Lesson 7.

The Affective Domain

A. Emotional self, Self-Awareness and Sense of Competence

EMERGENCE OF EMOTIONAL SELF

The emotional self is a complex task for young children, starting in infancy and
continuing throughout their early years. Erik Erikson aptly labeled the earliest developmental
stage from birth to approximately 12-18 months as "Trust vs. Mistrust" (see Table 10.1) and
then described additional stages that human development ranges on a continuum
characterized by opposite emotional poles in emerge in a cumulative fashion in the early
years from birth to age 12 and thereafter.

TABLE 10.1 Erikson’s Stage Theory of Emotional Development

AGE STAGE DEVELOPMENTAL TASK KEY RELATIONSHIPS

0-18 Trust vs. Mistrust Establish a trusting relationship Primary caregiver, usually
months with a primary caregiver, to the mother
develop trust in self, other, and
the world as a place where
needs
are met.
18 Autonomy vs. Strive for independence Parents/ Family caregivers
months - Shame and Doubt
3 years
3 - 6 Initiative vs. Guilt Plan and carry out activities; Family caregivers
years learn society’s boundaries.
6 - 12 Industry vs. Be productive and successful. Teachers/ peers
years Inferiority
12 - 20 Identity vs. Role Establish social and Peers
years Confusion occupational Identities.
20 - 40 Intimacy vs. Form a strong friendships and Friends/ Lovers/ Spouse/
years Isolation achieve a sense of love and Partner
companionship.
40 - 60 Generativity vs. Be productive in terms of Spouse/ Partner/ Children/
years Stagnation family culture
and work.
60+ Ego Integrity vs. Look back at life as meaningful Family/ Friends/ Society
years Despair and productive.

Successful completion of these stages leads to a positive emotional pole, while

failure to resolve conflict and tensions may result in a negative emotional pole. Successful
task completion does not guarantee success in future stages or challenging events, but
developing competencies at each stage makes children less vulnerable and more resilient.
Children may experience confusion and anxiety about not having a clear response to
emotional situation

Empathy- the ability to understand another person's feelings by feeling the same emotion, is
a critical component of emotional development. This calls for being able to imagine what a
person must be feeling like and demonstrating caring, compassion, and altruism when we
see that others are hurt, troubled. or need help.

SELF AWARENESS AND SENSE OF COMPETENCE

Self-awareness about who they are and how others see them.Like everything else in an
organism, an individual's concept of self develops and changes during the life span;

Global self-concept-all the beliefs a person has about him- or herself—is structured fairly
early in life and appears to be well developed by the time a child is 8 or 9 years old.

Self- esteem - the components of the self-one's perceptions about how competent one is
intellectually, physically, emotionally and so forth.

For children experiencing day-to-day encouragement to actively explore in a safe,

supportive, high-quality environment, increased confidence and competence are likely to be
the outcome. Children who develop healthy self-esteem have an accurate mental image of
self. Rather than being self-absorbed, narcissistic, and craving attention from others, they
have a realistic sense of self-efficacy and competence.

Children's perceptions of themselves are the result of a mirroring process as they interact
with important others in their world. High self-esteem comes from:

 Realizing that others like your ideas and will follow your lead
 Being warmly accepted as a person in your own world
 Peoples' willingness to listen and take you seriously
 Feeling that other people enjoy being with you
 Being acknowledged and appreciated for exactly who you are
 Doing things that you find interesting and important
 Knowing that you can trust people to be concerned about your feelings and needs
 Experiencing time and time again, year in and year out, that the important people in
your life take time just for you--to listen, to explain things, to relax with you, to share
confidences, to find moments every day in which friendship can flourish (Roberts,
2006).

This comes from genuine feedback, respect, and support from the adults in their lives as well
as opportunities to reflect on their behavior and accomplishments (Epstein, 2009).

