Each Child. Every Community.

Everything Happens in the Context of Relationships!

At PBS North Carolina’s 2023 Impact Early Childhood Education Summit, Daphne Alsiyao, NCPC’s Family Support Manager, and Christina Peterson, Child and Family Health Manager, presented on the importance of relationships and how children’s books can support positive relationships with children and adults.

“Young children experience their world as an environment of relationships, and these relationships affect virtually all aspects of their development ”
– National Scientific Council on the Developing Child”

Their session, Everything Happens in the Context of Relationships, highlighted how using children’s literature and storytelling can enhance relationship-building skills for both children and adults. Session participants were also able to receive a list of culturally responsive and developmentally appropriate books that will help build empathy, emotional awareness, and social competency when used in practice.

Relationships are the Building Blocks to Life-long Learning

Relationships are important in creating a nurturing and supportive environment where children can thrive, learn, and develop to their full potential. 

• Positive interactions that work to build relationships include but are not limited to:
• Using a warm, engaging, and comforting voice,
• Following the child’s lead,
• Being responsive to a child,
• Stating a child’s name,
• Responding to child’s vocalizations, and
• Using good positioning so the child can see the caregivers’ face or play object

Strong, positive relationships can foster a sense of belonging, promoting positive self-image and social emotional development. Research also shows that positive relationships can lead to greater social competence, fewer behavior problems, and enhanced thinking and reasoning skills. These relationships can also increase and enhance individualized learning in child care and early learning settings, language and communication skills, collaboration with families, and positive behavior guidance.

Furthermore, building relationships through literacy goes beyond the classroom. Literacy can support relationships between family members, between a health care provider and their patient, and home visitors and those they serve.

Improving Relationships through Literacy

Literacy plays an important role in building relationships with children birth-through-five. Research shows that encouraging literacy skills can promote social-emotional development and minimize behavioral challenges. Reading enhances language skills which, in turn, can aid children in describing their feelings.

Some ways in which we can utilize literacy to build relationships include:

• Allowing children to select the books they are interested in,
• Using books to teach empathy and emotions,
• Creating a comfortable space for reading,
• Promoting connection through reading. This can be done through partner reading, encouraging interactions when reading aloud, and showing an interest in a book a child is reading.

By using these tips, we can build positive relationships with children and use these relationships to encourage a love of learning.

Below are books that can be utilized to support relationship building.

• Books about Relationships, Feelings, and Building Relationship Skills. This list was curated by North Carolina Partnership for Children staff to support relationship building. View this list here.
• Increasing Understanding of Equity. The Catawba County Partnership for Children partnered with Kids Read Catawba and the Children’s Resource Center to provide a list of books that help in building-out the concept of equity for children. You can view this list here.

It’s important to remember the impact that positive, quality relationships can have on the growth and development of infants, toddlers, and young children and how literacy can support relationship building.