Melissa Dimas

Reflective Competency Statement III

To support social and emotional development and to provide positive guidance.

Functional Area 1 – Self:

Positive Social and emotional development is important because it influences a child’s self-confidence,
empathy, and the ability to develop meaningful and lasting friendships and partnerships, and a sense of
importance and value to those around him/her. As a caregiver we play and important role because we
offer the most consistent relationship aside from parents for the child. I support self-emotional
development by being affectionate and nurturing by comforting, talking and singing with the children. I
encourage the children to try and experience new things and see what they are capable to achieve on
their own. I also acknowledge their feeling and make them feel secure and confident

Functional Area 2 – Social:

Social development is important because it can impact many of the other forms of development a child
experience. A child’s ability to interact in a healthy way with people around them can impact everything
from learning new words as a toddler, to being able to resist peer pressure as a teenager, and
successfully navigating challenges that may present in adulthood. I model effective social skills in the
classroom through praise, positive reinforcement. I provide role-play scenarios that build social skills. I
offer and arrange materials so that several children share control over the items and must make
exchanges on order to continue playing.

Functional Area 3 – Guidance

Positive child guidance is crucial for children because the promote self-control, teaches responsibility
and helps them make thoughtful choices. I promote positive guidance by being clear about roles we
might have in class we plan together, and we clarify who will do what and when. I set clear consistent
rules, encourage self-control by providing meaningful choices.

CS III a) I support the development of children’s positive self-concepts and growing social/ emotional
skills by saying encouraging words to them. For example, if we are in outdoor play and I see a kid
struggling to climb the stairs to the slide I will say “You can do it I believe in you”. I also provide age
appropriate task such as being my helper for the day to give them a sense of pride and help build a can-
do mentality.

CS III b)

The philosophy of guiding children’s positive behavior is to help the child learn from a mistake, and not
punishing him/her for it. I believe children need to be given the opportunity to display the correct
behavior by allowing them to make choices when appropriate or giving children acceptable choices to
correct their behavior and allowing them to choose. My guidance as a child was either listen or get time
out, very different from now. I believe that teachers back then had a much firmer hand, sometimes with
its benefits of correcting the behavior or risking of creating a confrontation from the student. But I was
also encouraged by certain teachers with just positive word of encouragement that are not to different
from what we are thought to encourage children now.