CONCEPTS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Daniel Goleman (1997), author of Emotional Intelligence, suggests that without forming the
concrete skills required to identify and manage our emotions, we are less well equipped to
communicate effectively with others. When children have trouble making solid connections
between their feelings and thinking, they are less able to resolve conflicts in a nonviolent
way, be empathic toward others, or remain optimistic in the face of setbacks.
TABLE 10.2 Basic Skills for Emotional Intelligence
SKILL SET EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE COMPONENT
Self-Awareness The ability to identify your thoughts, feelings and strengths;
understanding and recognizing how thoughts, feelings and strengths
influences your choices and actions.
Social Awareness The capacity to recognize and understand others’ thoughts and
feelings; developing empathy; ability to take perspective of others.
Self-Management The ability to manage your emotions so that they facilitate rather
than interfere with the task at hand; setting long and short-term
goals; dealing with obstacles that may come your way.
Responsible The skill to generate, implement and evaluate positive and informed
 Decision Making solutions to problems; tendency to consider the long-term
consequences of your actions for yourself and others.
Relationship Skills The ability to resist negative peer pressure and to resolve conflicts in
such a way that you maintain healthy and rewarding connections
with individuals and groups.

As in every other developmental domain, children are active in constructing a knowledge

base they will use in every internal and external operation related to their emerging
emotionalstructures. Included are the following:

Physical Knowledge -With adult guidance, children become increasingly aware of their
tendencies to react and behave under certain conditions and gain awareness about their
dispositions, capabilities, and abilities (Who am I? What do I feel and under what
circumstances? When do I feel valued, secure, and most comfortable? When are the times
that I feel most uncomfortable and who am I with during those times?).

Logical-mathematical knowledge -Along with increasing cognition, children develop the

logical organization to deal with incoming affective information (How am I like others? How
am I different from others?) and to recognize and contrast the distinct and recurrent patterns
in their behavior and that of others.

Representational knowledge- This increases as children learn new ways to express their
inner emotional thoughts and feelings through the increased use of speech as language
develops, through the refined use of body language, and through written expression as
literacy skills emerge.

Social conventional knowledge -Here, children are intensely interested in learning more
about how others view them; what the rules and boundaries are for socially acceptable ways
of behaving; and more about gender, ethnicity, and interpersonal applications. Children copy
behaviors they see that others use successfully to get what they need or want and discard
other behaviors, which they perceive are not valued by others.

Metacognitive knowledge -Children increase their metacognitive abilities by putting their

sensory channel modalities to work to investigate emotional cause and effect. As they do so,
they grow in their conscious conceptualization of their emotional strength and limitations
(self-awareness, self-esteem, self-concept), develop better instincts about themselves and
others, and acquire strategies to affect their emotions and those of others.

B. How Children React to Overwhelming Emotional Demand

STRESS AND RESILIENCE: HOW CHILDREN REACT TO OVERWHELMING

EMOTIONAL DEMAND.

Coping with "Normal Life Stressors"

Children experience emotional demands from any number of sources. When stressful
situations persist for long periods and when the child is unable to experience relief,
symptoms may appear, such as:
 increased irritability
 depression
 anxiety
 sleep disturbances
  somatic problems
 dramatic increase or decrease in appetite.

When a child is unable to cope, behavioral disorders and increased psychological

vulnerability may result.

Type of Stressors

1. Individual Stressors

- Such as disabling conditions, Inadequate or unbalanced diet, difficult personality,

lack of exercise to release tension, too many extracurricular activities, Heavy
exposure to television, unmonitored use of video games

2. Intrafamilial Stressors

- Such as the birth of a sibling, death of a loved one or pet, moving to a new home or
place, marital transition of parents, poverty, abuse, and neglect

3. Extrafamilial Stressors

- Unsatisfactory child care, poor match between child's developmental levels and
school's expectations, lack of appreciation of cultural differences by others, negative
peer relationship at school or in neighborhood, fast-paced society in which children
live

Developing Resilience

Evidence indicates that children who are most effective in coping with normal stressors
(e.g., getting up and dressing in time for the school bus, being disappointed once in a while,
or being left out of a play opportunity) learn how to cope with the larger issues. Children who
can find or generate more alternatives for coping usually do much better and build
confidence in managing stressful situations.

In coping with stressors, children use the same sorts of strategies that adults use, including
such defense mechanisms as denial, regression, withdrawal, and impulsive acting out.

