Table Of ContentSOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL
PREVENTION AND
INTERVENTION PROGRAMMING
FOR PRESCHOOLERS
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL
PREVENTION AND
INTERVENTION PROGRAMMING
FOR PRESCHOOLERS
Susanne A. Denham
George Mason University
Fairfax. Virginia
and
Rosemary Burton
Minnieland Private Day School. Inc.
Woodbridge. Virginia
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Denham, Susanne A.
Social and emotional prevention and intervention programming for preschoolers/
Susanne A. Denham and Rosemary Burton.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4613-4903-7 ISBN 978-1-4615-0055-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-0055-1
1. Preschool children-Psychology. 2. Child development. 3. Social skills in children. 4.
Emotional problems of children. 5. Social skills-Study and teaching (Early childhood) 6.
Early childhood education. 1. Burton, Rosemary, 1952 June 11- II. Title.
HQ774.5.D46 2003
305.231-dc22
2003060199
ISBN 978-1-4613-4903-7
©2003 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers New York in 2003
Softcover, reprint ofthe hardcover, Ist edition 2003
http://www.wkap.nll
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
A c.l.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
AII rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced. stored in a retrieval system. or transmitted in any form or by any
means. electronic, mechanical, photocopying. microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written
permission from the Publisher. with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of
being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work
Permissions for books published in Europe: [email protected]
Permissions for books published in the United States of America: [email protected]
PREFACE
Our goal in writing this volume is to create new interest in and commitment to
social and emotional prevention and intervention with preschoolers. The children with
whom we work have shown us why these issues are so important.
First, we see Petey. He runs, darts, and jumps with a ball clenched tightly in his
arms. He screams "yes" to our invitation to play, but is unable to restrain his desire to
keep the ball and game as his own. He then pulls the ball away from another boy's
advances, angrily shoving him and screaming a torrent of street-word insults. In free
play, individual, small group, or whole-group activities, he appears driven to "get
enough," at all costs. He is angry, often out of control, hitting at or even throwing objects
at his caregiver. Some children like Petey grow up to show even more antisocial acting
out.
Then we see Sean, who, by contrast, may remain unnoticed but is at just as great
risk. He speaks hesitantly, often echoing others' communications, as if practicing. He is
always the third, fourth, or last, to attempt a task, never asserting ideas or desires. He is
quiet, sometimes looking quite sad, and we see him on the sidelines, seeking the comfort
of his thumb. He seems overwhelmed and withdrawn. Some children like Sean continue
to fade into the woodwork, feeling bad about themselves, anxious and depressed.
Finally, we see Jeremy. Where Petey and Sean may share any number of problems
at home, from drugs to domestic violence, to sporadic employment that loads stress upon
their parents, Jeremy's life may not appear so difficult. Still, his behavior paints a
different, troubled picture. Jeremy is a "hurried child." Although he plays and interacts
with peers fairly well, teachers note that he has difficulty permitting other children to lead
activities or reject his ideas. This bothers him very much. And, even though his
preacademic skills are advanced for a four-year-old, he too is angry, and even expresses
self-destructive wishes, saying things like, "I just don't what to have to do it anymore!"
We are not as sure about the trajectory of Jeremy's development, but many psychologists
feel that problems also await him.
Such needs are, unfortunately, rarely addressed directly at the preschool level. Most
curricula seem to have only social-emotional goals. Thus, even though our intentions are
good, we pay lip service to these goals, not doing anything systemic about them. But we
need to do something, because Petey, Sean, and Jeremy-and their female counterparts
are in many of our classrooms, and they need our help to get off the trajectories that they
are on. In this volume we propose means to address preschoolers' social-emotional needs.
As applied developmental/school psychologists and an early childhood educator, we
naturally look to normal social-emotional developmental change in preschoolers, to find
ways to ameliorate these problems and maximize positive outcomes. In our work over the
last two decades, we have been impressed with the social-emotional skills that
preschoolers normally develop. Not everyone looks like Petey, Sean, or Jeremy! Many
young boys and girls are learning to cope with their own emotions and with the problems
presented in dealing with other people. More specifically, they are coming to understand
v
INTRODUCTION: THE IMPORTANCE OF EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL COMPETENCE vi
the expressions and situations for many feelings, both their own and others', learning
how to deal with their own feelings, and reacting to others' feelings in a prosocial way to
make them feel better (e.g., comforting a crying friend). They are figuring out many ways
to solve social problems (e.g., what to do if someone takes your toy).
