Unlocking Potential: The Benefits and Activities of Social Emotional Learning for Kids

Introduction

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development. It advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL is a methodology that helps students of all ages to better comprehend their emotions, feel those emotions fully, and demonstrate empathy for others.

What is Social Emotional Learning (SEL)?

We define social and emotional learning (SEL) as an integral part of education and human development. Broadly speaking, social and emotional learning (SEL) refers to the process through which individuals learn and apply a set of social, emotional, and related skills, attitudes, behaviors, and values that help direct students. This includes thoughts, feelings, and actions in ways that enable them to succeed in school.

SEL is a term for the way children acquire social and emotional skills. It includes things like managing difficult emotions, making responsible decisions, handling stress, setting goals, and building healthy relationships. Social emotional learning revolves around how well youth are equipped to handle their emotions now and in the future.

The CASEL Framework

According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), an organization devoted to students and educators to help achieve positive outcomes for PreK-12 students, SEL involves five core competencies that can be applied in both the classroom, at home, and in students’ communities. For many, our framework is known as the “CASEL wheel.” At the center are the five core social and emotional competencies-broad, interrelated areas that support learning and development. Circling them are four key settings where students live and grow.

The CASEL framework includes:

Self-awareness: The ability to identify and recognize one’s own emotions and thoughts and understand how they impact behavior. This includes accurately assessing one's strengths and limitations, having positive mindsets, and possessing a well-grounded sense of self-efficacy and optimism. A student who is developing self-awareness learns how to identify and label emotions like happiness, sadness, anxiety and anger.
Self-management: Being able to manage one’s emotions and impulses, manage stress, and set personal goals. Self-management requires skills and attitudes that facilitate the ability to regulate one's own emotions and behaviors. A student who is developing self-management learns that different situations can lead to different emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. They learn different coping mechanisms to deal with the different situations. For example, a student may feel nervous when a pop quiz is announced in class, but they take a few deep breaths to calm their nerves.
Social awareness: Having empathy and respect for others and the ability to take on different perspectives. Social awareness involves the ability to understand, empathize, and feel compassion for those with different backgrounds or cultures. A student who is developing social awareness learns that their peers can have perspectives that differ from their own. For example, a student, who is happy and excited for the holidays understands that their friend is having a hard time because the friend's mother recently died. The ability to put yourself in the shoes of another person who may be from a different background or culture from the one you grew up with.
Relationship skills: Help students establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships, and to act in accordance with social norms. A student who is developing relationship skills learns how to listen to others and communicate clearly. For example, when working on a group project during biology class, a student demonstrates the skills to cooperate and negotiate with others during the project. The ability to build and maintain healthy relationships with people from a diverse range of backgrounds.
Responsible decision-making: Involves learning how to make constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions across diverse settings. It requires the ability to consider ethical standards, safety concerns, accurate behavioral norms for risky behaviors, the health and well-being of self and others, and to make realistic evaluation of various actions' consequences. A student who is developing responsible decision-making skills learns how to solve problems and make healthy choices. For example, a student figures out the best course of action when deciding whether to try out for the soccer team when they are already playing lacrosse and juggling a demanding academic schedule.

The Importance of Adaptation

An important part of teaching SEL skills is understanding the importance of adaptation. Development of SEL skills can look different for each child, so figuring out the best approach for each individual youth is key to future development.

Benefits of Social Emotional Learning

Social emotional learning (SEL) is important for successful interactions and coping throughout the lifespan and has many benefits for youth. Children with strong social and emotional learning (SEL) skills tend to perform better in school, build healthier relationships with peers and adults, adjust more effectively emotionally, and enjoy better mental health. Social emotional learning is valuable for children and their outlooks on life, as well as the development of problem-solving skills and perseverance in everyday activities. It’s been shown that SEL can help children feel more confident and happy in the classroom and in life in general.

Academic Success

From an academic standpoint, students who participated in SEL programs saw an 11 percentile increase in their overall grades and better attendance. Research shows that SEL consistently has positive effects on students’ success - from their academic performance and behavior to their ability to manage stress.

Positive Youth Development

SEL applies to the development of self-awareness, self-control, self-regulation, and responsible decision-making skills, all of which are essential for positive youth development.