Red flags that signal that children are out of coping strategies include (Ginsburg, 2006):

 Problems in completing school work

 Not wanting to attend school
 Sleep problems
 Age-inappropriate behavior
 Outbursts and tantrums
 Changes in eating habits Isolation/withdrawal
 Inability to make or maintain friends
 Physical symptoms

Resilience – is the "capacity to rise above difficult circumstances”. It is the trait that allows
us all to exist in this less-than-perfect-world while moving forward with reasonable optimism
and confidence.
According to Ginsburg (2006), blanketing children with protection while reinforcing their
strengths requires our belief in the following concepts:

1. To be strong, children need unconditional love, absolute security, and a deep

connection to at least one adult.
2. Children live up or down to adults' expectations of them.
3. Listening to children attentively is more important than any words adults can say.
This applies to routine situations as well as times of crisis.
4. Nothing adults say is as important as what children see them doing on a daily basis.
Children can only take positive steps when they have the confidence to do so. They
gain that confidence when they have solid reasons to believe they are competent.
5. If children are to develop the strength to overcome challenges, they need to know
that they can control what happens to them.
6. Children with a wide range of positive coping strategies will be prepared to overcome
almost anything and far less likely to try many of the risk behaviors that adults fear.

Teachers can build better resilience in young children by:

1. Build in more opportunities for play. Play provides children with opportunities to
problem solve, socialize, exercise leadership and following skills, and build
communication skills. It allows them to engage in give-and-take with their peers and
reduce tension. It also provides them with a chance to experiment with controlling
people and objects. These abilities are key in determining whether a child builds the
capacity to recover from conditions that might be predictive of failure.

2. Modify children's difficult behavior without sending a message that the child is
not okay. This calls for helping children develop ways in which they can regulate
their behavior and emotions as well as acknowledging their efforts and successes. If
you find a child's behavior has become a growing source of irritation for yourself or
others in the classroom, try to recast the behavior in a more positive light (ex: Josh
has a lot of energy!) in order to redirect perspective and that of the child's peers in a
more supportive direction.

3. Teach them to become effective problem solvers. Find a way to have

conversations with each child about what he or she wants to there. accomplish and
build steps needed to get

4. Teach them ways to better express their thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Discuss
ways in which each child is unique and strong. Help them document those
characteristics and then refer to such characteristics at times when they need
additional support.

5. Build rapport and connectedness in the classroom. As much as possible, create

within each child a spirit of being a special and valued member of the team. Along
with this, help each child to increase his or her capacity for appreciating, caring for,
and empathizing with others.

6. Know what goes on in children's lives outside the classroom, what supports
they have, and which ones they are missing. Be willing to advocate for the kinds of
interventions needed to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors.

Children want to be competent and recognized by others as competent. Educators can

take advantage of this natural motivation of children by guiding them toward more fully
integrated intrapersonal and interpersonal strengths.
C. Affective Teaching Strategies

1. Promote children’s emotional awareness and sense of worth.

Engage children in discussions about their emotions, even if it feels
uncomfortable in order to enhance their emotional awareness. It is important to consider
that children may not understand why they feel certain emotions, assist them in
identifying and labeling these feelings. Use a wide array of “feelings” words that
represents variation of happy, mad, fear, sad.
Avoid making assumptions about the reasons behind a child’s emotional state
and design activities to enhance their awareness of how various situations affect their
feelings.

2. Help children find satisfying ways to express their emotions to others and to
assert
themselves appropriately.
Assist children in identifying what other people look like and sound like when they
are angry, not interested, or frustrated. Provide sample scripts to help children express
their emotions and needs. When a child needs to learn to express feelings to another
child, he or she should be advised.

3. Choose literature in which the characters respond to emotions in a variety of

ways,
and discuss how they felt and acted.
Primary-age children may be helped to express their feelings through writing. Select
examples of literature that illustrate how children have written about their frustrations or
stresses and learned to cope more effectively with them through writing. Have children
dramatize situations in which anger or frustration is handled appropriately.

4. Provide empathy for children’s fears and concerns.

These fears and concerns may be imagined, realistic, or learned. Familiarize
yourself with information about children’s fears, and provide a safe and Supportive
context in which children can gradually work through them. Help by acknowledging the
child’s discomfort and offering physical or spoken consolation.

5. Examine your own emotional reactions and how you model stress and problem
solving to children when you are under pressure.
Evaluate whether your sense of humor is alive and making the classroom a
pleasurable place in which to spend time.

6. Help children develop greater self- uderstanding.

Use the behavior and paraphrase reflections to make nonjudgemental
observations about the children’s actions and words as a way to support children’s
growing self-awareness.

