Fostering Emotional Development in Infants and Toddlers

 Introduction 

Emotional development begin in infancy and toddlerhood where we learn to recognise, express, and regulate our own emotions as well as the emotions of those around us. The second domain impacts attachment, resilience, self-regulation, and social relationships, which are all connected to cognitive and language development (Garvis et al., 2019). Emotion learning is crucial in the early years when there is rapid growth in the brain. (Infants and toddlers rely on caregivers and educators for co-regulation to become emotionally independent in the future; Kaywork, 2020). Children are primarily social observers and, as such, good relationships and daily interactions with the top people in their lives are vital to their emotional security and wellbeing.

 

Teaching Competencies and Skills Required

It can help educators with the specific skills that will enable them to support the emotional development of infants and toddlers:

  • Emotional Responsiveness: Responding to children's emotional cues with empathy and warmth promotes security (Zero to Three, 2019).
  • Co-Regulation Skills: Teach children how to manage their feelings (Nolan & Raban, 2015).
  • Emotion Coaching: Labelling emotions and reflecting on experiences, through language, builds emotional literacy (Masterson, 2018).
  • Safe, Predictable Environments: Reliable and warm relationships support trust and autonomy (ACECQA, 2022).
  • Reflective Practice: Process potential emotional reactions and cultural meanings throughout the experience to create a support system that allows for agile movement.

Authentic Curriculum Provision and Learning Opportunities

Educators can support emotional development through integrating responsive practices throughout daily routines, during transitions, and support children to engage in play-based learning. Examples include:

  • Emotion Story Circles: Reading picture books about feelings and having children label and share feelings.
  • Visual Emotion Charts: Helping toddlers articulate how they feel with visuals.
  • Breath Games and Songs: Using music and movement to incorporate calming strategies in a way that is engaging.
  • Puppet Play: Characters explore emotions such as sadness, frustration and joy.
  • Art Expression: Alternative expression of their emotional state through colourful paint or clay.

This can be integrated across curriculum areas such as Art, Music, Language and Literacy, Drama and Puppetry, Humanities and Social Sciences, to support emotional learning in ways that are developmentally appropriate.

Three Original Learning Opportunities 

  1. Emotion Mirror Time; This activity is designed to help infants aged 0–12 months recognize facial expressions and develop emotional attunement. It embeds drama and puppetry into emotion recognition via playful expressiveness and face mimicking. New words are introduced through simple and repetitive vocabulary associated with emotions, providing an interactive experience that is relatable, thereby building basic vocabulary. Moreover, the humanities and social sciences enable identity and emotional attachment.
  2. Feelings Through Colours; This activity is for children 12–24 months of age, emphasizes emotional expression through sensory art. It incorporates areas of curriculum including Art, Language and Literacy, and Science. It is a creative activity for toddlers to unleash feelings with colours and textures, express their emotions(associated with children atmospheres and observation) through guided conversation during painting process, extra colour mixing and textures exploring.
  3. Emotion Puppet Play; This acting out focuses aged ( 24 to 36 months ) on practicing emotional literacy, empathy and emotional regulation through integrated learning. It integrates drama and puppetry to nurture empathy, language and literacy to develop communication skills, movement and music to support emotional consciousness and humanities and social sciences to build social understanding. It conjoins storytelling, creative play, and problem-solving for a rich emotional learning experience.

Teaching Resources

SONGS

"If You’re Happy and You Know It" supports emotional and social development because it promotes action-based recognition and expression of emotions, which encourages the development of emotional literacy.

RHYMES

"Skidamarink" promotes emotional security and bonding through its loving lyrics and repetitive cadence, reinforcing children’s sense of love and belonging, which is crucial to emotional wellness and attachment development.

BOOK

"The Llama Llama" books normalize common emotional experiences that people of every age have, including frustration, sadness and happiness, while modeling ways to express and manage feelings in healthy ways with predictable, rhyming text and relatable scenarios, building emotional regulation and resilience.

MOVEMENT ACTIVITY 

The "feeling wall game " picture activity pointing helps children recognize, label, and express their emotions, fostering emotional awareness, empathy, and self-regulation.

"This Is My Happy Face"   Supports a child’s emotional development by helping a child identify, name and share positive emotions

"The Feelings" Song helps children identify, label and express a variety of feelings, supporting emotional development and self-awareness.

"How do you feel" This book promotes emotional literacy by using simple illustrations and words for children to help them recognize and name their emotions, which promotes self-awareness and the ability to empathize with others which are crucial for emotional development