Improved Relationships

Social-emotional learning activities in the classroom can benefit children’s relationship-building skills. As these activities improve their ability to show empathy and listen to their peers, they are better able to understand others and their perspectives. By engaging in SEL, students learn to better handle conflicts that arise in their relationships. Because of this, it is easier to maintain friendships they have formed. These problem-solving skills also enable them to work in teams and even enjoy teamwork in the classroom.

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Reduced Aggression and Bullying

With an increase in social-emotional learning programs and activities, there are fewer instances of aggression and bullying in schools. Because students are not focused on the negative, there are more positive interactions from peer to peer, students to teachers, and students to parents.

Better Behavior Management

With an SEL curriculum, there is a better understanding of how to manage behaviors in the classroom. But there is also an understanding for students of how to manage their behaviors, especially negative ones. With less negativity, there are more positive peer interactions, more teamwork, and even more confidence in each other and themselves.

Less Stress in the Classroom

To reduce stress, SEL curriculum will provide students with tools to handle their emotions and behaviors. Some of these tools are ways to self-regulate in times that they have to work through it themselves.

More Positive Reinforcement

By implementing social-emotional learning in the classroom, students have a better chance at learning how to be confident. Instead of looking for constant praise and attention, they learn to turn inward. Once they decide to act or make a decision, their new awareness allows them to see how this decision affects not only them but also others around them.

Key Social and Emotional Skills

Collaboration: Communication and teamwork are essential to the lives of all children and youth.
Leadership: As youth begin to understand how to express their emotions, they can reach out and help their peers do the same. Leadership includes not only standing in front of a crowd, but the willingness to listen and give aid to others.
Perspective: Youth begin to develop an awareness of others around them and learn to look beyond themselves.
Problem Solving: Youth increase responsible decision-making skills by learning to regulate their emotions and gaining control over the situation in a positive manner.
Individuality: SEL encourages uniqueness and diversity by teaching youth how to accept one’s “self” and love who they are as an individual.

Long-Term Benefits

Students who are equipped to deal with problems that affect them on a personal level are then better able to navigate the pressures of adult life. Learning positive behaviors that extend beyond a purely academic level of achievement can help these students develop the “soft skills” required of many jobs, such as teamwork, and ability to understand others, and problem-solving.

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How to Implement SEL

Integrating SEL into the Curriculum

While SEL isn’t a designated subject like history or math, it can be woven into the fabric of a school’s curriculum. When educators make academic lessons more personal and relatable to students, students may be more inclined to participate and may be less likely to mentally check out during their subjects. There are many ways to incorporate SEL in the classroom. The main idea is to provide an ongoing SEL influence throughout the day. In the beginning, you could start by checking in with students to see how they feel.

Approaches to SEL

There are several different approaches to SEL. Some teachers have a more formally designated portion of the school day devoted to SEL - sometimes taught in homeroom. Other teachers work SEL-related lessons into more formal subjects, like math, history, or reading.

Explicit Instruction and Reinforcement

Educators usually integrate SEL into their curricula through both explicit instruction on the competencies and, equally importantly, through ongoing reinforcement of these skills. Explicit SEL instruction might include lessons on how to identify and label your feelings, build your emotional vocabulary, consider other people’s perspectives and experiences, and brainstorm solutions to problems. But then, the key to effectively teaching SEL competencies is reinforcing these lessons every day in the classroom.

Creating a Supportive School Culture

It’s about having a school culture that’s committed to engaging in social-emotional learning - where it’s infused into every day, with repetition of the lessons and skills. Adult-student interactions support SEL when they result in positive student-teacher relationships, enable teachers to model social-emotional competencies for students, and promote student engagement. Safe and positive school climates and cultures positively affect academic, behavioral, and mental health outcomes for students.

Tiered Support Systems

SEL programs in schools are often structured across three tiers based on children’s needs. Tier one is the standard program, taught to all students, with the aim of helping them develop the competencies and prevent behavioral or emotional problems from developing. Tier two is for children who haven’t responded to tier one and show some signs of risk, such as behavioral issues, social difficulties, or academic struggles. Tier three is for students who require more intensive support, potentially through individualized counseling or a behavior intervention plan.