7. Create activities in which children explore their physical and social qualities.
Provide activities such as body tracings, self portraits, autobiographical stories
and sketches, projects around personal family traditions, or conversations in which
children identify personal preferences and qualities. Invite children to assess their
personal qualities in relation to fictional or nonfictional literary characters. Repeat this
often, focusing on a variety of characteristics over time.

8. Document children’s progress.

Take photos of the children as they participate in classroom activities. Invite
children to reflect on what they see in the photos and to create captions or narratives,
describing what they are doing. Collect some products the children make, captioning
these as well in the children’s own words. Display documentation boards so children can
refer to them and talk about projects they have carried out over time.

9. Promote children’s ability to meet age- appropriate expectations for self-

discipline.
Notice when children exhibit self-control (resisting temptation, controlling their
impulses, delaying gratification, or carrying out proactive plans). Use positive
consequences to bring these constructive behaviors to children’s attention.

10. Be patient, firm, and objective when you are helping children modify their
behavior.
View children’s inappropriate behavior as a gap in their knowledge or skills.
Rather than expecting immediate change, identify steps in progress, giving
reinforcement when you see them trying to correct a particular behavior. Use subtle cues
to remind children that their behavior is close to exceeding limits. If possible, allow
children opportunities to assess the situation and modify their behavior in a positive
direction. Model respectful interaction and a firm tone of voice when modifying children’s
behavior.

11. Set effective limits with clearly defined expectations.

Involve children in structuring classroom rules, and apply natural and logical
consequences consistently when rules are not observed. See Chapter 6 for more
information in this regard.

12. Never ignore difficult behaviors or problems such as lying, stealing, or cruelty
to
self or others.
Watch for any bullying that goes on or tor children who make fun of other children
or isolate them from play. When children demonstrate a pattern of difficult behaviors and
are unresponsive to your attempts to modify them using authoritative teaching methods,
seek help by working with other professionals who have more specific expertise.

13. Establish an emotionally supportive, low-stress environment.

Help children make smooth and comfortable transitions into the program.
Establish a predictable schedule and provide a daily overview of the day’s activities,
including any changes in routine, notice of visitors, and so forth. Establish a stimulus-
reduced area in which children who are seeking quiet can work.
Balance quiet and active experiences so that children are not emotionally or
physically overloaded. Evaluate the room for visual and auditory stimulation, as well as
noise levels, lighting, and temperature.

14. Enhance children’s growing sense of autonomy and initiative by giving them
frequent opportunities to make choices or decisions.
Offer many but not too much choices to children each day. Anticipate situations in
which choices could be offered, and plan what those choices will be. Take advantage of
naturally occurring situations in which to offer choices. Allow children to have an ample
time to make their decisions, giving them a time frame within to think. Allow children to
change their minds if the follow-through on the decision has not yet begun and assist
them in accepting responsibility for the choices they make.

15. Use scaffolding techniques to challenge children to perform tasks slightly

beyond
what they can easily do on their own.
 Gauge the amount of support and challenge necessary for normal growth, slowly
decreasing support as children move toward increasing their autonomy. Support children
in their efforts to try new or uncomfortable tasks and talk about their efforts. Praise their
courage and determination to try, not just the results and develop a ready bank of
reinforcing and encouraging phrases.

Examples of Reinforcing and Encouraging Phrases:

 You worked so hard to figure that out, I’m proud of you!
 I am happy to see you cooperating like that.
 That’s really an improvement!
 Hey, I can see that you’ve been practicing and that it’s paying off.
 You’ve completed your homework everyday this week. Good for you!

16. Help children evaluate their accomplishments.

Encourage children to reflect on how well they defined the problem, whether they
thought about all the alternatives, whether they persisted long enough, what turned out
well, and what they might do differently the next time. Focus on what has been
accomplished compared to what was intended.

Strategies that can help children in evaluating their accomplishments.

 Point out that the child could do something, given the effort.
 Provide task-specific feedbacks
 Ask advance questions
 Help students set goals for what they can change and be more accepting of what
they cannot.
 Praise children’s a accomplishments and, to build self-esteem, use genuine praise
and more reinforcement than negative criticism.
 Guide children toward continual self-examination of their growth and work rather
than relying on only the teacher’s or their parents’ evaluation.

