In my decades of experience working with children and in the early childhood education field, one thing is clear – children love stories. Not only listening to them, reading them, and exploring the pictures on the pages, but the opportunity to share their own stories (and feelings) with anyone who will listen.
When it comes to helping children build their emotional intelligence, empathy, and problem-solving skills, storytelling and scenario-based teaching open the door for sharing stories and personal experiences, and learning from others.
Since the pandemic, we have seen delays across the board when it comes to children’s social skills and emotional regulation skills. “Learning loss” has become a buzzword, turning the pressure up for children, their teachers, and their caregivers to focus on academics as early as preschool.
In early education settings, we’re seeing children struggle with sharing, waiting their turn, navigating social conflicts, managing their big emotions, and extreme dysregulated behaviors. Teachers may be used to putting out little “fires” related to these outcomes with classroom and behavior management strategies, but the fires are no longer little, and their usual strategies aren’t working like they used to. Educators are overwhelmed, burnt out, and just trying to get through the day while supporting children the best they can.
This is our current reality, but we are already starting to shift in a different direction. Social and emotional skills used to be thought of as "soft skills," but now there is more and more evidence that emotional intelligence is necessary for children's coping and resiliency skills, mental health, and learning. In order to help children develop these skills, we need to tap into developmentally appropriate strategies to make learning more engaging and meaningful.
Children learn best when they are interested, engaged, and can connect with subject matter that is meaningful to them. One effective tool that we have developed that does exactly this is ECSELent Adventures, which uses storytelling and visual scenarios to help children navigate their big feelings and challenging social situations that they can easily relate to. The ECSELent Adventures curriculum and materials explore themes of dealing with big feelings, friendship, community building, problem-solving, inclusivity, and so much more, allowing children to learn through characters who are navigating situations that arise in their own lives. As a result, children are given the opportunity to share their personal experiences and learn constructive ways to manage their feelings and behaviors, communicate, solve problems, act with empathy, and cope with adversity.
Early childhood educators have experienced challenging classroom situations, especially recently. When I think back on the ways the teachers in the school I operated used storytelling and scenario-based teaching in our preschool classrooms, one particular memory comes to mind:
One teacher noticed early in the school year that a few children were having difficulty with hearing the word "no," especially when taking turns. They didn't want to wait, and even suggesting another option often resulted in a disappointed meltdown or angry eruptions, with yelling and hitting.
After a few turn-taking related meltdowns, that teacher and her co-teacher chose a story about sharing and taking turns to read to the whole class. During the storytelling, the teachers couldn't help but notice that the children were not engaged. Some were lying down on the rug, one child was kicking his neighbor, and another flat-out sighed and said, "I'm bored." The co-teacher who read the story was visibly frustrated as she sped up her pace to finish the book as soon as possible. Afterwards, she tried to ask the class questions about what happened in the story, but it just wasn't going to happen.
The next day, the teachers set out on a mission to intentionally incorporate feelings of anger and disappointment into a teaching opportunity that children could engage with and learn from. Here are some tips and strategies the teachers kept in mind that can help turn challenging classroom moments into meaningful learning opportunities.
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(Picture from the book "The Ottersons' Eruption")
2. Use visual tools for support. Adding a visual aid helps bring the challenge you’re exploring to life while also making learning easier and more tangible. An ECSELent Adventures Scenario Card that focuses on social challenges, turn-taking, and anger helps teachers by providing the open-ended questions on the back to guide the conversation. You can also use puppets, dramatic play props, and role-playing to encourage children’s own storytelling. Try asking them to tell the story of what they think is happening! Lastly, taking pictures of social situations in your classroom (both positive and challenging) can be an incredibly powerful tool. It allows children to reflect on their own actions and those of others while they are calm and can access their critical thinking and problem-solving skills to find more appropriate strategies.
(Picture from the ECSELent Adventures Scenario Cards)
3. Tap into the emotions of the scene. Your own facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice play a very important role in children’s learning, both while teaching and through your actions and reactions. Try your best to emulate the emotions being experienced throughout a story or picture. When reading the story and using the Scenario Card, try crossing your arms, stomping your feet, and balling your fists just like the characters. Ask the class if it would be okay for you to yell and hit whenever you got angry, heard the word “no,” or had to wait my turn. Talk about why it wasn’t okay and ask for their ideas on what I could do instead. You may be surprised how well children respond, share their ideas, and want to learn more!
4. Make observations and ask questions! Open-ended questions are a great way to engage children and there’s always a way to make it relatable to them. Asking guided questions supports their development of empathy, perspective-taking, and problem-solving skills, while also allowing them to hear different solutions from their peers as they share their own perspectives, experiences, and ideas. For example:
Ask questions throughout the entire story or scenario you’re exploring. Waiting until the end creates so many missed learning opportunities.
(Picture from the ECSELent Adventures Scenario Cards)
5. Validate children’s responses. Participation comes in many forms, and a great way to encourage continued participation is by validating children’s contributions. Validating a child’s responses can look like:
Related: Nurturing Emotional Intelligence with Literacy
It is important to keep in mind that children’s behaviors, especially the challenging ones, do not exist in a vacuum. They are connected to emotions and needs, and while children are learning about their feelings, actions, and related consequences, they need our support in meeting them where they are and showing them appropriate options and solutions. Utilizing these strategies with a real life scenario-based approach allows children to feel seen and heard during their most difficult moments, and be an active and engaged participant in learning important prosocial skills.
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