This article originally appeared in the July-August 2005 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.

Heart start

Research shows...social and emotional skills matter

By Jessine Foss

“How young children feel is as important as how they think, and how they are treated is as important as what they are taught.”

Jack Shonkoff, co-editor, Neurons to Neighborhoods

It’s no secret that children need supportive relationships with caring adults to thrive. Recent research shows that

• A child’s early experiences shape brain development—and those early supportive relationships are key.

• Many children enter school with emotional or behavioral problems. The rate is almost three times as high for children in low-income communities.

• High-quality programs are effective in helping parents, early education providers, and K-12 teachers nurture healthy social/emotional development.

Experiences shape the brain

• Most of the development of the human brain happens after birth—and a child’s experiences actually affect the structure of the brain as it develops.

• Emotional development is built into the structure of the brain along with thinking skills. Development of one affects the development of the other.

• Nurturing environments promote healthy brain development.

Relationships matter

• Close, nurturing bonds with parents help children learn social and emotional skills—trust and compassion, self-confidence and self-control.

• Social/emotional development from birth to age three forms the base for future learning.

• Stresses such as poverty, low educational level, and parental depression make it harder for parents to provide the warm, responsive care that helps children thrive.

• High-quality parent support and education programs including Early Head Start, Parents as Teachers, Healthy Start, and home-visiting programs like the Nurse-Family Partnership are effective in helping parents provide good environments for their children. Studies of these programs show improvements in childrens’ emotional health.

Quality early education helps

• Warm, responsive early care and education providers promote positive social/emotional development and improve children’s ability to learn.

• Teachers’ respect for children’s culture strengthens ties with families, makes children feel supported—and may help them learn more.

• Children’s behavior and emotional well-being improves when teachers have access to:
  • Training, such as the Head Start “Incredible Years” training on emotional and behavioral issues for teachers and parents, which cuts behavior problems by almost a third
  • Mental health consultation—when teachers have access to mental health consultants, only half as many children are expelled from preschool. (see "Covering all the bases")
  • Adequate pay, which cuts turnover, promoting stable relationships.

Behavior affects school success

• Children whose behavior is disruptive or angry are less able to get positive feedback and instruction, do worse in school, and attend less.

• 16 to 30 percent of children entering kindergarten have emotional or behavioral problems that pose ongoing problems to teachers.

• Children’s behavior improves when teachers have access to:
  • Training on social/emotional development
  • Curricula for teaching social skills, such as Second Step and Resolving Conflicts Creatively.

Sources: California Tomorrow, California Healthy Start, Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, Kauffman Early Education Exchange, National Center for Children in Poverty, National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, Neurons to Neighborhoods, RAND, Cybele Raver, Betty Rintoul, Zero to Three, Yale University Child Study Center

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Extra resources from the Children’s Advocate bulletin (updated 10-06)

• Building Young Minds, from North Dakota Kids Count, is a fact sheet on the importance of social and emotional development. Discusses understanding development, relationships, environment, and culture. Online at http://www.ndkidscount.org/
  publications/inform/4_3Inform.pdf

• Helping the Most Vulnerable Infants, Toddlers, and Their Families, from the National Center for Children in Poverty, highlights programs and community strategies that can help vulnerable families and promote early school success. Online at http://nccp.org/publications/pub_669.html

• How to build a better brain, from EurekAlert!, summarizes a study that finds the most efficient strategy for strengthening the future workforce is to invest in the environments of disadvantaged children. Online at http://www.eurekalert.org/
  pub_releases/2006-06/sumc-htb062606.php; study abstract in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online at http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/
  abstract/103/27/10155

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