The Role of Teachers

One of the most prevalent SEL approaches involves training teachers to deliver explicit lessons that teach social and emotional skills, then finding opportunities for students to reinforce their use throughout the day. Teachers can also naturally foster skills in students through their interpersonal and student-centered instructional interactions throughout the school day.

School-Wide Strategies

At the school level, SEL strategies typically come in the form of policies, practices, or structures related to climate and student support services. School leaders play a critical role in fostering schoolwide activities and policies that promote positive school environments, such as establishing a team to address the building climate; adult modeling of social and emotional competence; and developing clear norms, values, and expectations for students and staff members. Fair and equitable discipline policies and bullying prevention practices are more effective than purely behavioral methods that rely on reward or punishment.

Integration into Multi-Tiered Systems of Support

An important component of schoolwide SEL involves integration into multi-tiered systems of support. The services provided to students by professionals such as counselors, social workers, and psychologists should align with universal efforts in the classroom and building.

Family and Community Partnerships

Family and community partnerships can strengthen the impact of school approaches to extending learning into the home and neighborhood. Community members and organizations can support classroom and school efforts, especially by providing students with additional opportunities to refine and apply various SEL skills. Parents are their child’s first teachers, and how they model and reinforce SEL competencies at home is essential to kids’ social-emotional development. And if they work in partnership, families, and schools can learn from each other about what works best for each individual child.

After-School Activities

After-school activities also provide opportunities for students to connect with supportive adults and peers. They are a great venue to help youth develop and apply new skills and personal talents. Research has shown that after-school programs focused on social and emotional development can significantly enhance student self-perceptions, school connectedness, positive social behaviors, school grades, and achievement test scores, while reducing problem behaviors.

Examples of Social Emotional Learning in the Classroom

Here are some examples of how each category of social emotional learning might look in the classroom.

Self-awareness: A student who is developing self-awareness learns how to identify and label emotions like happiness, sadness, anxiety and anger.
Self-management: A student who is developing self-management learns that different situations can lead to different emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. They learn different coping mechanisms to deal with the different situations. For example, a student may feel nervous when a pop quiz is announced in class, but they take a few deep breaths to calm their nerves.
Social awareness: A student who is developing social awareness learns that their peers can have perspectives that differ from their own. For example, a student, who is happy and excited for the holidays understands that their friend is having a hard time because the friend's mother recently died.
Relationship skills: A student who is developing relationship skills learns how to listen to others and communicate clearly. For example, when working on a group project during biology class, a student demonstrates the skills to cooperate and negotiate with others during the project.
Responsible decision-making: A student who is developing responsible decision-making skills learns how to solve problems and make healthy choices. For example, a student figures out the best course of action when deciding whether to try out for the soccer team when they are already playing lacrosse and juggling a demanding academic schedule.

Another great way is to provide students the opportunity to see how a tricky or troubling situation is being handled. This will give them some ideas on how to handle a tricky situation they may encounter. Utilizing students to role-play in front of the class would be a viable example. Make sure there is a place for students to calm down.

Social Emotional Learning Beyond the Classroom

SEL can also be fostered in many settings other than school. SEL begins in early childhood, so family and early childcare settings are important. SEL skills are not only taught in classrooms, but also developed and strengthened at home. Families and caregivers can teach and model the skills through activities and family time.

Addressing Challenges

Children with developmental disabilities may need additional assistance to develop social emotional skills. Breaking down larger tasks into smaller and more manageable steps can help, as can increasing the opportunities for repeated practice and providing ongoing feedback.

When Kids Lack Social and Emotional Learning

Social emotional learning is often assumed to happen naturally in the course of a child’s development without being taught. But when children don’t master these skills, they often develop behavior problems that, in turn, can interfere with their functioning in school and their ability to learn. When children lack the skills to manage their emotions and make good decisions, they often get in trouble at school.

Seeking Additional Support

If you think your child is struggling with social-emotional competencies, the first step is to start a conversation with their teacher about evaluating their progress and considering if they need additional SEL support. If they’re struggling with behavior or academics, getting counseling at school or setting up a behavior intervention plan may help. It’s also important to consider whether there are underlying issues affecting your child’s behavior. Getting treatment from a mental health professional for those challenges may be what your child needs to thrive.

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