Running head: TRADE PUBLICATION PAPER 1

Trade Publication Paper

Aliyah S. Eason

Coastal Carolina University

Author Note

Aliyah S. Eason, Early Childhood Education Majoring Student, Coastal Carolina

University.

Questions concerning this essay should be addressed to Aliyah S. Eason

Contact: aseason@coastal.edu
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Trade Publication Paper

The topic that I will be discussing in this paper is Behavioral and Social Development in

Early Childhood students. Although school is about academic progression, students also learn

life and social skills as part of their curriculum. Students in grades pre-kindergarten through first

grade are working more on behavioral and social development more so than any other grade

levels and I believe that it is very important to understand how the children think and feel so that

as educators, we may relate to them first, and then effectively teach.

Since I feel that the early grade level students need a lot of focus on their social aspects, I

feel that learning what they go through before they even begin school is crucial. My first trade

article, “The Wonder and Complexity of Infant and Toddler Peer Relationships” by Donna

Wittmer explores infant and toddler relationships with not only their peers, but also the adults

around them. Every toddler may not go through an expensive, productive, and successful

daycare. Every toddler may not go through Head Start or even Early Head Start. The important

thing to note is that whether these soon-to-be students are getting the ideal beginning they need

or not, most of them are still behaving and thinking the same naturally.

Wittmer explains that these young children begin exhibiting prosocial and emotional

behavior as soon as human interaction begins. We can see this in not only toddlers, but even

infants as young as newborns. They are becoming very observant and curious about their

surroundings and will soon be wanting to touch things and put things in their mouths whenever

they see fit. The article goes into depth on how infants turning into toddlers means that they are

beginning to interact with their environments more. Wittmer also asserts that although it is

crucial and inevitable that peer relationships form, adult and child relationships should be

forming as well. To Wittmer, this means that the adults caring for or teaching these children
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should also be supporting prosocial behavior through interaction and play. Essentially, what I

took away from this article are that the social development of young children begins immediately

and that as educators, we need to acknowledge, support, and progress these behaviors.

Transitioning from the early stages before early childhood education begins, we get into

Kathleen Cranley Gallagher’s “Guiding Children’s Friendship Development.” This article

highlights the significance of friendship development in students ages 5 through 8 and how

teachers can promote them. Being that the initial grade levels of Pre-K through third are when

children will have most of their social interactions, it is vital that teachers seize the opportunity

to support healthy behavioral patterns such as communication, synergy, and control of emotions.

Gallagher first gives background of early childhood students by explaining that many of them

can comprehend emotions and themselves in relation to others. This is where students begin to

acknowledge other’s emotions and needs. These are core skills that young students must pick up

on in order to have healthy social-emotional behavior.

Gallagher then proceeds in her article on the explanation of her “pyramid model for

supporting friendship development.” The first level of four is about relationships and how

teachers should model warm and open behavior as well as include activities in the environment

that promote relationships with others, such as small group discussion. The second level speaks

of a high-quality environment which includes the materials students may use and even the

furniture and set up of the classroom. The third level of this pyramid discusses targeted social-

emotional supports. This means that teachers begin to guide their students in how to comprehend

and express certain emotions throughout different scenarios. The last and top level of the

pyramid is intensive interventions and it acknowledges that some students may not acquire the
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skills that were being aimed for in the previous levels. These could be students with disabilities

or other issues and they will require further help and support.

The third article I read when thinking about behavioral and social development is “I

Won’t Be Your Friend If You Don’t,” written by Tina Smith-Bonahue, Sondra Smith-Adcock

and Jennifer Harman Ehrentraut. While my previously read articles and many surrounding social

and behavioral development all focus on how to encourage positive and healthy skills, this article

highlights the fact that there are indeed unhealthy and negative practices that students exhibit as

well. The three authors explore how to prevent these practices and how to turn them into learning

lessons for students.

The article states that these wrongful behaviors are often learned through media and then

imitated by children. The alarming problem in this piece is that children as young as prek are

exhibiting these negative signs which are in the education world known as bullying. As we all

know, bullying and its traumatic results have gained a lot of attention in the past few years and is

still being addressed. The fact that we now as educators have to worry about it at younger ages is

scary. And so, the journal talks about how these interactions in the early grade levels are known

as relational aggressions where students purposefully intend to hurt others with their words and

the fear of non-inclusion. The article also discusses how language and skills and relational

aggressions are linked; basically, communication skills are going to need some looking at

whether students have poor language skills or great ones. The ultimate solution to these

relational aggressions is to support positive interactions and healthy emotional skills.

