Developmental Trends in Children’s Emotional Understanding and Expression

“In fact, children from certain low-income backgrounds receive such loving, stable, and attentive care that they develop excellent coping skills.” (pg. 424)
This shows that we as teachers can foster healthy emotional growth in children by giving them loving, stable, and attentive care. Sadly, if the child is coming from a home where they have not received stable, loving, and attentive care, the teacher of a class will not be able to take away the unfortunate effects of that. However, they can still help.

.“The capacity to detect basic emotions in others is present in infancy… the ability is illustrated by the emotional cognition of babies” (pg. 420)
I found this really interesting and it reminded me a lot about “masking” which is what people who have certain mental health problems perform. “Masking” is when a person will reflect the emotions that those around them are feeling or doing. They look at how others are acting and feeling and attempt to replicate these same emotions that those around them are feeling. They often do this to hide how they are really feeling because they have the fear of being seen or being considered different from those around them.

“In fact, there is a strong association between the emotional health of children and their level of academic achievement. Those with advanced coping skills are likely to perform well on academic tasks”. (418)
This quote teaches that educators need to focus on helping students find the balance in their emotions. Due to the strong correlation between emotional health and academic achievement, helping students learn proper coping skills will help them with higher levels of academic success and confidence. They should be able to gain those skills to work through stress and emotional imbalances while working through school tasks.

“Emotions energize thoughts and behavior according to present circumstances,” (pg 418)
Already in the first paragraph this quote speaks about what emotions really are for kids it highlights three main emotions, sadness, anger, and happiness. I really like how the author explains each one of these emotions and what it might lead the child to do.

Take a log of various exercises and also record how your stress levels were impacted before and after the exercise.

Study a historical figure in a particular unit and determine how their environments impacted their emotions and responses in an event

Learn various time and stress management skills and apply them while taking a generally high stress math test.

Evaluate a piece of music and determine the emotional content of the piece and the composer's influence.

“Progress toward sexual maturity and adult height.”(16)
Growth in later adolescents might lead to emotional stability or instability and an increased amount of peer pressure and negative body image.

“Awareness of which cognitive strategies are most effective in particular situations.” (261)
As adolescents move forward through their cognitive development they are able to better understand which cognitive strategies they should use in different situations. This can help them learn to use positive thought strategies to improve their emotional wellbeing.

“Continued attachments to parents, but with a strong preference for affection to be demonstrated in private.” (435)
Teach appropriate ways of handling negative emotions. Encourage them to use their words if they feel the need to express their frustrations. Try not to push when they feel angry and don’t want to share their emotions.

“Increasing tendency to base self on how one’s own performance compares with that of peers,”(456)
I can see how a lot of kids could start comparing themselves to others and may think that they aren't as good or they might think they are better.

1. At this stage, children are able to think and make connections at the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.

The student in this video was able to think at higher levels of bloom's taxonomy as the class progressed. At the beginning she was more closed off and as she got more comfortable with her environment she could make those deeper connections in what she was learning.

2. At this stage children can feel comfortable in a setting when their is trust between the student and teacher.

When the teacher was demonstrating how a rockets works by showing a torch with added oxygen the student didn’t show signs of feeling unsafe and she could continue with her learning.

3. The girl in the third video struggled to tear the medical tape that she was using. At times she would have to retry several times before she was able to tear it. Instead of getting upset or giving up, this girl continued to calmly retry until she succeeded. The teacher patiently and calmly watched as she practiced.

Students at this stage of development have the ability to be emotionally resilient and press forward against failure or discouragement. When teachers are calm, encouraging, and patient, it helps the students to do this.

4.

Subtopic

1. Physical Development:
“Progress toward sexual maturity and adult height.”(16)

Growth in later adolescents might lead to emotional stability or instability and an increased amount of peer pressure and negative body image.

2. Cognitive Development: “Awareness of which cognitive strategies are most effective in particular situations.” (261)

As adolescents move forward through their cognitive development they are able to better understand which cognitive strategies they should use in different situations. This can help them learn to use positive thought strategies to improve their emotional wellbeing.

3. Emotional Development: “Continued attachments to parents, but with a strong preference for affection to be demonstrated in private.” (435)

Teach appropriate ways of handling negative emotions. Encourage them to use their words if they feel the need to express their frustrations. Try not to push when they feel angry and don’t want to share their emotions.

