Every child is born with a unique temperament. These traits, which are innate, inherited and play an important role in determining personality traits, are also shaped by the social environment in which children grow up. Therefore, it is accepted that children have life experiences as much as their age. Everything that children learn as a result of their experiential experiences plays an important role in their ability to regulate their own feelings, thoughts and behaviors. Based on this information, it is known that children are in a continuous learning, change and development from the womb of the mother. Developmental steps of critical importance in child development; language and cognitive development area is divided into psychomotor and social emotional development areas.
The development area that includes the development of emotion, thought and behavior is called the area of social emotional development.
The foundations of social and emotional development are based on the ability of children to provide their own emotional awareness and the analysis of these emotions. A child who is aware of his own emotions and can analyze how these emotions cause him to react, also learns to control and manage these emotions. Thus, the child can show healthy behaviors in accordance with his emotions.
In this case, an important question that plays a major role in the child's behavioral development comes up.
''To whom and according to whom should these children behave appropriately?''
The content of the term we refer to here as "appropriate behavior" depends on the child's own wishes, the geography he is in, It may vary depending on family culture, social expectations, each region, race, religion and language. However, in cases where social and emotional development progresses in a healthy way, children are in a quality growth process by adapting to their social environment.
Children are in the growth process from the moment they are conceived. However, in some cases, children's growth There may be some disruptions in their medicine. The negative reflections of these developmental disruptions mostly affect the social-emotional development phase. Thus, the child's social-emotional development may not progress to the extent it should be according to his age development.
However, deficiencies in social-emotional development do not occur around a single factor. Temperament, family, environment and school factors may also be effective in these disruptions at various rates. As a result of all these, children are able to make friends with others, maintain healthy communication, provide emotional adaptation, use the tone of voice, gestures and body language correctly, understand the emotions of others, provide self-control and self-control, and express themselves correctly. they may experience difficulties in many parts of it.
In the face of this difficulty, children may develop inadequacy in social emotional development.
Social emotional disability; It is defined as the lack of sufficient social skills in social life or the inability to show these skills correctly in appropriate environments. Children who have deficiencies in social-emotional skills may naturally encounter many problems on the basis of relationships at school, at home and in social environments.
Which Children Also Have Social Emotional Skills Disabilities?
Although social-emotional skills deficits are more common in diagnosis groups such as special learning disability, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intellectual disability, autism, asperger's syndrome, and developmental delay, shy, introverted, calm or It can also occur in anxious, extroverted, social and active children.
Children with deficiencies in social-emotional skills may never be able to demonstrate existing skills that they do not know how to use, or these skills may only occur in certain environments. they can show. For example, while the child may behave more harmoniously towards family members at home, they may show behaviors such as getting bored of acting with others in the classroom, not wanting to adapt to others, disrupting the classroom order. social feeling They can show in skills. However, what is important in this process is that the child is able to demonstrate his/her social-emotional skills in a consistent and sustainable way. Therefore, children who show these skills at different levels or not at all according to the social environment still need to receive support in this area. >
There are a number of behavioral patterns that families and teachers should observe in order to understand that children have difficulties in the social emotional field. Behavior patterns that need to be observed in order to be able to say that children have difficulties in this area can be determined with the following questions:
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The child experiences emotions such as anxiety, fear, anger, shame, enthusiasm, jealousy very intensely. Does the child have difficulty in controlling his intense emotions?
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Does the child have difficulty in communicating with others?
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Does the child have difficulty in maintaining relationships with people they are familiar with?
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Does the child have difficulty in fulfilling responsibilities?
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Is the child able to empathize with others?
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Is the child able to comply with the rules required by the social environment?
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Is the child able to say no to others in the right place and correctly in the face of something he does not want?
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Does the child feel inadequate in solving problems?
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Is the child unable to properly understand the feelings of others?
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Is the child able to express their own emotions correctly?
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Is the child able to adapt to the group he/she is in?
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Does the child have destructive behaviors?
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Does the child have difficulty in sharing?
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Does the child show inability to express his/her thoughts clearly and clearly?
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Does the child feel insecure?
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The child has problems such as not being able to organize and plan. Is it right? It may be necessary to receive trainings or psychological counseling services to support social emotional development.
What are the Benefits of Trainings Supporting Social Emotional Development?
Social When educations that support emotional development create emotional, intellectual and behavioral problems in children's social lives, they have solution-oriented effects against these problems, while they also show the feature of being a preventive study before a problem occurs. Thanks to these programs that contribute to the development of social skills, behavior and adaptation problems in children are reduced.
With these programs, developmental progress is observed in children both in the short and long term. These programs also develop children's skills in recognizing their emotions, expressing themselves correctly, knowing their responsibilities and following their own responsibilities, mental development, academic success, group adaptation skills, saying no, coping with difficult emotions, adapting to society and gaining self-confidence within the scope of social-emotional development.
With the help of education programs that support social and emotional development, it is aimed to prevent emotional and physical exploitation of children who show inadequacy in this area, by shifting to an unhealthy social environment, especially in advanced adolescence. Thus, it is tried to prevent the possibility of children with advanced social-emotional skills deficiency to start alcohol-substance-smoking, to harm themselves or others, to be involved in criminal elements, to experience extreme stress and to display destructive behaviors in their older ages.
How to Apply Trainings Supporting Social Emotional Development?
Trainings supporting social and emotional development can be done individually or in groups. In order to ensure full efficiency from education in group applications, groups should consist of at least 4 and maximum 6 children.
Before forming groups, teachers and parents are asked to fill in observation and information forms about children in order to evaluate children in terms of social skills. In this way, it is ensured that the children show a homogeneous distribution in the group in terms of social emotional characteristics. Because the homogeneity in terms of social and emotional characteristics creates a small representation of life and enables the dynamics that occur in daily life to become effective within the group. Thus, social emotional skills can be observed instantaneously within the group and can be intervened by the expert. While creating group studies, care is taken that the age difference within the group does not exceed two. The reason for this is that children of similar ages go through similar social development stages.
Trainings usually continue for an average of 8-10 weeks in consecutive weeks. This period may vary between 4-6 weeks or more than 10 weeks, depending on the needs and dynamics of the group. While individual trainings last 60 minutes on average, group trainings are applied for 75 minutes.
Trainings that support social and emotional development are carried out in an area large enough for practice depending on the number of people in the group. Sufficient tables and chairs and materials required for the activities to be carried out are made available in the environment in advance by the experts who will implement the training in this field, so that the children can sit when necessary and perform desk activities.
As the trainings require expertise, psychologists and psychological should be implemented by consultants. Because, although the activities in the studies are based on scientific principles, it is necessary to master the professional dimension of the work in order to be able to make appropriate interventions for children during the applications. plays an important role in their sustainability. For this reason, it is necessary for children to try the skills acquired in trainings that support social and emotional development in daily life.
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