In my final article, “Using Picture Books to Promote Social-Emotional Literacy” by

Laurie J. Harper, Harper talks about the importance of young children developing emotional

literacy and how their social interactions affect these emotions. Emotional literacy is simply the
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regulation by students of their emotions and Harper explains that this is a very crucial skill that

young students should obtain prior to beginning school. Going into the picture book aspect,

harper asserts that picture books can promote healthy social-emotional skills in students when

they contain realistic situations, characters, and solutions. These kinds of books help students

acknowledge emotions and how to properly deal with them whether they be good or bad.

In addition to supplying younger students with picture books, harper stresses that

educators must go a step further and apply critical thinking lessons. Many of us have seen how

after a read-aloud lesson, a teacher may ask her students to go back to their desks to draw a

picture or write about a time where something similar in the book has happened to them. These

types of reflections and correlations that children draw are even further allowing students to

explore and practice healthy social-emotional skills.

After reading all of these articles, I have come to learn a lot of new information I was not

expecting. I was expecting to see a lot of studies, research, and ideas about early childhood

behavioral and social development but instead, I learned ways to promote healthy practices of

the two. I found this way more beneficial because this way, I can go out into the teaching field

and apply what I have found rather than just taking other teachers’ words for it. I can then decide

for myself as an educator what works best for my students and what other ways I can prepare

them for the next grade levels beyond their academic status.
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References

Cranley Gallagher, K. (2013). Guiding children's friendship development. YC: Young

Children, 68(5), 26-32.

Harper, L. J. (2016). Using picture books to promote social-emotional literacy. YC: Young

Children, 71(3), 80-86.

Smith-Bonahue, T., Smith-Adcock, S., & Harman Ehrentraut, J. (2015). I won't be your friend if

you don't!. YC: Young Children, 70(1), 76-83.

Wittmer, D. (2012). The wonder and complexity of infant and toddler peer relationships. YC:

Young Children, 67(4), 16-25.

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Use of Publication
Not Acceptable Acceptable Target
0 points 3 points 5 points 8 points
Did not use trade Used two trade Used three different trade Used four different trade
journals and/or all publications for topic publications or issues for a publications or issues for
are outdated and/or not 2012 - topic and/or not 2012 – topic (2012 – present)
present present

Reference Page

0 points 3 points 5 points 8 points

Reference page Reference page is Reference page is included Reference page is
missing and/or not included, but missing & missing one aspect of included & formatted in
in APA format some aspects of APA APA format APA correctly
format
Summarizing
0 points 3 points 5 points 8 points
Summarized one Only summarized two Only summarized three Summarized four articles;
article; did not articles; did not articles and/ or summarized all key points
address key points summarize key points summarized some key
points

Quality/Organization
0 points 2 points 4 points 6 points
Paper is missing three Paper is missing two Paper is missing one Structure: Paper is
aspects in terms of the aspects in terms of the aspect in terms of the double spaced, 12” font,
structure of the paper; structure of the paper structure of the paper one-inch margins; 4 or
there are many and/or there are many and/or there are some more pgs. in length;
spelling or grammatical spelling or grammatical spelling or grammatical cover page; no
errors; not APA format errors; not APA format errors; and/or not APA grammatical or spelling
format errors; APA format
Overview
0 point 1 point 3 points 5 points
Very general, non- Very general, non- A bit descriptive, but Reflective description of
descriptive reason for descriptive reason for does relate to self; the relevance of the topic
choosing topic; does choosing topic &/or missing an aspect of with past experiences,
not relate to self; not does not relate to self the reflection; current interests and/or
reflective; no &/or not reflective &/or completed rubric future endeavors;
completed rubric no completed rubric attached; implications implications of
attached attached; no summaries; completed
implications rubric attached
Turnitin
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0 point 1 point 3 points 5 points

Did not submit through Submitted through Submitted through Submitted through
TURNITIN TURNITIN after 48 TURNITIN within 48 TURNITIN by due date
hours of due date hours of due date

Total 40/40 points