Social Competence

Whilst recognising there is an array of features as to why the development of social and emotional competence is important for young children, these include; social awareness, integration of development domain, the foundation for positive mental health, responsible decision making, self-esteem, and self-management. Reflecting on the purpose of the assignment I am going to be focusing on three key features; self-awareness, building positive relationships, and early school success, looking at the ways in which they impact a young child and how they can be supported by practice.

Social and emotional competence is important in both long and short outcomes in a young child’s development. Social competence is identified as the ability to integrate

Throughout early childhood is when children have many opportunities to learn and explore, as well as being vulnerable and frightened. This is when they start the beginning of their lives and explore many possibilities. Having developed healthy social and emotional competence may have many effects on them as a child but not only that, also their wellbeing and future life. It can create success from an early age and traits such as confidence and self-belief can be cemented and followed through for the rest of their life. Socially and emotionally competent children can expect to grow and develop throughout life facing both long and short-term effects. A study shows development of social and emotional competence in childhood has become an area of interest for researchers, mainly because of its undeniable constructive role in shaping adjustment abilities both in childhood and adulthood as a multidimensional phenomenon, social competence has been defined as a construct involving variety of qualities and traits (Psychiatry,

Therefore, social and emotional development can be supported by practice as adults play a key role in helping children to socialise and engage with others. Tassoni (2015) suggests that we need to start by making sure that we create the optimum conditions for children to socialise and there are many ways to do this within a setting depending on age, stage, and needs of the children who you work with. Play is a marvellous way in which children are able to explore their emotions and develop their social skills. It allows children to legitimately and safely show emotions whilst being destructive and realising their feelings, but also explore social situations and develop essential social skills such as interpreting others emotions. The DCSF (2008) support this by saying through play babies and young children learn, grown and have fun. It helps them understand the world and develop socially and emotionally. Another way in which practices can support this is by following the Early Years Foundation Stage, it provides each unique child with opportunities to interact in positive relationships and enabling environments. The EYFS follows four main themes underpinning all the guidance of how to