Healthy social-emotional development includes the ability to:

• Form and sustain positive relationships

• Experience, manage, and express emotions

• Explore and engage with the environment

 

Children with well-developed social-emotional skills are also more able to:

• Express their ideas and feelings

• Display empathy towards others

• Manage their feelings of frustration and disappointment more easily

• Feel self-confident

• More easily make and develop friendships

• Succeed in school

 

Social-emotional development provides the foundation for how we feel about ourselves and how we experience others. This foundation begins the day we are born and continues to develop throughout our lifespan. The greatest influence on a child’s social-emotional development is the quality of the relationships that he develops with his primary caregivers. Positive and nurturing early experiences and relationships have a significant impact on a child’s social-emotional development.

- From http://www.abilitypath.org/areas-of-development/social--emotional/what-is-social-emotional.html#sthash.5E0DxOcA.dpuf