Preschoolers who are able to do these things are generally like Petey or Sean, and
with our help, are not in Jeremy's dilemma. Thus, several aspects of emotional
competence are vital to preschoolers' success in their broadening social world, including
emotional security (i.e., a secure attachment with one or more caregivers), understanding
emotions of self and others, regulating one's own emotions, and solving emotion-laden
interpersonal problems. Hand-in-hand with these specifically emotional milestones we
see children accomplish, is emotion-centered behavior management within daycare and
preschool classrooms. These components - attachment, understanding and regulating
emotions, social problem solving, and emotionally positive behavior management - form
the core of theoretical precepts and empirical findings that we wish to communicate to
school psychologists and early childhood educators.
We think these components are vital because the young child who successfully
negotiates the developmental task of sustained positive engagement with peers is in a
good position to continue thriving in a social world. In fact, successful, independent
interaction with age mates is a crucial predictor of later mental health and well-being,
beginning during preschool, continuing during the grade school years when peer
reputations solidify, and thereafter (Denham & Holt, 1993; Parker & Asher, 1987; Robins
& Rutter, 1990). Because such social competence is so important, and apparently so
intertwined with aspects of emotional competence, these social and emotional
prerequisites need to be given more widespread attention in programmatic efforts in early
childhood education. It is our first goal to describe fully both emotional and social
competence, how they are demonstrated and how they are fostered, during the preschool
period.
Because of the crucial nature of early childhood social and emotional learning, and
the considerable risk associated with their absence, there has been a call for primary and
secondary prevention programs targeted at preschoolers' emotional and social
competence needs (Knitzer, 1993). In the last five years, even more pressing findings
come to light about the crucial nature of early emotional and social competence. For
example, Raver and Knitzer have pointed out the following important corollaries of
emotional and social competence during the preschool years:
1. Young children who have not attained developmentally appropriate
emotional and social competencies participate less in the classroom, and are less
accepted by classmates and teachers. Teachers provide them with less
instruction and positive feedback. They like school less and learn less.
2. This situation persists into the elementary years. Young children who
behave aggressively or antisocially are more likely to perform poorly on early
academic tasks, and to be held back. Later on, they are more likely to drop out
and persist in their antisocial behavior.
3. Such emotional and social competence of young children predicts their
academic performance in first grade, even more than their actual cognitive skills
and family backgrounds (Raver & Knitzer, 2002).
vii Social and Emotional Prevention and Inte"ention Programming for Preschoolers
For those at special risk, and for children in general, the learning of emotional and
social competence should not be left to chance. Nonetheless, the existing literature
reveals few large-scale efforts to provide programs that focus on these goals for
preschool children. Early childhood educators' concern with social-emotional
development is often implicit rather than made explicit through specific interventions.
Our second goal of this book is to begin to make explicit these needs, and how to meet
them, within our book. We want both to communicate work that done by others, and
ourselves, and to facilitate the implementation of emotion-based programs in daycare and
preschool classrooms. Our wish to write this book focuses on "giving away"
developmental knowledge in this area to the public, to improve children's lives.
Our book can be seen as the interplay between what we do, what we have done, and
what we need to do, regarding the emotional competence of young children. In our first
chapter we describe fully both emotional and social competence. In our second chapter
we show the needs for programming based on our conception of emotional and social
competence. We then alternate chapters presenting the major components of emotional
competence (both theoretical ways of thinking about them and actual empirical
information about them) with chapters presenting components of multimodal
programming addressing preschoolers' emotional competence, and caregivers' reactions
to putting these components into action. In sum, we hope to flesh out both theoretical and
empirical bases for our assertions, and to also clearly communicate practical steps early
childhood educators can take to make use of these ideas in their lives with children.
More specifically, Chapter One constitutes a necessary description of emotional and
social competence during this age range. In Chapter Two, we. focus on defining the
preschoolers at risk for deficits in emotional competence. Who are the children who
worry early childhood educators? What should our goals be for these children?
