Computerizing Social-Emotional Assessment for School Readiness: First Steps toward an Assessment Battery for Early Childhood Settings

The transition into formal schooling is a crucial foundation that can set children on a cycle of success or failure in both academic and social domains. A child’s abilities to express healthy emotions, understand emotions of self and others, regulate emotion, attention, and behavior, make good decisions regarding social problems, and engage in a range of prosocial behaviors, all work together to promote a successful school experience. However, many children have deficits in these skills by school entry, and educators lack the requisite tools to identify, track and assess skills these children need to learn. Thus, because social-emotional learning (SEL) is so crucial, assessment tools to pinpoint children’s skills and progress are vitally necessary. Previous work by the authors and other researchers has led to the development of strong assessment tools; however, these tools are often developed solely for research use, not practitioner application. In the following, using our assessment battery as an example, we will discuss the steps necessary to adapt SEL assessment for computer-based administration and optimal utility in early childhood education programs

Structure and Validity of Affect Knowledge Test (AKT) in a Sample of Italian Preschoolers

The authors main goals were to examine whether the Affect Knowledge Test's (AKT) factor structure would be represented by a two-factor model (i.e., emotion recognition and situation knowledge) or by a one-factor model in Italian preschoolers (N = 164; M = 4.24 years, SD = 1.09 years). The concurrent validity of the AKT was further examined using measures of social competence. The findings replicated a model of emotion knowledge, with emotion recognition and situation knowledge as distinct but interrelated factors. Gender and age differences showed that older children and girls displayed higher scores in situation knowledge than younger children and boys. Additionally, our validity model of the AKT demonstrated that emotion recognition preceded situation knowledge, which in turn was positively related to children's sensitive or cooperative behaviors and negatively associated with anxious or withdrawn behaviors. Our results suggest that the use of the AKT may help the teachers to evaluate children's level on emotional knowledge that in turn might impact on children's positive social relationships within classroom in Italy

Head Start Preschoolers' Emotional Positivity and Emotion Regulation Predict their Social-Emotion Behavior, Classroom Adjustment, and Early School Success

Children’s abilities to express contextually useful emotions and regulate emotions are related to their school adjustment and academic achievement. In this study, we examined the specific contributions of emotional positivity and emotion regulation during a direct assessment to broader self-regulation, social-emotional behavior during play, school adjustment, and school readiness. We found that each construct made useful contributions to these important outcomes. Implications include the need to pay increased attention to emotional competence in Head Start research and classroom practice

Keep Calm and Carry on: The importance of children’s emotional positivity and regulation for success in Head Start

Young children’s emotional competence plays a significant role in their ability to thrive in school. Specifically, the ability to regulate their emotions according to situational demands, while remaining emotionally positive towards others, are very important contributors to children’s social success (Denham, Brown, & Domitrovich, 2010; Halberstadt, Denham, & Dunsmore, 2001; Raver, Garner, & Smith-Donald, 2007). These skills are particularly important for children in Head Start programs who already demonstrate a significant achievement gap as early as kindergarten (e.g., Campbell & Stauffenberg, 2008; Raver & Knitzer, 2002; Ryan, Fauth, & Brooks-Gunn, 2006). In light of these findings, the present study focused on the relations between positive emotion/engagement and emotion regulation of Head Start preschoolers and both their school adjustment and academic readiness during Head Start and in kindergarten. The social emotional skills of children attending Head Start programs were observed and directly assessed, and their teachers provided information regarding via questionnaires. The results indicated that emotion regulation and positive emotion/engagement observed during challenging regulatory tasks were related in interpretable ways with both behavior with peers and school success. Nevertheless, being positive emotionally and socially during these emotionally taxing situations was associated with poorer self-regulation under these circumstances. Implications for practice in terms of assessment, social-emotional teaching and teachers’ emotional competence are discussed.Â

Consistently Emotionally Supportive Preschool Teachers and Children’s Social-emotional Learning in the Classroom: Implications for Center Directors and Teachers

In the following article, we summarize research investigating the benefits of teachers providing emotionally supportive interactions for preschoolers’ social-emotional development and how teachers’ perceptions and experiences of stress may influence these interactions. Using data collected in both private and Head Start preschool classrooms, we examined relations between average levels and consistency of emotional support, teachers’ stress, and children’s social and emotional behaviors in the classroom. Overall, Head Start teachers showed less stress and had higher levels of emotional support than private center teachers. Furthermore, children in Head Start classrooms were less emotionally negative and aggressive. Private center children showed more negative emotion and aggression in classrooms with teachers who were inconsistent in their emotional supportiveness even when those teachers were, on average, very supportive. Private center teachers’ perception of stress also related to their emotional support and variability of emotional support and uniquely associated with children’s social-emotional behaviors. Implications for center directors are discussed, as well as practical and targeted suggestions for teachers like avoiding stress and using classroom organization, reappraisal, and response modification to effectively manage stress

Exploring the predictable classroom: preschool teacher stress, emotional supportiveness, and students’ social-emotional behavior in private and Head Start classrooms

The present study builds on an expanding body of research on the benefits of emotionally supportive interactions, including the extent to which teachers vary in their emotional supportive interactions over time, on preschoolers’ social-emotional development.  Using data collected in both private and Head Start preschool classrooms, we examined associations between mean levels and variability in emotional support, teachers’ stress, and children’s social and emotional behaviors in the classroom.  Separate analyses were conducted for Head Start and private centers as a result of descriptive analyses that indicated the settings were different. Overall, Head Start teachers showed less stress, higher levels of emotional support, and more consistency in emotional support.  Furthermore, children in Head Start classrooms were less emotionally negative and aggressive.  In private centers, teacher stress, variability in emotional support, and an interaction of mean level and variability in emotional support all predicted children’s behavior.  Private center children showed more negative emotion and aggression in classrooms with teachers who were inconsistent in their emotional supportiveness, even when those teachers were, on average, very supportive. These findings support the inclusion of variability of emotional support as an indicator of classroom quality and emphasize the importance of assisting teachers with managing classroom-related stress

Social and emotional information processing in preschoolers: indicator of early school success?

To better connect emotional development and social cognition literatures, in this study, the intersection of preschoolers' emotion and behaviour response choices to hypothetical peer conflicts was examined among 305 4½-year-olds in private childcare and Head Start. Latent class analyses identified five subgroups of children with connections between their emotion and behaviour response choices (happy/passive, sad/socially competent, angry/passive, angry/aggressive, and sad/passive). Subgroup membership differed across genders and economic risk statuses and was also a predictor of early school success (i.e. social competence, classroom adjustment, and academic readiness). Overall, even after accounting for the associations between known predictors of young children's behaviour and school success (i.e. gender and socioeconomic status), membership in the subgroups in preschool was uniquely predictive of both concurrent and later social competencies, classroom adjustment, and academic readiness. Furthermore, preschool social competence partially mediated contributions of subgroup membership in kindergarten classroom adjustment. These findings are discussed in relation to existing social information processing and emotional development literatures, including potential implications for understanding young children's early school success