Craig Bailey, PhD, Assistant Professor at the Child Study Center and Director of Early Childhood Initiatives at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, delivered the keynote address to early childhood leaders and practitioners at the 2024 Partner Powered Conference for Social and Emotional Learning, held on April 25, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina. This conference emphasizes the importance of early childhood education and evidence-based practices for fostering social and emotional development, Bailey highlighted the need for adults to understand and communicate their own emotions to better support children.
Hosted by Smart Start of Mecklenburg County, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the well-being of young children and their families, the conference drew attention to critical issues in early childhood education and evidence-based practices to foster children’s social and emotional development.
In his keynote, Bailey remarked, “The greatest gift you can give children is the gift of helping them understand their feelings. But giving this gift requires you to first give to yourselves.” Dr. Bailey further described how we expect children to use their words or calm down without ever providing them with emotion vocabulary or a clear understanding of what words like calm mean. The reason why, he argues, is that adults rarely use emotion vocabulary or do not clearly explain what they mean to children. Bailey explained, “If you want children to talk about and understand their feelings, then you must first understand and talk about your feelings.”
Bailey also served as the moderator for a culminating and dynamic community conversation with early childhood experts to discuss the state of social and emotional learning in early childhood education. His expertise in child development and passion left a lasting impact, inspiring attendees to consider their skills as they continue their vital work in nurturing young children's social and emotional development.