The debate about which to prioritize in early childhood education is heating up. Studies have shown that pandemic babies suffer from developmental delays while parents have constantly raised the bar of achievement for their young children. Early childhood educators and providers are now caught between giving young children a step ahead academically and shaping and enriching their social and emotional landscape.

Big Emotions at Play

At two years old, children start to learn how to play more with their peers. While at first the play is alongside their peers instead of playing with them, they slowly build the understanding and skill to play among themselves. While sharing toys peacefully might still be out of the picture, with tantrums and big meltdowns at every new emotion they are feeling, these two years olds are starting to form the basic makeup of their social-emotional skills.
At this stage, they start to discover more emotions, start being unruly not out of meanness of spirit but out of genuine feelings, trying to test their boundaries, and newfound independence.
As they learn big emotions and feelings, it’s no wonder that teaching them social-emotional skills at the same time fits their natural development milestones.

Play as a Way of Learning

At least for very young children, that is how they are able to form new connections and learn more not only about themselves but also about their peers and their world. Through play, a young child grasps what makes societies function on a personal level.
They learn the concept of waiting turns, sharing, relating, and even empathizing with another peer.
These social-emotional skills are important for young children to learn as these will be their tools as they navigate and negotiate their way through life.
While academics is certainly important, most early childhood educators and even kindergarten teachers would agree that teaching academic skills is far easier when they have a capable, self-regulating child who knows how to express themselves in a manner that is non-disruptive to the whole class.

Teaching SEL Skills Early On

A class of kindergarten pupils equipped with SEL skills learns more academically than a class without. As kindergarten teachers end up policing misbehaving children, their energies are spent toward teaching children to get along instead of academic skills, whether it’s their numbers, words, or writing skills.
This is why children must learn to play first before academic things. While starting them early in childcare learning the ABC’s and 123’s can take advantage of their brain’s sponge-like quality absorbing information, parents’ will to have their children excel academically early runs counter-intuitive to what toddlers’ natural development milestone, which is to learn how to play and get along with others.