JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY

VOLUME 39, NO. 1, JUNE 2012: 112 - 120

Emotional Stimulation and Development Methods

Early childhood

Wisjnu Martani 1
faculty of Psychology
Gadjah Mada University

Abstract

Emotion is an important factor for early child life. Children use their emotion to be able to be survive.
One of the factors in early child emotion development is teacher. The technique to stimulate depends on
the teacher understanding to the child development and the stimulation it self. This research was aimed
to investigate how the extent of the teacher understanding was implemented in the stimulation
technique for early children emotional development. The participants were 30 kindergarten teachers.
Data was collected using interviews and opened questionary. Data was analyzed through qualitative
approach. The result shows that teacher understands the children emotional development, but the
stimulation way is based on the manner set and teacher perception.
Keywords: teacher perception, early children, stimulation, emotional development

Period 1 early age is " golden age period ",
Meaning that it is the golden age for all aspects
of human development, both physical,
emotional and social cognition. One aspect of
development that is important for early
childhood is aspects
emotions. Summarize opinion
Goleman, Izard and Ackerman, Le Doux,
(Hansen & Zambo 2007) emotions are feelings
that are physiologically and psychologically
owned by children and are used to respond to
events that occur around them. Emotion for
early childhood is important, because with
emotions children can focus attention, and
emotions provide power to the body and
organize thoughts to suit their needs.
Furthermore, Hansen and Zambo (2007)
describe examples of the function of emotions
in early childhood life, for example:
fear is one of the emotions used to " survival ".
When the emotion of fear arises in children,
the child becomes aware of the environment
and creates a cautious attitude in the child. A
smile is an expression of happy emotions, with
a child's smile that will be able to give a signal
to his surroundings about the situation being
experienced and the need for interpersonal
relationships. In short, emotions help children
all the time to survive and communicate with
the environment. Emotions develop over time,
emotions in early childhood develop from
simple ones to more complex conditions.
Emotions develop as a result of interaction with
the environment. According to Bronfenbreuner
(Santrock, 2006) there are a number of systems
that affect children's development, namely
microsystems, mesosystems, ecosystems,
macrosystems and chronosystems. One of the
most powerful and direct influence systems--

