Know

The development of social-emotional skills is the foundation for children’s later friendships, social interactions, and academic learning. Children’s earliest memories and feelings of attachment with caregivers support their growth and development. The adults children interact with serve as important role models who support children’s growth and development in many ways. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) lists 10 early childhood standards and accreditation criteria for ensuring a high-quality program; it is not surprising that the first standard covers relationships.

Social Emotional Milestones by Age

As a Program Manager, you need to have a strong understanding of social-emotional milestones that occur during development. You also need to know how to locate and make available evidence-based resources on social-emotional development. These resources should be easily available to staff and families.

Supervise & Support

The Program Manager’s Role

It is important as a manager for you to ensure that the staff members you hire and supervise build warm relationships with children and families. In addition, your center policies should support a caring community among the families, staff, and children and youth. Children’s social-emotional development is dependent on feeling that they are a part of a loving and caring community. Children’s overall development is closely tied to forming strong attachments to their caregivers (parents, families, and teachers). The child-caregiver relationship influences positive developmental outcomes across all developmental domains for the children and youth enrolled in the program.

Having a strong understanding of how to facilitate children’s social-emotional development can support staff members and families in their daily interactions with children and youth. As a Program Manager, you will provide families and staff members with information about the stages of a child’s social skill development. When appropriate, you will help families and staff address delays and concerns about a child’s social-emotional development. Ways you can provide developmental information:

• Include brief examples of social-emotional milestones in program materials, such as newsletters, social media, and program website.
• Provide brief tip sheets or other resources in families’ home langauges that families can review, in a “Families Corner” of the child-care program.
• Share handouts and videos from reliable, evidence-based sources on social-emotional development.

As a manager, you should model your interest in the development of each child and youth who participates in the program. Knowing when to reassure staff and families and when to assist families in obtaining outside resources and referrals to help address a child’s social-emotional needs is a critical part of your role as a Program Manager. Listen as a program leader outlines the process they use to ensure that classroom activities meet the social emotional needs of children.

Developmental Screening

Infant-Toddler and Preschool Screening

Become familiar with various screening materials that assess young children’s social and emotional development. You can learn more about different Social-Emotional Screening tools by reviewing information provided by the Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation, and the Learn attachment, Screening for Social Emotional Concerns: Considerations in the Selection of Instruments. Social-emotional screening tools can help you focus staff and families on children’s social-emotional development. For example, the Ages & Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional, Second Edition (ASQ:SE-2) (Squires et al., 2015) addresses typical stages of social-emotional development for children 1–72 months. The Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for Preschool - 2nd Edition (DECA-P2) (Mackrain, M. & Cairone, K., 2012) examines children’s initiative, self-control, and attachment and problem behaviors for children 3 to 5 years. The Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for Infants and Toddlers (DECA-I/T) (Mackrain, M. & LeBuffe, P.,2007) assesses children 1-36 months. Screening tools such as these can be helpful to staff members and families. You will find it interesting to compare the parent’s perceptions and observations with those of the staff members. Having a checklist can provide evidence of concerns about a children’s development. The earlier these concerns are noted and addressed with the child’s health-care provider, a mental health consultant, or a consultant from the early-intervention system, the better the outcomes for the child and family.

School-Age Screening

As children enter the primary grades and middle childhood, they begin to learn more about themselves. They typically become familiar with their own strengths, are interested in forming special friendships, and become active in competitive games and sports. Children build resilience and self-sufficiency as they engage in problem-solving situations and independently completing tasks. Once again, as a Program Manager, you can serve as a resource by providing staff and families with information about typical development and the many ways young people can increase their social-emotional competence.

For youth ages 6 to 12 years old, there are many screening and assessment instruments for children with evidence of delays in social and emotional development (see this Edutopia blog post for more information about different tools for school-age children). Typically, these screening and assessment tools are administered by trained personnel in the school system or by healthcare professionals. If the child-care or youth program staff members have documented concerns about an individual child, it is best to plan a meeting to discuss the concerns with the family. You and your staff members can learn from the family whether these concerns have also been observed outside the program setting. Some families may give written consent for you or a staff member involved with the child to discuss strategies for addressing the child’s needs with school personnel. When children and youth receive school-based services or other mental-health services related to social-emotional concerns, it becomes critical for all the adults to have a written plan and regularly share information to ensure that the strategies being used are consistently implemented across settings. When working directly with the child, you will take join with the family to undertake this collaborative process.

Understanding Typical Development and Common Challenges

As a Program Manager you can support staff members in building positive relationships with children, families, and colleagues, which in turn creates a strong, caring community within the child-care program. There are many ways your program provide resources and information for staff members and families to understand and enhance children’s growth and development. Listen as a Program Manager describes how their program uses a lending library to support families in understanding how best to address children’s needs.

Your knowledge of social-emotional developmental milestones and where to access appropriate resources is key to building a quality program that facilitates children’s social- emotional growth. There are several ways you can support families and staff members in this work:

• Provide families and staff members with accessible, evidence-based resources on children’s social-emotional developmental milestones. Whenever possible, provide resources in families’ and staff’s home language.
• Provide a list of resources in the community that families can access if they need assistance to address a child’s social or emotional needs.
• Ensure that staff have access to evidence-based screening tools that can assist them in identifying any concerns about social-emotional development.
• With the parent’s written consent, collaborate with school-based or health service providers who serve a child or youth enrolled in the program.
• Reflect upon your own emotional strengths and model healthy social-emotional interactions with children, families, and colleagues to create a positive center climate.