Establishing Positive Verbal Environments: Strategies for Promoting Social Development through Positive Guidance

The quality of the verbal environment sets the stage for young children's developing perceptions of themselves and others. This document provides hands-on, practical advice for practitioners to support children's self-perception and coping skills by establishing and maintaining a positive verbal environment. Positive verbal environments enhance young children's positive sense of self, and provide safe, supporting contexts to develop and practice social skills. These developmentally appropriate strategies are consistent with models of child guidance, and support safe, enriching environments that promote the development of young children's positive social skills. Appropriate as introduction for those new to the field and as a refresher for experienced veterans, this document presents twenty "tips" for establishing and maintaining positive verbal environments in early childhood settings. These strategies "set the stage" for learning about positive social interactions, and form the basic building blocks of positive guidance techniques.