In subsequent chapters, we describe the preschooler's need for attachment to a
caring adult, behavioral management, understanding and regulation of emotion, social
problem solving. Children without a secure attachment, who are exposed to negative
modes of behavioral management, with compromised emotional competence and lacking
social problem-solving skills, are at great risk for later difficulties. We emphasize the
need for "the total package." We follow each chapter on the content of young children's
social-emotional learning (SEL) with another chapter specifying how we, and others,
work to train early childhood teachers and caregivers to apply these principles. In chapter
12 we detail promising parent programs following the same guidelines, and in chapter 13
we describe assessment techniques that can assist us in learning more about specific
children's SEL capabilities. Finally, in chapter 14 we summarize the most promising
classroom-based programs that follow the principles we have put forward throughout the
volume.
In sum, prevention and intervention programs are sorely needed to curtail cascading
trajectories of behavior problems. Without such attention, we leave to chance young
children's SEL. In doing so, we risk wasting the window of opportunity presented by
children's slow brain maturation, a timespan in which we could do much to help children
cultivate resilience via emotional competence (Greenberg & Snell, 1997; Peth-Pierce,
2000). It is our wish to help caring adults to maximize these abilities for our children.
Susanne Denham, Rosemary Burton,
and Sophie Havighurst
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION: THE IMPORTANCE OF EMOTIONAL AND
SOCIAL COMPETENCE................... .... .................... ..................... 1
1.1. INTRODUCTION................................................................... 1
1.2. EXPERIENCE AND EXPRESSION OF EMOTIONS.................... .... 2
1.2.1. Emotional Experience. .................................................. ... 2
1.2.2. Expression of Emotions .. ............................................. ... 5
1.2.2.1 Expressive Process ....................................................... 5
1.2.2.2. Expressive Outcomes .................................................... 6
1.3. UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONS .................................................... 6
1.4. EMOTION REGULATION ............................................................ 7
1.5. EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE: DEVELOPMENTAL AND INDIVIDUAL
DIFFERENCES ........................................................................... 8
1.6. SOCIALIZATION OF EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL COMPETENCE ......... 9
1.6.1. Modeling of Emotional Expressiveness .................................... 10
1.6.2. Contingent Reactions to Children's Emotions ............................ 10
1.6.3. Teaching About Emotions ................................................... 11
1.6.4. Summarizing the Socialization of Emotional Competence .............. 13
1.7. SOCIAL COMPETENCE AND SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING (SEL).13
1.7.1. Linkage of Emotional and Social Competence ........................... 16
1.8. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ................................................... 17
2. TARGETING PROGRAMS FOR PRESCHOOL EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL
COMPETENCE ............................................................................. 19
2.1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 19
2.2. SEL GOALS ............................................................................. 20
2.3. HOW DO WE REACH THESE SEL GOALS? ..................................... 21
2.4. BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS AND SOCIAL INCOMPETENCE ................... 22
2.4.1. Specific Behavior Problems Associated With Lack of SEL. ............ 25
2.4.1.1. Challenging Behaviors Traced to Differing Patterns a/Risk
and Resilience ............................................................. 26
2.4. J. 2. Children Already Showing Diagnosable Problems ................. 27
2.5. SEL PROGRAMMING FOR YOUNG CHILDREN ............................... 29
2.5.1. Prevention/Intervention: What Is Needed? What Has Been Done?
Where Do We Go From Here? ............................................... 29
2.6. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION .................................................. 31
ix
3. PRESCHOOLERS' A TTA CHMENT AND EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE• •• 33
3.1. INTRODUCTION TO ATTACHMENT AS FOUNDATIONAL FOR
EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE ........................................................ 33
3.2. EARLY ATTACHMENT CLASSIFICATIONS AND THEIR SEQUELAE ... 34
3.3. ATTACHMENT AND EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE ........................... 36
3.4. ATTACHMENTS BEYOND THE CHILD-PARENT RELATIONSHIP ....... 39
3.4.1. Preschool Teachers/ Daycare Providers and Attachment ............... .40
3.4.2. Compensatory Effects of Secure Child-Teacher Attachment ........... 41
