Parenting News & Updates: Understanding Preschoolers' Social-Emotional Development

Parents are often confused with preschoolers' frequent fluctuating emotions. Three, four and five-year-olds often show sudden emotions like mad, sad, happy, angry, etc. They tend to change their emotions according to their situations and surroundings.

With that said, parents can try some tips to understand preschooler's emotions. First, parents should know the fact that during these preschool years, children's emotional states are usually situation-specific, which rapidly switch based on the activities they do.

Based on child psychology, toddlers aged three, four and five undergo cognitive development at this stage. They acquire new skills like learning a language and using it to express their emotions.

In addition, parents need to understand that preschoolers are discovering their emotions - the "social-emotional development." According to The Journal, social-emotional development in preschoolers is all about feelings — they are learning what feelings are, how to express and manage feelings.

Developing these skills is very essential before toddlers enter school since they often have some difficulties in separating feelings and their actions. As a matter of fact, they do not know how to control to themselves like if they want something, they'll take it and if they're angry, they just yell.

Controlling impulsive feelings is a challenge for both parents and teachers because preschoolers are naturally curious about everything and anything. According to Education.com, these three-year-old kids have extreme emotions and tend to express physically. Separation from parents at pre-schools can also be difficult, leading to emotional distress.

The four-year-olds, on the other hand, reportedly have short-lived emotions on separation from parents, while the five-year-olds are learning to regulate their emotions to be more social comparatively. Parents or caregivers can try some few tips to deal with the "social-emotional development" of preschooling kids.

Parents should determine their children's feelings, categorizing between positive and negative emotions such as: "I see you are happy" or "I see you are sad." These can apparently will them learn and navigate what their feelings really are.

Just like the kiddos, parents should identofy their own feelings by saying, "Daddy is happy" or "Grandpa is frustrated." Meanwhile, parents should also try using books that teaches about feelings, such as story books that could invoke a reader's emotions. For a list of such books, please check this site.