1 Correspondence with the author can be made via:

wisjnu_m@ugm.ac.id

112 JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY

 STIMULATION METHOD, EMOTION DEVELOPMENT
its for child development is the microsystem.
As for what is meant by the micro environment
by Bronfenbreuneur is an environmental
situation that causes children to make direct
contact and influence each other. The micro
environment has a special role in the
development of children, because in this
micrositem there are elements of parents,
teachers and also includes the quantity and
quality of care.
Children develop through interaction with
the environment. One environment that plays a
role is parents. However, in the last year the
number of parents, especially working
mothers, has increased; At the same time,
groups or institutions that provide education
outside the home for early childhood have
emerged. This condition seems to be tussling
with the need of parents to be able to find
ways that are deemed appropriate for
children's development. Parents hope that in
Kindergarten (TK) the child will
got stimulation that
adequate for child development. In a learning
environment outside the home or in
kindergarten, children will learn and receive
stimulation. Melton (in Ben-Arieh, et al,
2009) argues that school is the main
environment for the process of child
development, and plays a role in creating
activities for children's welfare. But in reality,
not all children get optimal development, even
children experience it
developmental delay or developmental
problems.
Lickona (in Woolfolk, 2006) says that
variations in situations will result in variations
in behavior. The atmosphere that is built in a
situation that is closer to the actual life, can
lead to the child
JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY
be rich in experience. Children not only think
and act from their cognitive side, but also use
or hone their non-cognitive domains. Thus they
can develop optimally to become whole
humans (horizontally and vertically).
Children learn in various ways, including
through imitation, doing something or trying
and experiencing (Einon, 2005). The
environment provides something that the child
needs, and the child will take advantage of
what the environment has to offer. Adults can
train, explain, and correct children, or show
something to children. Therefore what can be
done is to help children to engage and
encourage children to try and experience.
Children have talents or abilities that have
been brought from birth, but these talents or
abilities will not develop if they do not receive
stimulation from their environment.
Early childhood education is a form of
stimulation which is basically intervention
efforts, namely creating an environment
around early childhood in order to be able to
stimulate all aspects of child development.
Intervention is a number of information that is
regulated through certain learning for growth,
development and behavior change. According
to Mashar (2007), citing the opinion of Foot et
al, saying that children who experience
obstacles or developmental problems will not
develop optimally. The occurrence of problems
in emotional development in early childhood is
influenced by teachers. Mashar's research
(2007) shows that teachers who have been
trained to assist children are capable
113
 MARTANI
well behaved. Research conducted by
Puspitasari (2009) also shows that trained
teachers can improve communication skills in
early childhood, and in reducing the
occurrence of developmental problems in
children.
There has been a paradigm shift in early
childhood development and education. In the
past, the goal of early childhood education was
academic preparation for formal schooling, so
that early childhood education emphasized the
aspects of cognitive and language
development. At present the paradigm has
changed towards the care and development of
children, which means that it must involve caring
and education. This paradigm shift results in
how to treat children, including in providing
stimulation.
Children do not develop automatically, but
are influenced by the way the environment
treats them. When children enter a non-formal
“school” environment such as kindergarten, the
space and opportunities for interaction will
expand. The stimulation provided by the
teacher is one of the most influential. The way
the teacher stimulates children depends on the
teacher's understanding of stimulation and
understanding of the child.
Being a good teacher means that
someone must be willing and able to recognize
who their students are. The introduction of
children is important, because every child is
unique (Pearsons & Sardo, 2006). However, the
fact shows that generally teachers ignore the
uniqueness of children. For teachers it is easier
to provide equal and fair education according
to the concept of the teacher, in other words
the teacher does not
114
pay attention to the needs of the child.
According to Ormrod (2003) teachers tend to
require students to obey or obey by showing
good behavior in the eyes of the teacher as a
result of which the child will be stimulated in a
way that is not according to their needs, and in
turn will cause developmental problems.
Children thrive in a variety of
environments. Goldin-Meadow (2008) states
that the environment will affect children in
various ways, among others, it will affect how a
child develops and learns from the
environment. According to Mönks, Knoers, and
Haditono (2004), the quality and quantity of
care for early childhood is related to
stimulation. The provision of stimulation must
be in accordance with the needs of the child,
children who receive excessive or less
stimulation will cause the child to experience
developmental problems. Developmental
problems can occur because the stimulator
does not understand developmental outcomes.
Santrock (2006) explains that early childhood
education has now experienced a paradigm
shift. Development achievements
in development
early childhood is the main. This means that
stimulation is based on knowledge of typical