3.5. PRINCIPLES FOR PRACTITIONERS .............................................. 42
3.6. SUMMARY: ATTACHMENT AS FOUNDATION FOR SEL .............. 44
3.7. CONCLUSIONS: WHAT CAN WE DO? .......................................... .45
4. APPLICATIONS CENTERED ON ATTACHMENT: LESSONS
FROM THE FIELD ......................................................................... 47
4.1. INTRODUCTION TO SEL PROGRAMMING .................................... 47
4.1.1. Introduction to Attachment Applications ................................. .48
4.2. ATTACHMENT THEORY IN THE PRESCHOOL CLASSROOM ............ 48
4.3. TEACHING TEACHERS ABOUT BUILDING ATTACHMENT
RELATIONSHIPS ...................................................................... 49
4.3.1. Initial Approaches ............................................................. 50
4.3.2. Roadblocks on the Way to Attachment .................................... 50
4.3.3. Moving Beyond the Roadblocks ........................................... 51
4.3.4. Attachment-Specific Information Imparted .............................. 52
4.3.4.1. Elements of .. Floor Time" ............................................. 52
4.3.4.2. Teaching About Floor Time ............................................. 54
4.3.4.3. Curricular Elements Related to Attachment ......................... 57
4.3.4.4. Problem Areas in Creating an Attachment-Positive Classroom .. 58
4.4. TEACHING PARENTS ABOUT ATTACHMENT AND FLOOR TIME ...... 59
4.4.1. Parents and Floor Time ...................................................... 59
4.4.2. Intervening with Parents and Children at Risk - The Circles
Of Security Program ........ " ............................................... 60
4.4.2.1. Steps in the COS Program ............................................. 63
4.4.2.2. Evaluation of the COS Program ....................................... 65
4.4.3. The Seattle Approach ........................................................ 65
4.5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ............................................... 66
5. GUIDING PRESCHOOLERS' BEHAVIOR: SHORT-TERM MEANINGS,
LONG-TERM OUTCOMES .............................................................. 67
5.1. INTRODUCTION: FOUNDATIONS AND METHODS OF
GUIDANCE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD ............................................ 67
5.1.1. Indirect Guidance ............................................................ 68
5.2. GUIDANCE: WHERE DO WE START? ......................................... 70
5.2.1. The Meaning of Behavior ................................................... 72
5.2.2 Observing Children's Behavior ............................................. 74
5.2.3. Putting the Package Together ............................................... 77
5.3. SPECIFICS FOR GUIDING BEHAVIOR ......................................... 78
5.3.1. More Operant Approaches ................................................... 79
5.3.2. Costs of "Power Assertive" Techniques ................................... 79
5.3.3. What Should We Do Instead? "Control" and "Discipline" Versus
"Guidance" ..................................................................... 80
x
5.3.3.1. Persistent Persuasion ................................................... 80
5.3.3.2. Inductive Guidance Strategies. ..................... .................. 82
5.4. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ................................................. 83
6. TEACHING TEACHERS ABOUT GUIDANCE: LESSONS
FROM THE FIELD ......................................................................... 85
6.1. INTRODUCTION: THE NEEDS OF TEACHERS AND CHILDREN ......... 85
6.2. TRAINING TEACHERS TO USE INDIRECT GUIDANCE .................... 88
6.3. USING DIRECT GUIDANCE ......................................................... 91
6.4. REFLECTION ON GUIDANCE AND TIME FOR PRACTICE ..................9 4
6.5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ................................................. 95
7. EMOTION UNDERSTANDING AND EMOTION REGULATION ............. 97
7.1. EMOTION UNDERSTANDING .....................................................9 7
7.1.1. Labeling Emotional Expressions ............................................9 9
7.1.2. Identifying Emotion-Eliciting Situations ................................. 100
7.1.3. Comprehending Causes of Emotions ..................................... 100
7.1.4. Understanding the Consequences of Emotion ........................... 101
7.1.5. Sophisticated Understanding of the Emotional Experience of Others 10 1
7.1.5.1. Equivocal Emotional Situations ...................................... 101
7.1.5.2. Atypical Emotional Reactions: Weighing Expressive And
Situational Information ..................................................... 102
7.1.5.3. Personalized Information ........................................ 102
7.1.6. Dissemblance ................................................................. 103
7.1.6.1. Display Rule Knowledge .............................................. 103
7.1.6.2. Knowledge of Emotion Regulation Strategies ...................... 104
7.1.6.3. Knowledge of Simultaneity of Emotions and Ambivalence ....... 104
7.1.6.4. Knowledge of Complex Emotions ..................................... 105
