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Kentucky Early Childhood Standards

Every Child Can Have a Strong Start in the Commonwealth when Families, Communities and Schools work Together

Social Emotional Development

Social Emotional Development ​Standard 1:​

Demonstrates trust and engages in social relationships.

​Responds to being held.

  • Elisa is crying in her crib but calms down when her caregiver picks her up.
  • While being held, Mona relaxes her body and cuddles into her early interventionist's arms.
  • Abe holds up his arms to an adult when he wants to be picked up.

Uses eye contact to establish, maintain, and discontinue interactions. 

  • After being gently lifted, Denise looks at her caregiver, then relaxes and cuddles in her arms.
  • Mona, an infant with a visual impairment, uses her hands to feel the face of her caregiver, who is holding her and cooing to her softly, then coos back when her caregiver stops.
  • Luis looks at his caregiver as she talks to him and tells him what to expect while changing his diaper. After a minute or so, he turns his head to look away.

Recognizes familiar people.

  • Wade moves his arms and legs excitedly when he hears his father's voice at afternoon pick-up.
  • Kara smiles when she sees her parents enter the classroom.

Attends to the facial expressions of adults.

  • Quinn responds by smiling when his teacher smiles at him.
  • Jada laughs when her caregiver makes a funny face at her.
  • Lorenzo begins to whimper when he sees his caregiver frowning.

Exhibits separation anxiety.  

  • Kai cries and reaches for mom as she leaves him to go to work.
  • Carson clings to his caregiver when an unfamiliar adult reaches out and attempts to take him from his caregiver's arms.
  • When Katie sees an unfamiliar adult enter the classroom, she begins to cry.

Uses familiar adults as a base for exploration and for “emotional refueling".

  • Ebony is playing with toys on the floor, but crawls over to be near her caregiver when an unfamiliar adult enters the room.
  • As Evan is playing, he keeps looking back to make sure his caregiver is still sitting behind him.
  • Kristen is often friendly with unfamiliar adults, but she wants a familiar adult close by.
  • Edith seeks out her primary caregiver when hurt.
  • When Bart is tired, he climbs up into his caregiver's lap and sucks his thumb.


Observes adults.

  • Tony watches his teacher as she signs “eat" and sets his bowl on his tray. 
  • Christina sits on her teacher's lap and watches her early interventionist unpack toys from her bag.
  • Joseph looks up from his blocks to watch his teacher as she sets snacks on the table.

Initiates social interactions with adults.

  • Lily frowns at her grandma as she comes into the classroom.
  • Ellery waves his arms and hands and jabbers to his Daddy when he sees him coming to pick him up from childcare.
  • Gabriella walks up to her teacher when she arrives in class and signs, “Hello."
  • Micah takes a book to his caregiver and climbs into her lap for a story.

Interacts positively with adults.

  • Ping plays peek-a-boo with his caregiver.
  • Pansy shakes a rattle and laughs as her early interventionist holds her on her lap and smiles at her.
  • Michael makes the sign for “help" to his teacher as they work together to take toys off a high shelf.

Responds to praise from adults.

  • Mary keeps dancing after her teacher applauds.
  • DaShon laughs while her teacher smiles and claps at her antics.
  • Karen picks up her toys and brings them one at a time to her teacher who thanks her for cleaning up.

Responds to guidance or directions from primary caregivers.

  • Ryder hands his cup to his teacher when she asks him for it.
  • When her interventionist shows Emily two books and asks her to pick one, Emily points to the one she wants her interventionist to read.
  • Jose places his doll in his cubby after his teacher asks him to do so.

Demonstrates knowledge of the roles familiar adults play.

  • When reading a book about community helpers, Joan points to the police person when her caregiver asks her, “Where is the police person?"
  • Raul pretends to be a doctor and places a play stethoscope on his teacher's stomach, who says, “You are taking good care of me."
  • Tilda stands at the cash register in the dramatic play and hands her teacher play money, pretending to be a cashier.


Observes other children.

  • Kaitlyn sits on her teacher's lap and watches the group of toddlers at play.
  • Tabitha looks up from her block building to watch another child pushing a truck.
  • Hadley watches other children playing with a ball and picks up a ball of her own to throw.

Initiates social interactions with peers.

  • Bina reaches out and touches another child nearby.
  • Kuruk offers his stuffed animal to Jasmine.
  • Heidi calls out “Hello" when Zari enters the room.
  • Aiyana asks Adam if he wants to play with her.

Shows concern for others and recognizes other's needs.

  • Ansel starts crying when he hears Amy's distress cry.
  • Kaiser stops building blocks to watch another child crying.
  • Michelle pats another child who has fallen down and is crying.
  • Hamilton covers a baby doll with a blanket and rocks it in his arms.

Interacts positively with other children.

  • Sophia smiles and pats her hands on her legs when Claire is placed on the floor beside her.
  • William and Brandon play with spinning tops. Brandon looks at William spinning a top then spins his again.
  • Jeremiah runs toward a group of older children and laughs as they throw a ball.