child development or is related to the
uniqueness of the child, no longer based on
the point of view of the interests of parents or
teachers. Therefore, how teachers understand
the understanding of stimulation and aspects
of child development is an important matter to
be researched. The purpose of this study was
to determine the teacher's understanding of
how to provide stimulation for early childhood
emotional development.
JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY
 STIMULATION METHOD, EMOTION DEVELOPMENT
The research questions are as follows
1. How do teachers understand stimulation?
2. How do teachers understand early childhood
emotional development?
3. What is done to stimulate the emotional
development of the child?
Method
Research subject
In this research a number of
Kindergarten teachers became the research
subjects. The teacher who was the subject of
the study was female, with various educational
backgrounds. There are teachers whose
educational backgrounds are SMA, SPG, and
Bachelor. The experience of being a
kindergarten teacher is quite varied, at least
five years of experience and a maximum of 33
years. The research subjects were teachers
from three kindergartens in the city of
Yogyakarta. They all taught classes, which in
each class consisted of 12 to 25 children.
How to collect data
Data is collected through;
1. Interview. For obtain
information about the teacher's
understandingway
of stimulation
emotional development of children., used
interviews: individually with the teacher.
Interviews were conducted based on
guide Interview
that has been compiled.
2. Observations were made to obtain data
about the behavior and activities of the
subject in the learning process and
stimulation in the classroom. This data
observation is also used for checking on the
results of interviews and self report.
JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY
3. Self report. Self report conducted with a
series of open-ended questions, in order to
obtain original information from the
research subject.
Guide to interviews, observations and
self report compiled referring to Developmental
Appropriateness Practices from
NAEYC or The National Association for the
Education of Young Children ( Puckett & Diffily
2004 and Santrock, 2006).
Developmental Appropriateness Practices
(DAP) is " green book "Which is designed to help
30
those who organize programs for early
childhood, so that the program is structured
according to the needs of the child. There are
three components, namely the provision of an
environment related to the selection of
materials and equipment by considering
emotional development stages of children or
curriculum components, mentoring strategies
for early childhood emotional development or
learning strategy components, and planning to
provide various activities so that children
have experience or
emotional direction / management component.
The three components mean as follows
(1) Components of a curriculum goal
what is meant is whether the child is given
and the opportunity to experience stimulation
of all aspects of development both
physical, emotional, cognitive or social or is
it only focused on providing experience
from the cognitive aspect, evaluation of the
child is carried out based on the
uniqueness of each child or is evaluated
based on group norms and is required to
demonstrate ability as well as the same
skills. This component is used to see the
teacher's understanding of stimulation
115
 MARTANI
(2) The components of the learning strategy
include ways the teacher encourages the
creation of active learning and facilitates
an environment that allows children to
explore in their environment. This
component can be used to reveal the
methods used by the teacher to stimulate
children's emotional development
(3) Management component / direction for
Emotional and social development includes
controlling children's behavior, providing
opportunities to develop emotional and
social skills. Through this component it can
be seen the teacher's understanding of
early childhood emotional development
Implementation procedure
The research was carried out through the
preparation stage which included determining,
drafting guidelines
Interview and self report. Subject
obtained by visiting several kindergartens in
Yogyakarta and its surroundings. Based on
their willingness, 30 kindergarten teachers
were selected. After that
carried out the implementation of research
using Interview for
collect information about teachers'
understanding of early childhood emotional
development achievements, and about how to
stimulate children. In addition, the filling is also
carried out self report to gather information
about the teacher's understanding of
emotional stimulation, forms and ways of
providing stimulation. After the data was
collected, analysis was carried out
Data analysis method
The method used in this research is
descriptive qualitative method. The analysis
was carried out with a phenomenological
approach, observation and self report.
The data collected is identified based on
116
sar all three components Developmental
Appropriateness Practices ( DAP).
Results and Discussion
Based on information provided by
research subjects through interviews and self
report ( open the questionnaire), the following
results were obtained:
(1) Teacher's understanding of stimulation
Research subjects said they understood
stimulation and stimulation in providing
stimulation in schools, conveyed in the
curriculum objectives by making
preparations for teaching and learning
activities on that day or known as SKH, as
well as preparing props to be used on that
day, preparing evaluations for children
early age.
The results of this study are consistent with
research conducted by Hsu (2008) in
Taiwan, according to Hsu's research that
teachers in teaching always comply with
the rules and policies that have been
outlined. However, as stated by Puckett
and Diffily (2004), and Santrock (2006)
teachers have not fully paid attention
DAP. In the learning process, the teacher
prepares activities in a very structured
