Introduction

Emotional development includes the growth of the child's feelings of pleasure and distress through to their awareness of themselves, the development of feelings towards other people, the development of self-image and self-identity. It also covers children's ability to feel and express emotions.

Emotional behaviour can be influenced by experiences and feedback. Experiences are processed by the infant brain and trigger feelings which feedback to the developing child.

By expressing emotion we can communicate how we are feeling. For example a newborn baby can cry to express hunger or discomfort from a soiled nappy. We can also motivate ourselves by alerting us to particular information in the environment and prepare ourselves to respond, such as flight or fight, in response to a loud, unexpected sound.

Social and emotional development are interrelated and the development of one affects the others. In some ways it is not possible to isolate the study of one from the other and from areas of development such as cognitive, spiritual and moral development.