"My favorite activities to keep my classroom calm are playdough and fidgets! Playdough relaxes the kids and helps them to calm down, while keeping them occupied for an extended period of time. It gives their minds a chance to focus on something else that is not as overly stimulating as learning centers. Fidgets do the same. They also LOVE Pop-Its!"
"How can I support a child’s ability to express and manage emotions?"
Identifying, talking about, and regulating emotions are essential skills for success in preschool and beyond. Children who can express healthy social-emotional behaviors are less likely to become easily frustrated, have excessive tantrums, or act impulsively — leaving more time for learning!
WEBINAR
Support from the Start: The Power of Responsive Interactions in Supporting Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
Recently, LENA brought together a panel of researchers, clinicians, and policy experts to discuss young children’s mental health, specifically in the context of the interactions and relationships with the adults in their lives. Full webinar is available in both Spanish and English, highlights are English only.
WEBINAR
Setbacks and Solutions: Helping early educators navigate language and social-emotional delays
With approximately half of U.S. children aged 0-5 attending child care, it’s more important than ever to equip early childhood educators to address children’s unique needs and help get their language and social-emotional learning (SEL) on track.
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Resources for Social-emotional Development 
Build emotional intelligence through conversation! Support children in learning to recognize, understand, and navigate their feelings and emotions.
- 14 Talking Tips to Support Social-emotional Development.
- Conversations Starters for Feelings & Emotions.
Managing peer-peer interactions
Shalinda A. Rountree, Childcare provider, Swainsboro, GA
"As a childcare provider, some of the most common conflicts I see in my classroom are toddlers fighting over toys, fighting over attention, and emotional outbursts. One child in particular had many emotional outbursts, struggled with following classroom rules, wanted all of my attention, and often fought other children. Through speaking with an infant/toddler specialist and going through many hours of coaching and observations, I learned that the child's frustrations came from his lack of language skills.
- I began to get on his level and give him the words he needed to resolve his conflicts.
- Since he had speech barriers, I also helped him to communicate with his fellow classmates.
- For his emotional outbursts, I spoke to him about different emotions and asked him to point to a picture of how he was feeling.
- He also learned to step away and calm down in the "cozy corner". When he came back, we would be able to talk through his conflicts and get them resolved.
"My advice for any teachers also dealing with challenging behaviors is to be patient. Remember [the kids] are just little humans and they need help navigating their feelings and their communication. I would also say, be consistent! The more you do it, the easier it becomes and the more calm your children are, the easier it is to manage your classroom. It may seem like it is not working at first, but with time, you will see a major difference!"
SEL check-ins to increase turns
Teachers at ECCLPS, Colorado
“We added a 5-minute, mid-day ‘group check-in’. The [kids] have an emotions chart with their little pictures which they move to a particular feeling. It leads to GREAT conversation. We were able to increase words and turns for a good hour after the check-in.”
Building relationships in a new classroom
Larissa Fullilove, EHS Social Emotional Learning Coach with Porter-Leath in Memphis, Tennessee
"In the first two months of school, the key thing we work on is building relationships. Building relationships is so important. It helps children feel confident, so that they will interact and talk to you. So when a child experiences those emotions — it could be a good behavior or bad behavior — you have the resources you need to help that child calm down a little more, verbalize what they need, tell you what they want. Letting the children know, ‘You are safe, I’m here for you’, helps create a bond with not only the student but also their family, too."
Providing social-emotional care for your LENA Start community
Pedro Mendez, Early Head Start School Readiness Director for the City and County of Denver, Colorado
“During one of our LENA sessions at the library, we had a parent share her experience with depression and the heavy burden she felt as a parent. Others in the room shared similar ideas. As staff, we were receptive and able to provide the parents with a space where they could relax and relieve some of their stressors. We brought in a specialist to talk with them about the importance of self-care, and were able to provide a baby yoga session for the parents. At that moment we felt the community coming together and supporting each other, and we realized the impact that a program like LENA Start would have in our communities.”
Read more of Pedro’s observations and learnings during his work at Denver Public Library.
Reducing challenging behaviors through relationships
Judy Berdan, Teacher at Marathon County Child Development Agency Head Start in Wausau, Wisconsin
“One of my littles had struggled with properly expressing her emotions. She would explode in tears and tantrums. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t get her way immediately.
"The 14 Talking Tips helped us head off many of her outbursts by keeping her engaged with conversation to tell us how she felt, why she felt that way, and how we could work together to co-regulate her feelings and to find some solutions. It took quite a bit of time to enable her to use her words in conversation to express her very real, strong emotions.
"My team and I take the time to discuss which children are in need of more conversation, which children come by this naturally, and which ones can help their classmates because they have learned from us how to have a conversation. We don’t let a moment slip by when we can engage a child to express themselves.”