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Online Games for Teaching Even the Smallest about SEL

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Explore feelings and sharing games with your favorite PBS KIDS characters like Daniel Tiger, Clifford, Elmo, Donkey Hodie, and Xavier Riddle!

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Digital Games to Encourage SEL in Kids

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This has to be done feasibly -- without requiring high levels of training or expertise on the part of adults who will administer it -- and in ways children will enjoy.
(A disclaimer: By the time you read this, other new products may have entered the SEL gaming arena, and the ones I discuss may have created new and improved versions. Such is the nature of this fast-moving field!)
Why Digital Games?

Every sound game must draw upon a sound theory (or theories) related to social-emotional assessment and skill building, and ultimately, provide evidence of its effectiveness. Games vary with regard to their target audience. Some are designed for a narrow age range; some focus on problems across ages with coordinated versions for both children and adolescents. We will take a look at an example of each.

Zoo U

Zoo U starts with an assessment, asking kids ages five to 12 to play a series of six short scenes to assess six SEL areas linked to CASEL's five skills. The premise of Zoo U is that kids have enrolled in a school-like setting where they are learning to be zookeepers.

This makes it natural for them to encounter situations like those they would experience in school, with animals around and involved to provide extra interest and fun. The skills are communication, cooperation, emotion regulation, empathy, impulse control, and social initiation.

Players create avatars that enter a scenario that feels like a game but actually assesses their competence in each skill. For example:

Emotion Regulation:

Bullies in the hallway are trying to force the child to pay a toll before allowing him to go to his class. The child can choose to be passive (P), aggressive (AG), or assertive (AS) in interactions with the bullies.

Cooperation:

The child needs to figure out how to catch the parrot flying around the classroom. In order to be successful, the child must work cooperatively with another character.

Teachers get a detailed analysis of kids' strengths, which has been validated against other assessments. Scoring is based on an algorithm that incorporates not only the obvious answers but also unobtrusive measures, such as: amount of time before a specific action is taken, percent of time spent in a particular activity, order of actions during problem solving, and number of clues or prompts by the system needed to solve the problem.

The latter are particularly appealing aspects of digital assessments. The formative assessment report also guides providers to specific in-person lessons and activities -- from Zoo U's activity center -- that they can use to support the child in areas of identified difficulty.

Following the assessment, Zoo U provides sequenced, personalized learning in the form of 30 15-minute game play scenes -- five for each of the six skills -- to improve the skills students are lacking, all with minimal teacher direction.

Ripple Effects

Ripple Effects accomplishes something similar for middle and high school students with a highly differentiated, personalization capacity. It includes over 400 tutorials, each a robust multimedia app, that seek to reduce risk factors and build student strengths as they privately explore situations of their choosing -- ranging from violence and bullying to truancy to academic difficulties to trauma. They build SEL skills in the process.

Educators can track student progress and block access to topics they feel are not appropriate. Topics are covered with multiple learning modalities, including games, first person and animated videos, simulations, self-assessments, and writing exercises.

What most distinguishes Ripple Effects is its use of a sophisticated expert system that is continuously triggered by cues from each learner to deliver an optimally tailored experience. Students can be directed to use the program by their own choice, in the classroom as a result of a situation needing problem solving, as a tier 2 intervention linked to the discipline system of a school, or as part of a tier 3 treatment plan.

Ripple Effects has been subjected to rigorous and extensive research. Its developers have just created a new iPad-based application for young children called Bouncy The People Trainer, featuring a service dog who has overcome many challenges and now helps children build resilience, self-worth, and social skills.

What's Next?

The developers of Zoo U and Ripple Effects are interested in continuous improvement and the best possible integration of technology, theory, research, entertainment, and fun. An effective educational game sits at the nexus of all of these, using digital capabilities to expand student access, make educator time more efficient, and allow for optimal personalization.

At this point, these and related games, such as Social Express, are excellent complements to existing evidence-based, social-emotional and character development programs. The next step will involve their more systematic integration.

Please share your experiences in the comments section below with digital games to assess or teach SEL and related skills.

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Using Digital Games for SEL Assessment and Skill Building

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This has to be done feasibly -- without requiring high levels of training or expertise on the part of adults who will administer it -- and in ways children will enjoy. (A disclaimer: By the time you read this, other new products may have entered the SEL gaming arena, and the ones I discuss may have created new and improved versions.

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Games and Apps the Support SEL

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Top Picks

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Daniel Tiger's Grr-ific Feelings

Songs and activities help kids express, recognize, understand emotions

Bottom line: Daniel Tiger and his friends present excellent examples for kids who are just learning healthy emotional expression.

Grades: Pre-K–K Price: $2.99

Bouncy the People Trainer

Thorough, thoughtful multimedia social-emotional learning experience

Bottom line: Important info for all kids is especially helpful for at-risk students.

