**photo courtesy of West Central Head Start
Social-emotional skills are learned at a young age, especially while interacting with other children. West Central Head Start Family Services Manager Lisa Medina Foshay states those skills have lacked since going through the pandemic:
“That has always kind of been an issue for children this age because it is the first time many of them have been in a structured setting, but also having to learn give and take with their peers. You are not born knowing social skills, you have to learn those. The pandemic really put a damper on that for a lot of kids because they were isolated for more than a year. If you are only three years old and you have been isolated for more than a year, that really does affect how you are able to communicate, the give and take, and the sharing. We have a mental health consultant that we are required to have by Head Start and she is absolutely fantastic. Those kids that we know are having a little bit of difficulty and struggling in those areas, with the parents permission, we will call in the mental health consultant and she will help us look at the situation. We will then all get together and come up with a plan to try to help that child with their social-emotional skills.”
The five social-emotional skills include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.
