Today’s children face a variety of challenges in their daily lives that can affect their social well-being, which is a key part of children’s holistic development. Increased use of technology, busy lifestyles, and family diversity can bring changes and stress to a child’s life and reduce children’s opportunities for natural interaction. <\/p>\n\n
Social well-being means, among other things, a child’s ability to form and maintain positive relationships, to feel accepted and valued, and to experience security and belonging. Social well-being, together with other factors of well-being, create the foundation for a child’s learning and growth. For a child, joining a group, growing into a full member of it, and acting within it – taking participation and agency into account – builds the child’s sense of self-worth, self-esteem, and thereby well-being. <\/p>\n\n
The value base of the Early Childhood Education Plan (OPH 2022) mentions the child’s right to well-being, care and protection, taking the child’s opinion into account and the requirement for equal and fair treatment. The document therefore obliges us early childhood education professionals to build a well-being community and develop our well-being pedagogy – that is, to implement well-being activities in early childhood education groups. <\/p>\n\n
Pedagogy of well-being is strongly linked to supporting and listening to children’s participation, and on the other hand, strengthening emotional skills in a long-term and comprehensive way in everyday life. Children’s well-being is supported by the goal-oriented building of play skills and friendships at the individual and group level, as well as, for example, the implementation of a safe and predictable everyday life in a group of children. We should therefore build well-being-supporting actions and operating models that can be implemented daily in the everyday life of early childhood education – in other words, well-being actions. Everyone who works in education should ask themselves, in what ways I myself could support the formation of children’s strong self-image and self-esteem, so that they would be equipped to act as responsible and well-off citizens in the future. <\/p>\n\n
Social well-being can be strengthened by practicing emotional competence. Strengthening emotional competence is an essential part of high-quality early childhood education and its importance is becoming even more important in today’s world. By practicing emotional competence, children learn to recognize, express and regulate their emotions. This helps them deal with stress, resolve conflicts and create lasting relationships. Practicing emotional competence promotes the development of children’s own agency and empathy. It is important for each of us to stop and think about how we can promote the development of children’s empathy and interaction skills in our children’s groups, the formation of a positive outlook on life, the desire and joy of learning, and the development of healthy self-esteem and self-image. <\/p>\n\n
By practicing emotional competence, children learn to understand and pay attention to the feelings of others, which strengthens their ability to work together and create positive relationships. When children learn to identify, name, face and accept their own feelings, their self-esteem increases. Children learn constructive ways to resolve disagreements and conflicts, which reduces bullying and promotes a positive and respectful atmosphere. Practicing emotional competence also strengthens the child’s stress management skills, which means that children learn ways to deal with stress and anxiety in a constructive way together with an adult. When strengthening emotional and empathy skills, it is definitely worth utilizing many forms of expression in your work, for example fairy tales, music, visual expression. These provide a safe home for the child to experience and express even those difficult feelings. <\/p>\n\n
At RALLA, we believe that well-being work is a value choice. We also trust that knowledge of children’s groups, children’s needs, and interests will become visible through pedagogical documentation. Observation of play and friendship skills helps to develop well-being pedagogy and well-being actions on an everyday level. RALLA’s observation tools provide one tool for this. In addition to pedagogical documentation and observation, pedagogy that builds well-being in a goal-oriented manner and concrete well-being actions are needed. <\/p>\n\n
We are happy to help early childhood education teams in this well-being work.<\/p>\n\n
Written by:
SOURCES:<\/p>\n\n
Opetushallitus 2022. Varhaiskasvatussuunnitelman perusteet. <\/p>\n\n