Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED) refers to how children develop social and emotional skills. This includes:
- Building relationships with others
- Understanding and managing their emotions
- Developing a sense of self and self-confidence
- Learning basic self-care skills
PSED is closely related to Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and to self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances.-and-executive-function?x‑craft-live-preview=06199e572978594ac59a18f58491f3e2a6c22289f9eff8edf32b1352e30ea75fueglttxzna”>Self-RegulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances. and Executive FunctionCognitive skills that enable children to adapt their thinking and actions to achieve a goal. This might be a self-chosen goal (e.g. To build a tower) or set by an adult (e.g. to respond to a question about a story). (SREF). These areas overlap in both research and the EEF’s work, reflecting the complex ways children’s social, emotional, and cognitive skills develop.
PSED skills are fundamental for children’s learning. Research shows that children from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to have additional PSED needs.
Supporting these skills has become even more important following the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department for Education’s Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework identifies PSED as one of three prime development areas, which are considered essential for building a strong foundation for children’s learning across all areas.
The EEF ran a funding round on the theme of PSED in the early years in Autumn 2022.
There is limited evidence on effective PSED approaches, and practices vary widely across settings.
Insights from the Early Years Evidence Store indicate that:
- Evidence consistently shows that educators can implement approaches that benefit young children’s PSED and have a positive impact on SEL, self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances., and learning.
- There is a growing body of evidence to support individual approaches within PSED, such as teaching and modelling managing emotions.
- The evidence is strongest for when multiple PSED approaches are applied together.
The approaches that educators can use to develop the PSED of children are:
- Teaching awareness of emotions and feelings
- Teaching and modelling managing emotions and feelings
- Teaching and modelling social communication
- Teaching relationship skills
- Teaching how to sustain positive relationships
- Promoting self-care
- Developing self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances. and executive functionCognitive skills that enable children to adapt their thinking and actions to achieve a goal. This might be a self-chosen goal (e.g. To build a tower) or set by an adult (e.g. to respond to a question about a story).
In addition, the Early Years Toolkit strand on social and emotional learning (SEL) strategies highlights that:
- SEL strategies have a positive impact of, on average, 3 months’ additional progress on academic outcomes. However, this finding has a low security rating.
- The evidence base for targeted (rather than universal) approaches to SEL is sparse, making it difficult to establish which component leads to improved outcomes. Evidence from older age groups suggests that the combination of both universal and targeted approaches may have a positive impact on outcomes.
| Evidence Store | The Early Years Evidence Store includes a dedicated PSED strand. |
| Engagement with the sector | The SREF theme has been a focus of internal and external stakeholder engagement, including input from Stronger Practice Hubs, academics, and early years practitioners. Given the close relationship between SREF and PSED, these sector insights are taken into consideration for the PSED theme. |
| Early Years Programmes Mapping | A map of professional development programmes used by early years settings in England highlighted a gap in the availability and accessibility of PSED programmes. |
In Autumn 2022, the EEF commissioned a funding round on PSED in the early years. The priority areas were:
- Content that promotes PSED including self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances.
- Processes that support staff to implement PSED approaches including self-regulationHow children monitor their emotions and thoughts, and adapt their behaviour in different circumstances.
One efficacy trial and eight early-stage programme development (ESPD) projects were commissioned. Three more ESPD projects were commissioned in 2023.
Completed trials and pilot studies
| Priority area | Highest-level EEF project | Project | Delivery team | Year groups | Level of intervention | Description | Headline results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Content that promotes PSED including self-regulation Processes that support staff to implement PSED approaches including self-regulation | Efficacy | Emotion Coaching | Emotion Coaching UK with Norland College | Early years (3 – 4‑year-olds) | Whole setting | An approach that fosters teachers’ and early years staff’s warm and responsive relationships with children through self-regulation and co-regulation of both children and adults. Emotion Coaching supports children to understand the different emotions they experience, why they occur, and how to handle them. | The evaluation report will be published in Autumn 2026. An addendum report including longitudinal follow-up results will be published in Autumn 2028. |