manner and determines more children's
activities. This can be seen from the
information they provide, that the
teacher's function in the learning process
as well as the process of providing
stimulation is as a guide and determinant
of classroom activities, even though they
claim to play a role as a facilitator as well.
This condition is reinforced by data
obtained in the field, that many teachers
have more than ten years of experience
JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY
 STIMULATION METHOD, EMOTION DEVELOPMENT
teaching in kindergarten, so that
stimulation is interpreted more as
habituation, and according to the teacher's
point of view it is not based on " child
centered ", And not in accordance with the
paradigm of early childhood care that
should be adhered to caring and education
no longer oriented only to teaching. The
3N's principle is Normal development,
Nature and Needs as well as 3C's namely contextual,Japan uses a combination approach
culture and
competence as a basic principle of child
development (Woodhead, 2005) is not yet
fully understood and used by teachers. It is
possible to see from the side contextual and
culture lead to a different understanding.
Papalia, Olds, and Feldman (2002) said that
in several western countries and in
America, the implementation of pre-school
education for early childhood emphasizes
more on the approach
child centered whose philosophy
emphasizes more on social and emotional
development, not only on the preparation
of basic academic skills. Because as stated
by Pearson and Degotardi (2009),
education for early childhood is
characterized by varying values and
practices. According to Papalia et al. (2009),
values and culture have a role as the basis
for the provision of pre-school education,
further exemplifying that education for
early childhood between America and
Japan has the same paradigm, but different
cultural values lead to the approach used
as a basis for children's education. early
age is different. In Japan the emphasis is
on societal centered, namely more
emphasis on social skills and
JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY
a harmonious attitude in the group, for
example the way to respect the teacher is
to show a bowing motion. Education for
early childhood in Japan is not only
grounded child centered solely, because
this approach in addition to emphasizing
self-experience and creativity, tends to
develop an individualistic attitude, so that it
is not in accordance with Japanese culture.
Therefore, education for early childhood in
Among child centered added with
role centered or societal centered
(Papalia, et al., 2009). It is possible that this
is also the case in Indonesia, because the
values and culture in Indonesia are
different from those in western countries.
Indonesians in educating their children
cannot escape from the demands of
existing values and culture. However, the
information in this study was not revealed.
(2) The teacher's understanding of
and emotions of early childhood
Teachers understand emotions as with
other aspects of development, but they do
not understand that there are uniqueness
and variations in children's emotional
development, if a child shows different
emotions from other children in the class,
the child is judged as a child who is
experiencing problems. Actually the
teacher is quite capable of recognizing
each child in their class, and it takes the
teacher about 2-4 weeks to get to know
each student, and through their
observations they recognize the condition
of the student. But they are more on
cognitive abilities, because data in the field
shows that children are recognized as
children who are
117
 MARTANI
have a problem if the child does not show
behavior or performance like other
children. The paradigm used by teachers
tends to be the old paradigm, education
for early childhood emphasizes more on
the cognitive aspects. Emotional and social
aspects are not given enough attention.
Teachers in assessing children are still
based on normative measures, not just
based on them
is there uniqueness
child development (Puckett & Diffily,
2004). This condition is very likely to occur,
considering that the teachers who are the
research subjects have various educational
backgrounds, not all of them have
educational backgrounds that are suitable
for early childhood, even though their work
experience is long enough. From the
condition of the educational background of
teachers, it can be explained that there is a
possibility that teachers are not sufficiently
equipped, especially regarding a paradigm
shift in early childhood education, or even
though they already know, but have not
fully implemented it in education because
it is to change mindset takes time. This
condition is in accordance with the results
of research conducted in Ghana (Morrison,
2004) showing that not all teachers have
received training to become educators for
early childhood, so that the understanding
of early childhood emotional development
is not optimal. Apart from that there are
possibilities
that teacher has been
understand about the development of children's
emotions, because of understanding of emotions
and development too related
with a cultural background (Lee & Johnson,
2007), so if
118
is rigidly associated with DAP there will be
a discrepancy.
(3) The teacher's efforts to stimulate
emotional development of children
The research subjects stated that the
method used to stimulate emotional
development was not specific, and they
used the method as specified in the
guidelines. They prepare drawing activities
as a means of expressing children's
thoughts and feelings. From the research it
is also known that the teacher uses a lot of
objects and games in the form of blocks,
story books, tapes / CDs for telling stories
and listening to songs and the reasons put
forward by the teacher, because these
media can improve children's language
skills and reading skills, which in fact, it is a
form of academic achievement or is more
likely to hone cognitive abilities.
