Children’s Social-Emotional Development and its Support:

Guest Editorial

Authors

• Merja Koivula University of Jyväskylä, Finland
• Kerttu Huttunen University of Oulu, Finland and PEDEGO Research Unit, University of Oulu, Finland and MRC Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, Finland

Abstract

This special issue of the JECER focuses on children’s social-emotional development and its support. From the associations between linguistic and social-emotional development to the role of early education teachers in supporting children, the issue covers a wide range of subtopics. The importance of children’s social-emotional learning (SEL) has been recognized already for a long time, but despite an extensive body of research, gaps, nonetheless, still exist in our knowledge. There are, for example, still a relatively limited number of intervention studies evaluating different SEL-programmes in early childhood education in different cultural contexts. We also need to know more about how high quality early childhood education, in particular the interaction between teachers and children, and interaction in the peer group contribute to children’s developing social-emotional competencies. The articles in the present issue bring forth interesting insights in and important contributions on children’s development in the social-emotional domain, ranging from toddlers to older children.