SOCIOEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: THE ROLE OF PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICES IN CHILDREN'S DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Socioemotional development is part of children's integral development and is built through relationships, play and everyday experiences in Early Childhood Education. This article analyzes how pedagogical practices may foster this development, focusing on affectivity, emotional expression, autonomy, empathy, peer interactions and teacher mediation. It is a bibliographic study with a qualitative and descriptive approach, based on books, scientific articles and normative documents concerning Early Childhood Education. The analysis indicates that socioemotional development should not be treated as an isolated content area, but integrated into childhood experiences. Play, children's literature, conversation circles, dramatization, artistic activities, cooperative games and everyday situations of care and conflict may become pedagogical opportunities when intentionally planned. The studies also emphasize the teacher's role as a mediator of relationships and as an organizer of time, spaces and experiences that promote expression, participation and coexistence. It is concluded that intentional pedagogical practices, articulated with interaction and play, may contribute to socioemotional development while respecting children as subjects of rights and considering the integral nature of child development.