Strengthening Families

Course Description: Children’s social and emotional competence is seen in their ability to communicate clearly, recognize and regulate their emotions, establish and maintain relationships with others and engage in problem solving and resolution. Children who have these skills are likely to grow up to have healthier behaviors, better peer relationships and a higher capacity to respond to stress. Helping children develop these skills can also improve family relationships and prevent child abuse and neglect. In this course you will explore this protective factor, learning about the characteristics of children who are emotionally healthy. You will discuss realistic expectations of the development of this protective factor at various developmental stages and how healthy social and emotional competence can help make child maltreatment less likely to occur. Finally, you will see examples of how parents and other caregivers can develop strategies that will help children to grow emotionally and socially and create an action plan to intentionally integrate effective strategies into your everyday work.

Training Outcomes: Attendees will leave this workshop with a better understanding of what social and emotional competence of children is and its importance in parenting. Participants will understand how temperament shapes the emotions and behaviors of children and explore how culture can influence children’s social and emotional development.