Skip to Main Content

CIST Student Sandbox

IST 605: Early Childhood Emotional Development Resources

This guide is for parents/caregivers looking for resources about the emotional development and skills of children ages 0-8.

Welcome!

This guide provides resources for parents and caregivers on the topic of emotional development and skills in early childhood. Emotional skill development can help your child to build positive relationships, promote positive mental health and well-being and can impact future academic success.

In the Resources for Parents and Caregivers section, you will find links to books, databases, journal articles, web articles and websites for parents and caregivers that provide guidance on childhood emotional development and skill building. In addition, in the Resources for Children Section, you will find books, videos, and games for your child to help with emotional skills and development. 

As a librarian-in-training, my hope is that this guide will provide easy to access resources on emotional development and skills in early childhood.

If you are looking for more research tips, you will also find helpful tips on how to search on your own on this topic in Keyword Guidance and Best Search Practices below.

 

Keyword Guidance and Best Search Practices

Consider Your Keywords When Searching

When searching for information materials, your keywords are an important part of a successful search.

When using search terms, you can put the words in parenthesis into the search box to make the search more concise.

For example, in the search box you would put "emotional development in children" for the first term suggestion below.

Here are search term suggestions for you to use:

  1. emotional development in children
  2. childhood emotional development
  3. childhood emotions
  4. emotions in children
  5. understanding childhood emotions
  6. childhood emotion regulation
  7. emotional regulation in children
  8. childhood feelings
  9. children’s feelings
  10. Specific emotion words: Happy, Sad, Angry, Worried, Scared

You can also search with keywords using the Boolean Operators - AND, OR and NOT.

Boolean Operators help to narrow or broaden your search results. 

  • AND -  requires all terms to be present
  • OR - includes results with either term
  • NOT - excludes results containing a specific term

See the infographic below for a visual layout of how Boolean Operators work.

A generic diagram of Boolean Operators created by a librarian

An example using Boolean Operators:

"children's feelings" AND happy - both children's feelings and happy will be searched, they must be present together (narrows search)

"children's feelings" OR "emotions in children" - both keywords will be searched (broadens search)

"children's feelings" NOT sad - children's feelings excluding sad will be searched (narrows search)

 

Disclaimer

The information provided in this LibGuide is for general informational purposes and should not be taken as professional advice. Please contact your child's pediatrician if you have concerns regarding your child's emotional development, needs and well-being.