Emotion Coaching’s impact on young children with SEND
A head of a specialist SEND nursery in the West Midlands reports upon the impact of adults using Emotion Coaching with their children. Staff have observed that when they verbalise what is going on emotionally for the children and explain why; the children calm, resistance to adult direction is reduced and cognitive flexibility seems to increase.
This is particularly so for children with ASD diagnoses, where sometimes language understanding is better than their verbal expression.
These everyday observations appear to support the combination of ideas from neuroscience research and Vygotsky’s idea of language as a ‘tool of the mind’. The use of language relating to emotions makes the emotional experience more explicit for children and appears to help children regulate their thinking and actions. Brain, body and emotions are connected.
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