Insufficient involvement of children in
providing stimulation. Even though
children learn from the environment not
only by following the teacher's instructions,
but more based on the experiences they
encounter in their daily lives Hsu (2008).
Teachers still have an unsuitable
understanding of DAP, they still think that
good children are children who according
to the teacher's instructions, when in class
they are more silent, sit in designated
places and watch and listen to what the
teacher explains (Ormrod, 2003; Puckett &
Diffily, 2004). This can be seen from the
activities that are widely used by teachers
in stimulating children, namely by
storytelling, telling stories and using
JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY
 STIMULATION METHOD, EMOTION DEVELOPMENT
card. There are some teachers who use
drawing or writing activities, but the
reason for giving these activities is more
directed so that children can read and
write fluently. This condition indicates that
the purpose of providing more activities is
for the development of cognitive aspects
and academic preparation for formal
education. Whereas emotional
development in early childhood is
important, because if children's emotions
develop naturally, they can concentrate
more and be able to better absorb
information given to children (Hansen &
Zambo, 2007). Hansen and Zambo further
explained, if kindergarten education only
emphasizes academic achievement, the
emotional aspect will be neglected in the
child's life as well as lose the opportunity to
develop children's emotions. Yet according
to Hirsk-Pasek and Golenkiff (Hansen &
Zambo, 2007), emotional development
underlies children's social development
and interpersonal skills. Research
conducted by Malik, Sarwar and Khan
(2010) in Pakistan shows that teachers in
providing stimulation are more focused on
one realm, namely the social sphere, but
the emotional realm is not given much
attention.
Conclusion
Based on the findings in this study, it can
be concluded that teachers' understanding of
how to provide stimulation for emotional
development in early childhood is still
inadequate, because teachers place more
emphasis on the importance of cognitive
abilities in children, and tend to ignore
emotional development in children.
JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY
children, so it is possible to develop
developmental problems in children. However,
what must be considered is that this condition
is related to the values and culture that
surround it. Because the factors of value and
culture are things that determine the
educational orientation of children, and
influence the determination of standards of
behavior and ways of educating children.
Suggestion
On the basis of the research results, it is
necessary to explore further the philosophy
that underlies the implementation and
objectives of early childhood education in
Indonesia. In addition, the use of DAP as green
book needs to be adjusted
with Indonesian values and culture and
socialized to early childhood teachers.
Literature
Ben-Arieh, A., McDonnell, J. & Schwartz,
SA (2009). Safety and home-school
relations as indicators of children
wellbeing: whose perspective count ?. Social
Indic Res. 90, 339-349.
Einon, D. (2005). Creative Play for 2-5s.
London: Octopus Publishing Group Ltd.
Hansen, CC & Zambo, D. (2007). Loving
and learning with Wimberly and david.
Fostering emotional development in early
childhood education.
Early Childhood Education Journal. 34 (4), 273-278.
Hsu, YC (2008). Taiwanese early child-
hood educators professional development.
Early Child Development and Care, 178 (3), 259-272.
119
 MARTANI
Lee, K & Johnson, SA (2007). Child de-
velopment in cultural Contexts:
implications of cultural psychology for
early childhood teacher education.
Early Childhood Education Journal. 35,
233-243.
Goldin-Meadow, S. (2008). Theories of
Language Acquisition. In MW Haith & JB
Benson (eds.), Encyclopedia of Infant and
Early Childhood Development,
Oxford: Elsevier Ltd.
Malik, A. Sarwar, M. & Khan, N. (2010).
Identification of the social development in
early childhood in Paskistan.
Journal of College Teaching and Learning. 7
(6), 39-48.
Mashar, R. (2007). Module “I'm a child
Cheers ”to improve children's social skills. Thesis. tional psychology. Boston: Wadsworth
( Not
published). Yogyakarta: Faculty
Psychology of Gadjah Mada University.
Moleong, JL (2002). Research methods
qualitative. Bandung: PT Remaja
Rosdakarya
Morrison, JW (2004). Under colonialism
to democratization: early childhood
development in Ghana. International
Journal of Early Childhood, 32 (2), 24 - 31.
Mönks, FJ, Knoers, AMP & Haditono,
SR (2004). Developmental psychology
Introduction in Its Various Sections.
Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press
120
Ormrod, JE, (2003). Educational Psychol-
ogy. Boston: McGrawHill Co.Inc
Papalia, DE, Olds, SW, & Feldman, RD
(2002). A Child's world. Infancy through
adolescence. Boston: The McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc.
Papalia, DE, Olds, SW, & Feldman, RD
(2009). Human development 11 Ed.
Boston: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Pearson, E & Degotardi, S. (2009). Edu-
cation for sustainable development in
early childhood education: A global
solution to local concerns?. International
Journal of Early Childhood. 41 (2),
97-111.
Pearsons, H., & Sardo, B., (2006). Educa-
Thomson Learning. Inc
Puckett, MB & Diffily D. (2004). Teaching
Young Children. An introduction to the
early Childhood Profession. Australia:
Thomson Delmar Learning
Puspitasari, N. (2009). Thesis ( Unpublished-
Kasikan). Yogyakarta: Faculty
Psychology of Gadjah Mada University.
Santrock, JW (2006). Life Span Develop-
ment. Boston: McGrawHill Co.Inc.
Woodhead, M. (2005). Early childhood de-
velopment: acquisition of rights. International
Journal of Early Childhood. 37 (3), 81-98.
Woolfolk, A. (2006). Educational psychology.
Boston: Pearson Education. Inc.
JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY
Name : Dian fitrianawati
Nim : 18 0103 0074
Prodi : BKI 6B
REVIEW JOURNAL

