ Format: article, 15 pages Audiences/age groups: parents, caregivers/preK-preteen Summary: Describes the social-neuroscience of disciplinary approaches that foster development of self-regulation, i.e., teaching children how to manage their feelings and behavior, points to curiosity is a key characteristic of effective parenting. Caregivers who approach a child’s behavior as helping her learn to tame difficult emotions, sensations, and cognitions and respect the way a child is behaving as adaptive in the face a stress are far more likely to calm the child, remove the need for the child to communicate through behavior, and keep parent and child connected enough to facilitate the development of self-regulation.
University of New Mexico Center for Development and Disability’s: Self-Regulation Tips/Strategies https://www.cdd.unm.edu/ecspd/resources/pdfs/QualityChildcare/Resource%20Guide/SelfRegulationTipsandStrategies.pdf Format: pdf, 6 pages Audiences/age groups: professionals, parents, caregivers/infant-elementary Summary: Offers a variety of sensory strategies to help children learn to self-regulate, tips for how to talk with young children about self-control, how to help children who have troubles with transitions, and how to handle meltdowns.
Whole Brain Child Strategies Refrigerator Sheet https://vialogue.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/the-whole-brain-child-the-refrigerator-sheet.pdf Format: refrigerator sheet, 2 pages Audiences/age groups: parents, professionals/preK-middle school Summary: Provides a summary of Siegel and Payne-Bryson’s disciplinary approach and strategies that help parents stay connected when children are overwhelmed by emotion. Summarizes how parents and caregivers can teach children about their brain that helps them make sense of and become better able to manage the overwhelming feelings behind challenging behavior.
CASEL PreK Training Modules for Teaching SEL http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/resources/training_preschool.html#mod1 Format: Training modules: presentation with script and video examples and handouts Audiences/age groups: Professionals, parents, caregivers/PreK Summary: Provides five training modules: Promoting Children’s Success: Building Relationships and Creating Supportive Environments, Social-Emotional Teaching Strategies, Individualized Intensive Interventions: Determining the Meaning of the Behavior, Individualized Intensive Interventions: Developing a Behavior Support Plan, and Leadership Strategies for Supporting Children’s Social and Emotional Development and Addressing Challenging Behavior.
CSEFEL Practical Strategies for Teachers/Caregivers for Fostering Social and Emotional Development http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/resources/strategies.html Format: website Audiences/age groups: Professionals, parents, caregivers/preK Summary: Offers resources including: Scripted Stories for Social Situations, Tools for Working on Building relationships, SEL Book list, guides for how to use over 20 popular children’s books as part of SEL, resources for teaching SEL skills, and Tools for Developing Behavior Support Plans
CSEFEL’s Children’s Book List for Social-Emotional Learning http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/documents/booklist.pdf Format: pdf, 6 pages Audiences/age groups: Professionals, parents, caregivers/birth-elementary school Summary: Provides a list of children’s books by topic, including: being a friends, accepting different kinds of friends, general feelings, happy feelings, sad feelings, angry or mad feelings, scared or worried feelings, caring about others and empathy, problem solving, self-confidence, & good behavior expectations.
Sesame Street’s Little Children, Big Challenges: Resilience http://www.sesamestreet.org/toolkits/challenges Format: website, including links to videos, activities, and educator toolkits Audiences/age groups: parents, professionals/preK-K Summary: Provides a toolkit (videos & activities with teaching guides) for supporting the social emotional learning and resilience in early childhood. Videos introduces children to SEL topics including: persistence, growth mindset, patience, turn-taking and help parents and educators take advantage of situations common to early childhood that can be opportunities for social-emotional learning.
TACSEI: Learn about the Pyramid Model http://challengingbehavior.fmhi.usf.edu/do/pyramid_model.htm Format: website Audiences/age groups: professionals/infant-preK Summary: Provides comprehensive information and resources for implementing the Pyramid Model for Supporting Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children, a conceptual framework of evidence-based practices with policies and practices as the foundation of the pyramid, then universal supports, targeted social emotional supports, and intensive intervention.
