Social And Emotional Skills In The Early Years

Children who are able to focus their attention, manage their behaviour and interact positively with others from a young age experience better learning outcomes later in life, finds Irena Barker

- Irena Barker

From very early on in their school careers, pupils are judged on their academic performance, with a strong emphasis on English and maths. And in England this year, schools are piloting a new “baseline” test to monitor how well children perform in these key areas at just 4 or 5 years old.

But while we may be impressed if little Casper can count to 20 and knows a triangle from a square, some argue that, at this age, learning to master social and emotional skills matters far more. The ability to focus attention, manage behaviour, interact positively with others, and understand and deal with feelings is what forms a foundation for all learning to come, they say.

Professor Stephanie M Jones, an expert in early childhood development at Harvard University, US, certainly shares that view.

“Social and emotional skills and competencies are foundational to learning to read and learning maths and engaging in scientific enquiry…Having a really strong foundation in them is a wonderful set-up for success in all kinds of areas,” she argues.

“It’s hard to be successful at a learning task if you can’t focus your attention, if you can’t manage your behaviour or you can’t engage in positive interactions with others…so, you can see how fundamental it is.”

She points to several pieces of research that have linked skills such as social competence and self-control in early childhood to life outcomes 20 or 30 years later.

Long-term implications

One such study, looking at more than 1,000 people in New Zealand, found that when those with the highest levels of self-control in childhood reached adulthood, their rate of multiple health problems was just 11 per cent, versus 27 per cent for those with the lowest levels of self-control (Moffitt et al, 2011).