Title METHODS OF STIMULATION AND EMOTION

DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY CHILDREN
Journal Name Journal of psychology
Volume and Pages 39, NO. JUNE 1, 2012: 112-120
Year 2012
Author Wisjnu Martani
Reviewer Dian Fitrianawati
Date 27 April 2021

Background Early childhood is the "golden age period", which means it is a

golden period for all aspects of human development, both
Problem
physical, emotional and social cognition. One of the important
aspects of development for early childhood is the emotional
aspect.
In short, emotions help children all the time to survive and
communicate with the environment. Emotions develop over
time, emotions in early childhood develop from simple ones to
more complex conditions. Emotions develop as a result of
interaction with the environment.
Children develop through interaction with the environment.
One environment that plays a role is parents. However, in the
last year the number of parents, especially working mothers,
has increased; At the same time, a group or institution that
provides education outside the home for early childhood has
emerged. This condition is as if the tit-for-tat with the need for
parents to be able to obtain the methods deemed appropriate
for children's development. Parents hope that in Kindergarten
(TK) children will receive adequate stimulation for their
child's development. In a learning environment outside the
home or in kindergarten, children will learn and receive
 stimulation. Melton (in Ben-Arieh, et al, 2009) argues that
school is the main environment for the child's development
process. and play a role in creating activities for child welfare.
But in reality, not all children get optimal development, even
children experience developmental delay or developmental
problems.

Research purposes To explore further the philosophy that underlies the

implementation and objectives of early childhood education
in Indonesia. As well as the use of DAP as a green book so
that it is adapted to Indonesian values and culture and
socialized to early childhood teachers.

Research methods The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative

method. The analysis was carried out by using a
phenomenological approach, observation and self-report. The
data collected was identified based on the three components of
Developmental Approachability Practices (DAP).
Literature review
1. Definition
1. Definition Summarizing the opinions of Goleman, Izard and
2. Aspect / dimension / Ackerman, Le Doux, (Hansen & Zambo 2007) emotions are
influencing factors feelings that are physiologically and psychologically owned
by children and are used to respond to events that occur
around them. Emotion for early childhood is important,
because with emotions children can focus attention, and
emotions provide power to the body and organize thoughts to
suit their needs. Furthermore, Hansen and Zambo (2007)
describe examples of the function of emotions in early
childhood life, for example:
fear is one of the emotions used for "survival". When the
emotion of fear arises in children, the child becomes aware of
the environment and creates a cautious attitude in the child. A
smile is an expression of happy emotions, with a child's smile
being able to give a signal to his surroundings about the
situation being experienced and the need for interpersonal
relationships.
Early childhood education is a form of stimulation which
is basically intervention efforts, namely creating an
environment around early childhood so that it is able to
stimulate all aspects of child development. Intervention is
a number of information that is regulated through certain
learning for growth, development and behavior change.
According to Mashar (2007), citing the opinion of Foot et
al, that children who experience obstacles or problems
with development will not develop optimally. The
occurrence of problems in emotional development in early
childhood is influenced by teachers. Mashar's research
(2007) shows that teachers who have been trained to assist
children, are able to behave well.
2. Aspects / Dimensions / influencing factors
Children thrive in a variety of environments. Goldin-
Meadow (2008) states that the environment will affect
children in various ways, among others, it will affect how
a child develops and learns from the environment.
According to Mönks, Knoers, and Haditono (2004), the
quality and quantity of care for early childhood is related
to providing stimulation. The provision of stimulation
must be in accordance with the needs of the child,
children who receive excessive or less stimulation will
cause the child to experience developmental problems.
Developmental problems can occur because the
stimulator does not understand developmental outcomes.
Santrock (2006) explains that early childhood education
has now experienced a paradigm shift. Developmental
outcomes in early childhood development are the main
ones. This means that stimulation is based on knowledge
of typical child development or is related to the
uniqueness of the child, no longer based on the point of
view of the interests of parents or teachers. Therefore how
the teacher's understanding of the understanding of
stimulation and aspects of child development is an
important thing to research. The purpose of this study was
to determine the teacher's understanding of how to
provide stimulation for early childhood emotional
development.
Children do not develop automatically, but are
influenced by the way the environment treats them. When
children enter a non-formal “school” environment such as
 kindergarten, the space and opportunities for interaction
will expand. The stimulation provided by the teacher is
one of the most influential. The way the teacher stimulates
children depends on the teacher's understanding of
stimulation and understanding of the child.

