Social-Emotional Environments: Teacher Practices in Two Toddler Classrooms

This descriptive qualitative report is taken from a larger U.S. study on the influences of teacher practices on the early development of emotion regulation in toddlers. This report focuses on the classroom practices of two teachers in separate toddler classrooms. During a week of observations in each setting, the authors collected data on how the teachers spoke to the children, how they positioned themselves physically in relation to the children, and how they acted when children showed distress or challenging behaviors. Children’s behaviors were also observed in relation to the teachers’ practices. The authors provide a brief comparative discussion of observations made in the two classrooms. They recommend additional research to address how teachers’ daily practices create the classroom social-emotional environment and how those practices may influence child outcomes, especially the early development of emotion regulation.