Emotions and Behaviour: learning area

Understand your child's emotions and behaviour and help their development with these resources and activities from CBeebies

When you see an activity labelled with the ‘Emotions and Behaviour’ icon on CBeebies, it means that it can help your child develop a positive image of themselves and the people around them.

For young children this is about learning to manage their own emotions and understand how other people might be feeling, knowing what kind of behaviour is acceptable in different situations, and forming positive relationships with others – things like learning to take turns and play cooperatively.

Parents can play a really important role in helping children develop these essential life-skills – for example, if you make a point of noticing when your child has been kind and considerate to someone, it can reinforce such positive behaviour and build their self-esteem.

Tell your child how proud you are of them, and talk about why what they did was good.

It’s important for young children to build a positive sense of themselves, to know who they are and what they like, and to be able to express the things that make them unique.

Teaching children to ‘play nicely’ with others can feel like a constant battle – you want them to be kind to others, of course, but you also hope they’ll develop the confidence to stand up for themselves if needed.

Turn-taking activities like board games are a great way to start reinforcing essential skills like waiting for others and being considerate.

At CBeebies, our learning areas reflect those found in the Early Years curricula of the UK; the EYFS in England and Wales, the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland, and the Foundation Stage in Northern Ireland.

These are the guidelines that all educational settings (like nurseries, schools and child-minders) follow to help children develop knowledge, skills and understanding using a fun, play-based approach.

We reflect these learning areas so that you can be sure that what your child learns from CBeebies perfectly complements what they are taught when they get to nursery and school.

CBeebies’ learning area ‘Emotions and Behaviour’ links to ‘Personal, Social and Emotional Development’ in England and Wales, ‘Health and Wellbeing’ in Scotland, and ‘Personal Development and Mutual Understanding’ in Northern Ireland.