7.2. EMOTION KNOWLEDGE AND SOCIAL INTERACTION ................. 106
7.2.1. Emotion Knowledge and SEL: A Key to Successful Interaction ..... 106
7.2.2. Lack of Emotion Knowledge and Unsuccessful Social Interaction ... 107
7.2.3. Preschoolers' Emotion Knowledge and More Specific SEL
Deficits: The Case of Bullying ............................................ 109
7.3. EMOTION REGULATION ........................................................ 110
7.3.1. Emotion Regulation: Developments During Preschool ................ 112
7.4. EMOTION REGULATION ANDSEL ........................................... 112
7.4.1. Relations with Other Aspects of Emotional Competence .............. 113
7.5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION .................................................. 114
8. APPLICATIONS CENTERED ON EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE:
LESSONS FROM THE FIELD ......................................................... 115
8.1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 115
8.2. EMOTION UNDERSTANDING .................................................... 115
8.2.1. Social-Emotional Intervention for At-Risk 4-year-Olds ............... 116
8.2.2. Preschool PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) ...... 116
8.2.3. Second Step Preschool/Kindergarten............... ................. .... 118
8.2.4. Head StartJECAP Curriculum (Izard & Bear, 2001) .................... 120
8.2.5. The Incredible years ........................................................ 121
8.2.6. Other Promising Programs .................................................. 121
8.2.7. Summary ...................................................................... 121
8.3. EMOTIONAL EXPRESSIVENESS AND EMOTION REGULATION ....... 122
xi
8.3.1. Programming in Emotional Expressiveness and Emotion Regulation:
Social Emotional Intervention for At-Risk-4-Year-Olds ............... 122
8.3.2. Programming in Emotional Expressiveness and Emotion Regulation:
Second Step PreschooVKindergarten ...................................... 124
8.3.3. Programming in Emotional Expressiveness and Emotion Regulation:
Head StartlECAP Curriculum .............................................. 126
8.3.4. Programming in Emotional Expressiveness and Emotion Regulation:
The Incredible years ......................................................... 126
8.3.5. Programming in Emotional Expressiveness and Emotion Regulation:
DECL .......................................................................... 126
8.3.6. Summary and Conclusions: Programming Possibilities ................. 127
8.4. NOTES FROM THE FIELD: HOW WE HAVE WORKED WITH TEACHERS
TO IMPLEMENT PRACTICES CENTERED ON EMOTIONAL
COMPETENCE ......................................................................... 127
8.4.1. Moving Into the World of Feelings: Teachers' First Steps ............. 128
8.4.2. Continuing on to Emotion Knowledge: Uniting Feeling and Thinking
in Karim's Story .............................................................. 129
8.4.3. After Karim: What Teachers Can Do to Promote Emotion
Knowledge ..................................................................... 131
8.4.4. After Karim: What Teachers Can Do to Promote Adaptive
Emotional Expressiveness and Experience ............................... 132
8.4.5. After Karim: What Teachers Can Do to Promote Emotion ............ 133
Regulation
8.4.6. Summary and Conclusion: Training Teachers About
Emotional Competence Programming .................................... 134
9. SOCIAL PROBLEM SOLVING ........................................................ 135
9.1. INTRODUCTION: THINKING ABOUT GETTING ALONG WITH
EACH OTHER ......................................................................... 135
9.1.1. Social Problem Solving Expands: Social Information
Processing and Emotional Competence .................................. 137
9.1.1.1. Social Problem Solving and Emotion Knowledge ................. 138
9.1.1.2. Social Problem Solving and Emotional Expressiveness/
Emotion Regulation ......................................................... 140
9.2. FOCUS ON SOCIAL PROBLEM SOLVING IN PRESCHOOLERS .......... 140
9.2.1. Social Problem Solving and Social Functioning in Preschoolers:
Before Social Information Processing Theory ........................... 141
9.2.2. Social Problem Solving and Social Functioning in Preschoolers:
After the Advent of Social Information Processing Theory .......... 142
9.3. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ................................................ 143
10. SOCIAL PROBLEM-SOLVING APPLICA TIONS: LESSONS FROM
THE FIELD ................................................................................. 145
10.1. INTRODUCTION: TEACHING SOCIAL PROBLEM SOLVING AND
POSITIVE SOCIAL BEHAVIORS TO PRESCHOOLERS ..................... 145
10.1.1. Dialoguing as a Key to Social Problem Solving ........................ 146
10.2. SOCIAL PROBLEM-SOLVING PROGRAMMING .......................... 148
10.2.1. Social-Emotional Intervention for At-Risk 4-Year-Olds ............... 150
10.2.2. Preschool PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking
Strategies) ..................................................................... 150
xii