17. Make it easy for children to use materials and e equipment independently.

 Set aside a portion of each day in which children may engage in free-choice, self-
initiated activities.
 Establish a specific location for materials so that children know where to find them
and where to put them away. Maintain the storage area in an orderly fashion so that
children will know what it is supposed to look like, Mark storage areas with words,
symbols, or pictures as needed to identify materials that should be located there.
 Demonstrate the proper care of materials and equipment. If necessary, tell the
children exactly what to do while demonstrating step by step, and then take the
materials or equipment out again so that the children can imitate the behavior.
 Supervise the process of putting materials and equipment away properly, giving
reminders as necessary; praise children who are achieving the standard and those
who are helping others do so. Allow children to choose between two or three tasks
as they carry out their work.

18. When working with children with disabilities, avoid the tendency to overprotect
them so that they can develop autonomy as much as possible.
Assist children only when assistance is possible, encourage children who are not
disabled to seek help from children with disabilities. Doing so helps both the child with
the disability and the child who is not disabled to build the perception that an existing
disability should not be the central focus when an individual is evaluating another
person’s abilities.
 For children who have difficulty controlling impulsivity because of neurological
disorders that manifest themselves behaviorally (e.g ADHD, autistic-like disorders,
conduct disorders) use such approaches to as nonpunitive separation to remove the
child from an overstimulating situation. Provide reinforcement for staying on task and
provide frequent goal-setting sessions and helpful, concrete suggestions for more
appropriate behavior.

19. Watch for signs of stress in children who are learning English and provide
sensitive
support.

 Wait a bit longer for an answer.

 Pronounce their name correctly in their language and learn a few words to say to
them in their own language.
 Provide scripts for them.
 Use a lot of body language and facial expression to get your message across.
 Make statements or requests that are brief and easy to understand.
 Restate, enlarge on, and recast their language.

20. Design activities in which the primary purpose is to teach children to use
various
tools and equipment in the classroom.
Give children real tools to use such as art, carpentry, literary, math, and science
tools; musical instruments; and technology equipment. If you are not sure how to use
certain tools properly, find out or invite someone into your classroom to demonstrate,
Show children how to use tools and equipment appropriately, effectively, and safely.

21. Set Up Activities in Which Children Follow Step-by-Step Procedures to

Completion.
Use pictographs, verbal instructions, or written directions to guide children’s
actions. Have children use simple checklists to chart their progress. Invite children to
report on the results. Begin with simple two- or three-step plans and gradually increase
the number of steps and complexity of the tasks. Allow ample time for children to
complete such work on their own.

22. Give children opportunities to carry out classroom jobs.

Encourage them to clean up after themselves when possible and to assist t
others who need help. Create a job chart for children to use each day. Select certain jobs
that children can carry out to help in the classroom such as watering the plants,
restocking materials, feeding fish, monitoring an area to make sure that materials are
returned to their appropriate places, collecting lunch money and so forth. Explain or
demonstrate each job and create a way for children to choose and alternate among jobs.

23. Help children develop plans of their own to follow.

Involve children in planning, implementing, and evaluating, some class activities
and decisions. Walk children through simple planning steps such as deciding on a goal,
developing steps to achieve that goal, following the plan, reporting on how well the plan
worked, and possibly revising the plan for the future. Use open-ended questions to
support their thinking.

24. Help children develop standards.

Invite children to select their “best work” to be included in their portfolios or for
display. Ask what criteria they will use to determine “best”. Similarly, invite children to
develop a list of criteria they will use to determine if their cleanup efforts are sufficient. In
other words, what constitutes a “clean room”

25. Support children as they learn more about themselves in terms of Gender,
Abilities, and Culture.
Provide children with opportunities to interact with adult members and other
children of their gender and culture as well as other cultures. Monitor program materials
and routines to avoid reinforcing negative stereotypes. Create activities that challenge
stereotypes and prejudice.
Survey the kinds of activities and materials used in the classroom to make sure
that boys and girls, children of varying abilities, and children of differing cultures have
access to materials and activities that are relevant to their experiences.

Prepared by:
Politud, Dionel
Sarmiento, Angel Marie
Labios, Ma. Miguela
Pamati-an, Cristina Cassandra
Tumaliuan, Daniela
Mian, John Mark
(BECED 3A)