Personal development of every child is as important as acquisition of scientific facts and learning of the basic laws of the universe. Ability of a person to apply social-emotional skills in adulthood can be considered as a positive contribution of the system of education to it. Positive social development in a wider range of social roles and responsibilities of an individual can be reached through such personal skills and capabilities as leadership, respect to others, non-abusive behavior, and ability to negotiate.
An individual should respect others, be able to negotiate over certain issues, avoid verbal and physical abuse to persuade a person or display his/her emotions or ideas, and try to succeed in all activities he/she participates in. as such, all abovementioned skills can be analyzed in complex with regard to their close connection to each other.
Family environment can be as encouraging as discouraging in terms of development of social-emotional skills of children. As such, the best qualities of the family environment that can positively contribute to the development of social-emotional skills in children include the following:
- Encouragement of initiatives and leadership skills in children can make them be more independent and active in their activities;
- Respect for decisions of children as well as other adults in the family is the key quality to developing of respect and non-abusive behavior in children;
- Discussion of problems openly is aimed at making children not afraid of having their own ideas and making decisions in accordance with the viewpoints of other members of the family. If parents notice some changes in the behavior of their children, they should be ready to discuss it openly within the family and with the teacher.
At the same time, family environment can have negative effect on development of social-emotional skills. In this respect, the qualities that can inhibit the child’s development for a range of roles and responsibilities in society include lack of respect in the family to the opinion of other members.
This can be seen through prohibitions and denial of a child’s own will when parents tend to decide what is ‘better’ for their children. Existence of this quality in the family may prevent a child from obtaining such social –emotional skills as leadership and ability to negotiate because he/she is taught at home to have no personal viewpoints.
On the other hand, such quality as verbal or physical abuse can prevent a child from respective adults in general and those who can resemble the one who makes the child suffer from abusing. Moreover, a child can treat abusing as a norm of behavior and use it as an argument when he/she can see no chance for peaceful negotiation. In addition, physical and verbal abuse can be the reason for a number of other problems in a child’s development.
Classroom environment can be really encouraging for students in terms of development of their social-emotional skills that can be further applied to a wider range of roles and responsibilities. For instance, a teacher can introduce group activities so that children could practice their leadership skills and show respect in reaching an agreement while working on the assignments.
As suggested by Slaving et al. (2003), “cooperative learning activities can be planned with groups of children at different levels who can help each other learn” (cited in Slavin, 2009, p. 46). Besides, a teacher can “create rules in the classroom that recognize positive behavior, such as co-operation, caring, helping, encouragement and support” (Elias, 2003, p. 8).
At the same time, another positive quality of the classroom environment that can contribute to development of social-emotional skills is relationship between students and attitude of the teacher toward interest groups and encouraging students to make friends.
Classroom environment can become the reason for problems a child encounters in terms of social-emotional development. For instance, if a teacher does not care about the relationship between classmates, children can behave in a negative manner affecting others and preventing each other from making progress.
Besides, a teacher can negatively affect children in case he/she show disrespect for one of student or another teacher thus showing a vivid example. Probably, students would follow such an example and disrespecting people with no reason and abusing them verbally or physically to show them superiority would become a norm.
Such theorists as Erik Erickson and Maurice Elias have contributed greatly to understanding the necessity of developing social-emotional skills of children.
For instance, Erik Erickson introduced a number of virtues that can be developed in a specific age; as such, competence is one of the virtues that can be developed in the age of 6-11 years and a teacher should make sure that no child feels inferior when comparing himself/herself to other children in class. At the same time, Maurice Elias presented explanation of emotional intelligence, a concept that can be seen when people try to respect each other and negotiate to reach and agreement.
References
Elias, M. J. (2003). Academic and social learning. Brussels, Belgium: International Academy of Education. Web.
Slavin, R. E. (2009). Educational psychology theory and practice (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.