Engages in independent, parallel play.

  • Ellie sits playing with a doll while other children are nearby playing with blocks.
  • Carlos watches others playing with blocks and then begins building a tower beside them.
  • Ellema joins another child in the sand box.  
  • While playing beside another child in the block area, Kitt hands a toy to another child when prompted by her teacher.

Shows preference for playing with the same one or two peers.

  • Son Yi hugs Tori as soon as she enters their classroom each day.
  • Sevon frequently asks Carly to play with him.
  • When asked by his teacher if Adam is his friend, Devin nods and makes the sign for “Yes."
  • Dontrell and Seth play “firemen" together in the dramatic play area, then move to the block center to build.

Notices similarities and differences among peers.

  • Sam goes over to a boy wearing glasses, tries to touch his glasses, and says, “Glasses! Glasses!"
  • Karnita looks at Johnathan and pats his head, saying, “brown hair."
  • Tonia plays with Stephanie in the block center and says, “No boys" when Maurice tries to join.


Social Emotional Development Standard 2:

Demonstrates sense of self.​

Develops a sense of self as a separate person from others.

  • Dale recognizes and jabbers to himself while looking in the mirror.  
  • Wade refers to himself by name. 
  • Nancy points to her own nose and then the nose on a baby doll.
  • Dotty can point to and name her own body parts.

Expresses desire to do things for self.

  • LeeAnn notices a toy she wants sitting on the floor near her teacher. Rather than wait for the teacher to hand it to her, she crawls quickly across the floor to reach it.
  • Luke says, “No. I can do it."
  • Kim wants to walk up the steps by herself and lets go of her teacher's hand.

Recognizes own accomplishments.

  • Lamar drops his toy repeatedly and giggles as his caregiver picks it up.
  • Jose pushes the button on the pop-up toy he is playing with several times, trying to make the animal pop out. He laughs and smiles at his teacher when he succeeds.
  • Nan completes a puzzle and takes it to show her caregiver.
  • Bryce puts on his own shoes after his nap and then smiles and makes the sign for “finished" when his teacher comes to help.
  • DaShon pours the milk from the small pitcher into her cup and proudly smiles at her teacher

Uses facial expressions, body movements and/or vocalizations to express needs and emotions.

  • Emiya frowns in response to loud noise in the room and begins to cry.  
  • When Selena sees her daddy enter the classroom, she squeals and waves her arms to get his attention.
  • Terry cries when his diaper needs to be changed.
  • Macey chatters excitedly to her teacher about going outside as she reaches for her hand to walk to the playground.

Responds to emotional cues and social situations.

  • Benson fusses whenever he hears other babies crying. 
  • Kendall smiles and laughs when his caregiver is laughing and talking to him.
  • Ida gently pats a friend who is crying.
  • Yale lowers his voice after his teacher points to a child sleeping on a mat nearby and puts her finger in front of her lips to indicate “shh" and remind him that he needs to be quiet.

Expresses emotions towards familiar persons, pets, or possessions.  

  • Martin kisses dolls and stuffed animals.
  • Ichabod falls on the floor and cries when his mom leaves him at childcare.
  • Cain laughs when his friend puts his shoe on his head.
  • Blaire gently strokes the classroom's pet rabbit and laughs when it chatters its teeth to show it's happy.

Associates emotions with words and facial expressions. 

  • Harriet hugs and pats her teacher when he looks upset.
  • Idania looks at the toy monkey's smiling face and says it is “happy." 
  • Casey says “She's sad" when she sees another child crying.  
  • Sonny clinches up his face and balls his fists up when the teacher asks him to show the class how he might look if he is “angry".

Seeks out ways to comfort and calm self.

  • Lana cries when she wants to be picked up and held.
  • Jason sucks his thumb when he is getting ready for a nap.
  • Jacques goes to get his favorite blanket when he is anxious.
  • Savannah asks her teacher to hold her when she is not feeling well.

Follows simple rules and limitations.

  • Cara stops momentarily when her teacher says, “No running inside."
  • Lane starts to put toys away when asked to do so by his teacher but has to be reminded to finish.
  • Leesa forgets the classroom rule about washing her hands before snack, but she listens to her teacher's directions, goes back to wash her hands, and then returns to the snack table.
  • Laura follows the classroom rule to wait at the door until everyone is ready to go out on the playground.
  • TaShawn helps to clean up the sand he threw out of the sand table.

Develops self-regulation.​

  • As Carver gets hungry, he begins to cry. He continues whimpering, but quickly quiets as his caregiver feeds him and holds him close.
  • Caleb begins to reach for a book another child is looking at, pauses for a moment, then grabs it away from the child.
  • Natasha starts to take a toy from another child, then stops when she sees the teacher watching.
  • Lynn plays quietly at the table while her teacher is fixing her food.
  • When Jimmy tries to take her toy away, Lisa raises her hand to hit him, then stops and says “Mine!"
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