Sense of Self: “Increasing tendency to base self on how one’s own performance compares with that of peers,”(456)

I can see how a lot of kids could start comparing themselves to others and may think that they aren't as good or they might think they are better.

Positive

Child gets a good grade on a test that they thoroughly studied for, and feels like they can accomplish anything they put their mind to.

A student gets a bad grade on a test, and though she is disappointed, she decides to create a better study plan so she can do better in the future.

A student disagrees with a teacher but expresses their feelings in a calm manner after class.

A student feels overwhelmed and stressed about schoolwork. She makes a list of tasks she needs to accomplish, takes a break to do a grounding technique, and begins on her list.

Negative

Child gets a bad grade on a test after studying a lot, and feels like no matter how hard they try, they cannot get the concepts being taught.

A student is dealing with a stressful experience at home and takes it out on their teacher and neglects their classwork.

A student gets a bad grade after not studying at all and doesn’t care about it because of current home status.

Child has a difficult home life and doesn’t know how to handle his/hers emotions and acts out on classmates/peers.

Pre: Begin class doing a free-write expressing your emotions/stress level from the week. (feelings, what you think caused it, how it has affected you)

Post: Apply new emotional and stress management skills by practicing one of the discussed healthy coping mechanisms in small groups.

We will teach our teacher candidates how to interpret and manage their own emotions and how to use those skills to address the needs of their future students.

This shows that we as teachers can foster healthy emotional growth in children by giving them loving, stable, and attentive care. Sadly, if the child is coming from a home where they have not received stable, loving, and attentive care, the teacher of a class will not be able to take away the unfortunate effects of that. However, they can still help.

I found this really interesting and it reminded me a lot about “masking” which is what people who have certain mental health problems perform. “Masking” is when a person will reflect the emotions that those around them are feeling or doing. They look at how others are acting and feeling and attempt to replicate these same emotions that those around them are feeling. They often do this to hide how they are really feeling because they have the fear of being seen or being considered different from those around them.

This quote teaches that educators need to focus on helping students find the balance in their emotions. Due to the strong correlation between emotional health and academic achievement, helping students learn proper coping skills will help them with higher levels of academic success and confidence. They should be able to gain those skills to work through stress and emotional imbalances while working through school tasks.

Already in the first paragraph this quote speaks about what emotions really are for kids it highlights three main emotions, sadness, anger, and happiness. I really like how the author explains each one of these emotions and what it might lead the child to do.

As children get older their emotions become more complex leading to a need for greater coping skills.

We will teach our teacher candidates how to interpret and manage their own emotions and how to use those skills to address the needs of their future students.

Gender

“Boys show more anger than girls beginning in early childhood, and girls show more positive emotions overall but also more sadness, Boys are more apt to put on a self-confident front when they feel vulnerable,” (423)

Gender stereotypes can lead to misconceptions because not all gender assumptions hold true based on children's personalities and other environmental influences.

Culture

“A child speaking English may hear about someone being “ashamed,” whereas a child speaking Chinese encounters five distinct terms for shame, words that each communicate different causes of and responses to personal transgressions,” (423)

Emotional misconceptions may happen if there is a language/culture barrier as they may be interpreted and handled differently coming from various environments.

Socioeconomic Status

“Children whose families have low incomes are more prone to anxiety, depression, and behavior problems.”

Though many children whose families have low incomes are more likely to have emotional and behavior problems, not all of them are. Their emotional health has more to do with how they have been taken care of as children than how much money their families have.

Over

“Children whose families have low incomes are more prone to anxiety, depression, and behavioral problems. [...] They have more than their share of reasons to feel sad, fearful, and angry, including when watching their parents struggle to meet ends and encountering violence and drug addiction in their neighborhoods”(424).

While it may be true that children falling under a lower socioeconomic status can be more prone to emotional struggles, it is an overgeneralization to state that all their situations involve parents’ struggles, violence, and drug addictions. These are things that might happen but are not attributed to all children from lower income households. There are many other situations that children can be in, some very healthy and balanced, even despite family financial struggles.

Under

“Boys show more anger than girls beginning in early childhood, and girls show more positive emotions overall but also more sadness, fear, and guilt from the elementary grades onward.” (423)

Under: ‘All girls show more sadness, fear, and guilt [than boys] from the elementary grades onward.’ would be an undergeneralization because it would not be accounting for the different causes of the sadness, fear and guilt of each different girl. Some girls might be this way because of their homelife, while some might be stressed about school, etc.