How Parents can Build Social-Emotional Skills in their Child Amid Covid

It was such a pleasure to moderate South China Morning Post SCMP‘s panel on ‘How parents can build social-emotional skills in their child amid Covid’, as part of their 2021 International Kindergartens Festival. Panelists Ben Keeling of Shrewsbury International School Hong Kong and Carmen Ip of Jadis Blurton Family Development Center offered fantastic insights to parents of young children including:

1) How social-emotional development in early childhood goes a long way in ensuring a child’s mental health in his teen and adult years; it also starts with a secure parent-child relationship
2) When it comes to emotions, you need to “name it to tame it.” It is critical for parents to help children develop their emotional vocabulary through the practice of Active Listening.
3) Play is a learning opportunity for small children. They will benefit from parents who play with them and who are mindful how play time and play dates are organized.

Finally, parents may take comfort in what Dr. Shonkoff, pediatrician and early childhood development expert at Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, said about children’s development during the pandemic: “Even though this is unusual, most kids will come out of this fine because we are biologically wired to adapt.”