TACSEI’s Teaching Tools for Young Children with Challenging Behavior http://challengingbehavior.fmhi.usf.edu/do/resources/teaching_tools/ttyc.htm Format: webpage with teacher toolkits Audiences/age groups: professionals/preK-kindergarten Summary: The Teaching Tools provide: 1) easily accessible ideas and materials such as handouts, worksheets, techniques, strategies, and visuals to support children in the classroom and other learning environments; 2) ideas of effective intervention approaches for children who do not need a functional assessment to determine the function of the child’s problem behavior or a team‐based process to address persistent challenging behavior. Examples of tools include: The Visual Strategies folder includes visual schedules, choice boards, cue cards, and activity sequences. A variety of pictured examples are provided to help teachers develop their own visual supports. The Feeling Vocabulary folder contains an article about appropriately expressing feelings, visuals depicting a variety of emotions, a feeling wheel, and a feeling chart. The Home Strategies folder helps link home and school and, among other materials, includes a questionnaire that offers critical information about the child and a scripted story which is provided to help children with first time transitions to school.
c. Parent and Caregiver Resources for Fostering Child Development
Baby Cues Video Guide http://raisingchildren.net.au/baby_cues/baby_cues.html Format: website Audiences/age groups: Professionals, parents, caregivers/infants Summary: Offers video guides for how to read and respond to infants’ cues for feeling hungry and tired, for wanting to play, for needing a break, etc.
CSEFEL’s Parent and Caregiver Resources http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/resources/family.html Format: website Audiences/age groups: Professionals, parents, caregivers /0-PreK Summary: Provides several brief, issue-targeted handouts for parents: Teaching Your Child To: Identify and Express Emotions, Teaching Your Child To: Cooperate with Requests, Make the Most of Playtime, Responding to your Child’s Bite, Teaching Your Child about Feelings, Understanding Your Child’s Behavior: Reading Your Child’s Cues from Birth to Age 2, Teaching Your Child to Become Independent with Daily Routines, Tips on Nurturing Your Child’s Social Emotional Development, Supporting your Child’s Relationship Building Skills, Supporting Your Child’s Confidence, Supporting Your Child’s Communication Skills, Supporting Your Child’s Persistence, Love, Learning, and Routines, Tips on Temperament, Tips on Getting Baby to Sleep, Helping Young Children Channel Their Aggressive Tendencies, Toddlers and Challenging Behaviors: Why They Do It and How to respond, Supporting Your Child’s Cooperation,
Harvard Center for Developing Child: Serve and Return Video http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/serve-return-interaction-shapes-brain-circuitry/ Format: online video Audiences/age groups: Professionals, parents, caregivers/infant-preK Summary: Describes how simple, everyday parent/caregiver “serve and return” interactions with a child are the fundamental building blocks of the child’s developing brain. Adults responding in reciprocal way to the innate ways children reach out are helping to lay down the neural pathways that will become core brain systems.
Raising Children Network http://raisingchildren.net.au Format: website Audiences/age groups: Professionals, parents, caregivers/all Summary: Offers multiple parenting resources, most resources in multiple languages, many with video examples including: tips for bonding with baby, information about child development, strategies for parenting that foster healthy development, tips for fostering school readiness, etc.
Zero to Three: Early Connections that Last a Lifetime https://www.zerotothree.org/ Format: website Audiences/age groups: Professionals, parents, caregivers /0-PreK Summary: Provides relationship-focused resources (many include video examples) for parents, caregivers, and professionals on a wide-variety of topics/issues including: resources for grandparents, positive parenting approaches, discipline and limit setting, play, developing school readiness, child care, challenging behaviors, sleep, trauma and stress, brain development, and infant and early childhood mental health
100 Ways to Be Kind to Your Child http://pcawy.org/files/2012/10/100-Ways-to-be-kind-to-your-child.pdf Format: pdf, 1 page Audiences/age groups: Professionals, parents, caregivers /birth-elementary Summary: Lists 100 simple, meaningful ways to show care and nurturing toward a child.
d. Play Helping Children Play and Learn Together https://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/201001/OstroskyWeb0110.pdf Format: pdf, 7 pages Audiences/age groups: professionals, parents, caregivers/preK Summary: Describes how to structure the physical environment and enhance the social environment to support SEL, and strategies for supporting growth-producing peer socialization in the PreK classroom.
Play and Children’s Learning http://www.naeyc.org/play Format: website Audiences/age groups: Professionals, parents, caregivers/birth-elementary Summary: National Association for the Education of Young Children’s webpage providing recent research on the importance of play in early learning, links to articles from Young Children and Teaching Young Children on play-based learning, and information to share with parents about the importance of play.
Why Is Play Important: Social-Emotional Development, Physical Development, Creative Development Excerpt from Creative Thinking and Arts-Based Learning Preschool Through Fourth Grade, by J.P. Isenberg, M. R. Jalongo, 2006 edition, p. 53-55 http://www.education.com/reference/article/importance-play--social-emotional/ Format: webpage Audiences/age groups: Professionals, parents, caregivers/PreK-4th grade Summary: Explains ways in which play supports social-emotional, physical, and creative development.