Social Emotional Health

How to nurture your child's social-emotional health

Tips to Nurture Social-Emotional Health
Tip	Suggested Activity
Share feelings and believe	Reflect on something that made you feel happy. Ask your child to reflect about what made them happy.
Actively listen	At the end of the day, reflect on something that made you feel happy. Ask your child to reflect about what made them happy.
Do what you say	Make a plan for tomorrow with your child. Write it down. Follow through.
Limit electronic time for everyone	Go on a walk and collect natural objects (stones, pinecones, etc). Graph what you find. Lay on your back outside and watch the clouds in the sky. Talk about what animals the clouds resemble.
Reach out and hug them	Eight touches per day helps your child feel connected.
Recognize Positive Choices	Learn to say "please" and "thank you" in Spanish. "Poor Favor" y "Gracias." Practice it with people you see. Notice when your child solves their own problem, and list the ways they solved the problem. Read a book about friendship and talk about how to be a good friend.
Model forgiveness	If you (or your child) say or do something hurtful, recognize those actions and the impact on the other person, and talk about what you might do differently in the future.
Set and respect boundaries	Let children make safe choices. Offer "either/or" for things like food and clothes, so children feel more in control.
View their behavior as a window to their needs and feelings	Take pictures of your child's face expressing happiness, sadness, fear, frustration... Post those pictures around their mirror.
Respond calmly when their emotions are elevated	Help children learn how to manage their emotions by talking calmly. Stay with your child and away from punishment during elevated emotions.
Use open-ended questions about everything	When reading a book, ask your child to predict what will happen before you turn the last page. Using your phone, take photos of nature in surprising places (crack in a sidewalk). Show the photos and ask your child to tell you a story.
Play and exercise together	Do jumping jacks together and count aloud as you go. See how high you can count together! Put on some music and move together! Play in puddles with a friend. See who can make the biggest splash!
Surround them with healthy adults	Teach your child to wash their hands - tops, bottoms and between fingers - for the duration of the Happy Birthday song.