Social-Emotional Learning Preschool Curriculum: Building a Foundation for Success

Introducing social-emotional learning (SEL) to young learners is as important as teaching them numeracy or literacy skills. Early childhood is a critical period for establishing and supporting the roots of these essential skills, as the seeds of SEL are sown beginning at birth. Including SEL in preschool curricula has been proven to promote positive attitudes toward school and academic success. This article will guide preschool directors and administrators thinking of strengthening the SEL element in their curriculum or wanting to build a new curriculum around SEL.

The Importance of SEL in Preschool

A child’s brain develops more rapidly from birth to age five than at any other time in their life. The connections between their brain cells are double that of an adult, making social skills learning easier and allowing them to absorb and retain a considerable amount of information. Social-emotional learning gives children essential skills to manage emotions and navigate social situations. Children whose teachers have effectively engaged in SEL practices can offer support to a peer when needed, better cope with stressful situations, and recognize and label their emotions. There's an 11 to 1 return on investment, so for every dollar invested in programming around social and emotional learning, we see that they're saving 11 dollars. If you care about outcomes, you need to care about SEL.

Key Components of an SEL Curriculum

It’s important to note that there’s no standard approach to SEL. Choosing the right SEL curriculum for your program will depend on resources, specific circumstances, and program needs. For example, you might need a curriculum that caters to children with diagnosed mental health problems or one suitable for small groups instead of whole classrooms. Each social-emotional curriculum is different regarding factors like skills they focus on, delivery method, and age group.

Self-Concept and Emotional Awareness

An SEL curriculum helps children build self-concept by developing their ability to express preferences. For example, they may decide to play with a toy truck and not building blocks, or they may prefer the color green to red. Children also learn to identify their feelings and those of others, like sadness, happiness, excitement, and worry. The truth is emotion drives attention and attention drives learning.

Self-Direction and Problem-Solving

Self-direction helps children learn to make choices with limited external input. The handing of ownership over to the students means that students can move from dependent learners to independent learners. They are advocating for their social and emotional as well as academic needs. As a result, self-directed learners grow into adults who take the initiative to solve problems, formulate plans, and evaluate the effectiveness of solutions. Preschool I Can Problem Solve teaches children how to think in ways that help resolve typical interpersonal problems with peers and adults in order to reduce and prevent early high-risk behaviors.

Positive Social Relationships

An SEL curriculum helps children build positive social relationships by developing positive attitudes like empathy for others. For example, when Carlos notices that Lucas is on his own and not playing like the rest of the class, he walks up to him and asks if he’d like to play with him. Children build positive relationships when they care, show empathy, and respond to others’ needs. I want [my daughter] to be supported socially. I want her to be supported academically. I want her to be supported emotionally. We often say that we can't jump over the adults to get to the students.

Selecting an Appropriate SEL Curriculum

One of the best ways that Head Start programs can assure that they are meeting the social emotional needs of children is to select and use an appropriate curriculum in this area of development. There are, in fact, a number of social emotional curricula that have been widely used in early care and education settings, including Head Start. In previous work, Joseph and Strain (2003) identified eight classroom approaches that, based upon prior research and development, were deemed to be “ready” for wide-spread adoption. These approaches vary widely on features that are critical to adoption decisions, including evidence of treatment fidelity, evidence of long-term outcomes, evidence of acceptability, validation with Head Start groups, and the type and degree of outcomes achieved. In this Choose and Use guide we offer the user a template for choosing among curricula based on key features.

Research-Based vs. Skills-Based

Choose a program that targets specific skills that promote a child’s overall social-emotional development. Research indicates that children with SEL opportunities have greater academic success, limited behavior issues, and higher levels of positive social behaviors.

Community and Environment

It's important for a curriculum to consider the broader community and environment where children live and learn.

Training and Support

Find out what supports the curriculum offers regarding initial training and continual support to ensure accurate implementation.

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Examples of SEL Curricula

Al’s Pals: Al’s Pals is a nationally recognized, evidence-based social-emotional learning curriculum designed for children ages 3 to 6. This comprehensive curriculum empowers young children to learn how to make healthy decisions, resolve conflicts, manage their feelings, and build positive relationships. Al’s Pals is an evidence-based, comprehensive social-emotional learning curriculum and professional development program designed to meet the specific needs of preschool children. Al’s Pals includes 52 lessons that guide educators in facilitating group activities through interactive lessons, engaging puppets, original music, and impactful teaching approaches. Curriculum content covers a broad range of important social-emotional skills that children need for success in school and in life. With 52 lessons to choose from, educators can engage preschool children in large-group settings twice a week for 20 minutes each. The SEL curriculum provides family letters, which are available in English and Spanish and include social-emotional learning topics that families and caregivers reinforce with children at home. Al’s Pals guides educators to identify and celebrate different identities and cultures in the classroom. Als Pals: Promote emotional and social competence, foster resilient development, and reduce the risk of later anti-social behavior and substance abuse in young children.
Incredible Years: Dina Dinosaur Classroom Curriculum: Promote children’s social competence, emotional self-regulation and positive school behavior. Incredible Years: Dina Dinosaur Child Training Program. Promote children’s social competence, emotional self-regulation and positive school behavior; prevent, reduce and treat early onset of conduct problems in young children.
Experience Curriculum: Experience Curriculum is one example of an early learning curriculum that integrates social-emotional components into each lesson plan.
Strong Start Pre-K: “Strong Start Pre-K has been a great asset to our social/emotional curriculum. We have used it in our social skills groups and since the activities build from week to week, we have seen great carryover into the classrooms."

Resources and Support

I love having this community of people and access to [CASEL]. I don't know how I would have even dreamed of doing even the small pieces that I'm doing right now. I love having this community of people and access to [CASEL]. I don't know how I would have even dreamed of doing even the small pieces that I'm doing right now. Dr. The CASEL Weissberg Scholars Program is the most meaningful honor of my professional life.

Integrating SEL into the Classroom

A social-emotional curriculum provides tools, resources, and guidance for teachers to help children develop the social and emotional knowledge, skills, and abilities important for success in school and in life.

Curriculum Resources

A variety of comprehensive curriculum resources are available to engage all learning styles. Our Planners allow you to drag and drop the content you choose to a customizable plan for your classroom. Easily add and remove days and content.

Assessment Tools

Gradebooks: Seamlessly keep track of student performance through our digital gradebooks. SEL Student Assessments: Assess student skills and understandings with premade and custom assessments.

The Long-Term Impact of SEL

Whether you’re building a new SEL curriculum or strengthening an existing one, the valuable social-emotional skills that children gain in your program will set them up for success in future schooling and social interactions. Teaching social emotional skills to your preschoolers is just as important (if not more important) as academic skills! Analytical thinking remains the top core skill for employers…followed by resilience, flexibility and agility, along with leadership and social influence…Creative thinking and motivation and self-awareness rank fourth and fifth, respectively.

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tags: #social #emotional #learning #preschool #curriculum