Roos - message for ECEs

The most important messages for early childhood educators are to really, I think, focus in on every child’s needs and really focus in on those elements of social connection. Be catching kids do the right thing, be noticing sharing skills, notice turn taking, notice warmth, even things like emotion naming, and sort of focus on some of those core emotional development skills, which might be a little bit different because of the pandemic.  I think really sort of prioritizing opportunities for social connection, friendship building skills, turn taking skills, perspective taking, theory of mind, all those really interesting things that are now a core of preschool and kindergarten development, but really highlighting probably the importance of those for kids in schools. And I think to some extent having slightly lower expectations or to not be alarmed if more kids are coming to school with those delays, to understand them as sort of a logical part of their developmental history and something that they should definitely be catching up on in the context of warm, supportive learning environments.