Subject / population /
In this study, a total of 30 kindergarten teachers were the
sample
research subjects. The teacher who was the subject of the study
was female, with various educational backgrounds. There are
teachers whose educational backgrounds are SMA, SPG, and
Bachelor. The experience of being a kindergarten teacher is
quite varied, at least five years of experience and a maximum
of 33 years. The research subjects were teachers from three
kindergartens in the city of Yogyakarta. They all taught
classes, which in each class consisted of 12 to 25 children.

Research steps
Data is collected through;
1. Interview. To obtain information about the teacher's
understanding of the way the child's emotional
stimulation and development is used, interviews are
used: individually with the teacher. Interviews were
conducted based on an interview guide that had been
prepared.
2. Observations were made to obtain data about the
behavior and activities of the subject in the learning
process and stimulation in class. This data observation
is also used to check the results of interviews and self-
reports
3. Self report. Self reportconducted with a series of open-
ended questions, in order to obtain original information
from the research subject.

The research was carried out through a preparatory stage

which included determination, preparation of interview
guidelines and self-reports. Subjects were obtained by
visiting several kindergartens in Yogyakarta and its
surroundings. Based on their willingness, 30 kindergarten
teachers were selected. After that, the research was carried
out using interviews to gather information about the
 teacher's understanding of the achievement of early
childhood emotional development, and about how to
stimulate children. Apart from that, self-reports were also
completed to collect information about teachers'
understanding of emotional stimulation, forms and methods
of stimulation. After the data was collected, analysis was
carried out

Research result Based on the information provided by research subjects

through interviews and self-reports (open questionnaire
filling), the following results were obtained:
1. Teachers' understanding of stimulation Research
subjects said they understood stimulation and
stimulation in providing stimulation in schools,
conveyed in curriculum objectives by making
preparations for teaching and learning activities
on that day, known as SKH, and preparing props
to be used on the day. That is, preparing
evaluations for early childhood.
2. Teachers' understanding of early childhood
emotional development Teachers understand
emotions as well as other aspects of development,
but they do not understand that there are uniqueness
and variations in children's emotional development,
if the child shows different emotions with other
children in the class then the child is rated as a child
who is experiencing problems. In fact, the teacher is
quite capable of recognizing each child in their
class, and it takes the teacher about 2-4 weeks to get
to know each student, and through their observations
they recognize the condition of the student.
3. The teacher's efforts to stimulate children's
emotional developmentThe research subjects stated
that the methods used to stimulate emotional
development were not specific, and they used the
methods as defined in the guidelines. They prepare
drawing activities as a means of expressing children's
thoughts and feelings.
Conclusion Based on the findings in this study, it can be concluded that
the teacher's understanding of how to provide stimulation
for emotional development in early childhood is still
inadequate, because teachers place more emphasis on the
importance of cognitive abilities in children, and tend to
ignore emotional development in children, making it
possible for problems to occur. development in children.
However, what must be considered is that this condition is
related to the values and culture that surround it. Because
the factors of value and culture are the things that determine
the educational orientation for children of age, and
influence the determination of standards of behavior and
ways of educating children.