Fostering children’s social competence
He Māpuna o te Tamaiti is an MoE resource designed for kaiako in early learning settings. It promotes proactive, intentional approaches to supporting the development of children’s social and emotional competence.
This work is focused around the four key areas of the document and will provide opportunities to examine and discuss the place that children’s developing social competence has in Te Whāriki and, therefore, curriculum provision in your service. The content and approach will encourage teachers to examine their role in supporting children to become socially competent. By asking “is the way I respond to children’s behaviour supporting children’s learning to become socially and emotionally competent?” teachers will identify alternative ways of responding to children’s behaviour. Teachers will be supported to identify key strategies and approaches that will assist them in supporting social and emotional learning.
Strategies for supporting children’s self-regulation
Learning to regulate your emotions is a core learning task in the early years. A child’s ability to master this is directly linked to successful life outcomes through the lifespan.Teachers play a vital role in supporting children to navigate this learning.
This work will empower you with the skills to be able to support children to manage big emotions. We go beyond surface-level strategies to unpack the why behind children’s behaviours and emotions. Understanding behaviour will help teachers defuse situations and equip them to respond confidently and calmly if children do become dysregulated. The importance of building trusting relationships and connection with all children is emphasised, including those that are challenging.
This work can be truly transformational for teachers, as they are able to implement strategies that make a real difference to children, teachers and the atmosphere in their services.