How Can Teachers Best Support Young Children's Emotional Competence?

The Early Investments Policy Initiative team presented findings from a systematic review of the literature regarding practices to promote young children's emotional competencies at the American Educational Research Association conference in New York City on April 13, 2018. Expectations for young children's emotional competencies are part of the social and emotional learning (SEL) standards that all 50 states have adopted, including Illinois Early Learning and Development Standards that expect children to understand and effectively communicate emotions and express them in situationally-appropriate ways. As in many other states, Illinois teachers must align their curricula and assessments to these standards as part of the state's Excelerate system, which assigns medal levels (licensed, bronze, silver, gold) to all licensed centers and its Preschool for All funding focused on helping all young children be ready for school. The authors conclude that more and better designed studies are needed in order to determine practices that support young children's developing emotional competencies. Such work should be a high priority given teachers need support in knowing how to address state standards in these specific areas. One effort currently underway, for instance, is the EMOTERS project, a $1.4 million effort funded by the Institute of Education Sciences in which members of the IGPA Early Investments Project team (and collaborators from George Mason University) are developing a new measure of teachers' supports for young children's emotional development.Ope