Positive Psychology in Early Childhood Education Analysis Essay

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Positive Psychology in Early Childhood Education
Positive psychology deals with the concept of happiness and how individuals can lead a fulfilled and highly satisfying life. The focus of this field in psychology are positive aspects, influences, and experiences in life that bring about different emotions and values such as joy, inspiration, love, resilience, and compassion (Pennock, n.d.). The happiness and mindset of individuals are highly influential in the academic performance and overall wellbeing of children. In this toolkit, different activities that will be beneficial in developing different aspects of positive psychology, specifically for children in the early childhood years are presented.
Week

Theme

Research & Resources

Positive Psychology Learning

Classroom Application for Children

1

Strengths

Bell, J. G., Cummings, K., Simhai, M., & Solodkin, A. (2019). Positive Psychology Interventions in the Classroom for Students with Special Needs: First Book. MASTER OF APPLIED POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY (MAPP) SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECTS.
Pennock, S. F. (n.d.). 3 Positive Psychology Exercises. 3 Meaning & Valued Living Exercises Pack (PDF). https://tools.positivepsychology.com/ebook.

Strengths can be referred to as a child’s pre-existing capacity to perform or showcase a behavior, feeling, or thinking. The identification and awareness of a young child about his/her own strengths will be beneficial in knowing when and where to use them, in order to function in an optimal manner. The awareness will also help in knowing how to improve these strengths more in the future. Aside from awareness of self, recognizing the strengths of others is also a good practice that will apply the concepts of positive psychology when dealing with people.
The objective of these activities is to promote a healthy perspective of self and others, including identifying strong and admirable traits in a person, at an early age.

* Strength-based identity
The children will be asked to write down in a journal, at least 3 things that they see as their strength. These strengths are encouraged to be holistic and diverse that will celebrate both the uniqueness and strength of the children. These strengths can be based depending on the perspective of the writer.
After their journal writing, the children will have to discuss what they wrote within a group. In addition to enumerating their strengths, further elaboration is encouraged about where can these strengths be applicable, and how can these strengths be further improved.
* Appreciation Task
The children will be grouped into at least 3 to 5 students and they will be seated forming a circle. Each kid will be saying 2 strengths of his/her classmates, and the adjective or descriptor used cannot be used on the same individual again by other people in the group.
This will encourage the children to be creative in describing their classmates and will also avoid redundancy so that they will be able to give a more meaningful and less generalized adjective for their peers.

2

Gratitude

Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377-389.
Gratitude Journal (Greater Good in Action). Practices. (n.d.). https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/gratitude_journal.
Positive Psychology. Noba. (n.d.). https://nobaproject.com/modules/positive-psychology.

Gratitude refers to the feeling of thankfulness and appreciation. Developing gratitude as a habit in children will benefit them in a lot of ways, may it be in emotional, physical, psychological, or social aspects. It will have a great effect on the level of contentment and happiness a child can have in the future. This also supports other virtues such as understanding, forgiveness, and empathy. An obvious benefit of gratitude is seen with a child’s mindset that is focused on joyful and loving emotions and experiences. In the long run, the child’s ability to see the positive in a situation will enable him/her to become more resilient in times of challenges or adversities.
The objective of these activities is to form a habit of gratitude and a mindset that is geared towards the appreciation of whatever happened or is at the present moment.

* Letter of gratitude
The children will be instructed to compose a letter of gratitude to a person that they are grateful for, whether in the classroom, in school, or at home, indicating the reason/s why they appreciate this individual. The children will also be asked to decorate their letters with illustrations, drawings, or designs that symbolize their gratefulness and appreciation. For example, a student wants to show his/her appreciation to the lunch lady, he/she may put things like doughnuts or lunchboxes.
After composing a written letter, the children will have to give it to the recipient. In addition to this, a facilitated small group discussion will be done regarding the whole experience of the children. Specifically, the mental and emotional processes that they have undergone from thinking about who to give the letter to up to the point of actually giving it to the person.
* Gratitude journal
The children will be asked to list down 5 things that they are thankful for each day. This gratitude exercise can last for 10-15 minutes per day. After the 5th day of writing on the gratitude journal, the students will have to write a reflection paper of how they felt about the whole activity.
Some of the key points that the reflection may tackle are about the possible changes that occurred after completing or writing in a gratitude journal for a few days, the level of ease in thinking about what to write down, and the consistency of truly taking the time to reflect on the unique things that they are grateful for each day.

3

Mindfulness

Mindfulness in Education: 31+ Ways of Teaching Mindfulness in Schools. PositivePsychology.com. (2021, May 7). https://positivepsychology.com/mindfulness-education/.
Positive Psychology in Schools and Education For Happy Students. PositivePsychology.com. (2021, May 18). https://positivepsychology.com/positive-education-happy-students/.
Mindfulness in Education: 31+ Ways of Teaching Mindfulness in Schools. PositivePsychology.com. (2021, May 7). https://positivepsychology.com/mindfulness-education/.

Mindfulness is a practice in positive psychology that has many benefits in a child. Some of these are the following: managing stress, reducing anxiety, self-regulation, improving critical and strategic thinking, and reducing ADHD symptoms. In the classroom, it also helps with better focus and attention, emotion regulation, behavior, and overall social skills and academic performance. Aside from these, it also has a lot of health benefits that are also applicable as a child turns into an adult, that is why mindfulness exercises are very much recommended to be included in the routine of an individual.
The goal of these activities is to develop a sense of focused relaxation and awareness of what is currently happening to them in the present moment, without jumping to conclusions or judgment.

* Breathing Buddy
The length of this breathing exercise can be adjusted depending on the comfort of the participants and the discretion of the teacher. Ideally, this is done for 5 minutes for beginners and up to 20 minutes for the more experienced individuals. For children at a young age, it is advisable to start with 5 minutes.
The students will be asked to sit on a chair or lay on the floor, with a stuffed animal on their abdomen. The teacher will instruct the children throughout the exercise. The children will be asked to stay silent and notice how their stuffed animal moves as they breathe. This exercise can be done with eyes closed or eyes open, depending on the focus and comfort of the child. The children will also be instructed to imagine the thoughts coming into their minds as bubbles floating away, with their focus more on their breathing buddy.
For students who do not prefer to have stuffed toys in this activity, this can be done without a toy but still focused on breathing.
Some of the important points that should be observed are how the body feels in the position that is in, the sensation of the back touching the ground or the buttocks touching the seat, and the feeling of the air moving in and out of the body through the child’s nose and mouth.
After the breathing exercise, the students will be encouraged to share their reactions about the whole experience, including how they felt during the activity and what changes did they feel during and after the exercise.
* Smell and Tell exercise
The students will be asked to line up by rows and to close their eyes. In this exercise, the children will be given an object, such as a coffee bean, orange peel, or lavender, that they will smell and pass around. The class needs to be silent in order for each child to truly experience the moment. Then they will have to guess and share what they thought and felt during the whole experience.

4

Compassion

Tesh, M. (2013, Se...