Grades: Pre-K–1 Price: Free

Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame

Sesame Street winner teaches kids how to keep calm and carry on

Bottom line: Highly effective tool for whole-class instruction or one-on-one intervention.

Grades: Pre-K–1 Price: Free

Zoo Academy

Uncage compassion and learn social-emotional awareness with a cast of cute zoo animals

Bottom line: Interactive program with practice activities teaches SEL to young students.

Peekapak

Complete SEL units in a neat and tidy package

Bottom line: Detailed social and emotional learning lessons provide teachers with almost everything they'll need to spark positive character development and reflection in their students.

Grades: Pre-K–5 Price: Free, Paid

QuaverSEL

Shake up SEL lessons with music and movement

Bottom line: Fun for students, easy for teachers, QuaverSEL uses the power of music to boost social and emotional learning.

Grades: Pre-K–5 Price: Free to try, Paid

Calm

Relaxing and serene app helps incorporate peace into daily life

Bottom line: If you're looking for a captivating app to teach relaxation and calming skills to students, Calm is an essential tool to add to your toolbox.

Grades: Pre-K–12 Price: Free, Free to try, Paid

Touch and Learn - Emotions

Free app helps kids identify emotions, recognize body language

Bottom line: Bridges the gap between feeling or witnessing emotions and using words to describe them.

Wisdom: The World of Emotions

Quirky game helps kids recognize and regulate anger in self and others

Bottom line: If they can get through the confusing bits, students will be able to identify, label, and perhaps manage strong feelings of anger or frustration.

Grades: K–3 Price: Free to try

Emotional ABCs Classroom

Strong learning approach to mastering SEL competencies

Bottom line: Excellent program for teaching young kids emotion identification, regulation, and social relationships.

Grades: K–4 Price: Free, Paid

Hopster Saturday Club: Empathy

Explore range of emotions to help kids ID feelings and spark discussion

Bottom line: This could be a fun introduction to talking about a variety of emotions and how to recognize them in others.

AIM Buddy Project

Well-organized SEL program pairs older and younger students for discussion

Bottom line: The AIM Buddy Project is an enjoyable, effective program for teaching SEL concepts and making elementary students feel more connected with each other.

Mindful Powers

Care for a cute creature to practice mindfulness and self-control

Bottom line: Meditation lessons and visual timers act as decent supplemental activities for introducing SEL skills.

Grades: K–5 Price: Free to try, Paid

Zoo U

Research-based social game has terrific assessment potential

Bottom line: A powerful and focused social problem-solving game designed to reach kids who need direct instruction.

Grades: K–5 Price: Free to try

Mind Yeti

Calming program with cute characters helps center kids

Bottom line: If you're someone who needs mindfulness-based approaches, Mind Yeti's characters could be the right fit.

Grades: K–8 Price: $499/year per school

Insight Timer

Popular mindfulness app offers daily, guru-guided meditation practice

Bottom line: This expert-guided SEL tool can help students -- and teachers -- build lifelong habits for relaxation, reflection, and focus.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Paid

Empatico

Connect with classrooms around the world using built-in activities

Bottom line: Teachers will find almost everything they need to create the opportunity for meaningful exchanges with students from faraway places.

YouHue

Basic mood journal can help kids build self-awareness

Bottom line: Simple tool for a quick, daily check-in on students' emotions.

Me: A Kid's Diary

Unique take on self-exploration relies on prompts to guide reflection

Bottom line: With plenty of ways to express and document their thoughts and more, this app can help students learn something new about themselves.

Better World Ed

Wordless videos link core subjects, SEL; connect students to the world

Bottom line: If your school or home can afford it, Better World Ed is a well-done interdisciplinary curriculum that will expand students' global view.

Grades: 2–10 Price: Free to try

Hall of Heroes

Responsive game helps students prepare for transition to middle school

Bottom line: Wonderful and fun social-interaction game designed to teach cooperation and friendship skills needed for middle school and beyond.

Grades: 5–8 Price: Free to try, Paid

Character Playbook

Realistic comic book-style stories help build healthy relationships

Bottom line: A valuable series of modules to get kids thinking about how their choices help build strong character.

The Mood Meter

Well-designed tool encourages kids to reflect on and manage emotions

Bottom line: Appealing, thought-provoking tool builds emotional intelligence.

Calm Harm - Manages Self Harm

Immediate help for teens struggling with harmful urges

Bottom line: Powerful therapeutic tool teaches positive coping skills and mental wellness.

Smiling Mind

Quick and easy meditation practice for busy classroom lives

Bottom line: This easy-to-follow meditation program can help reduce stress and support social and emotional learning.

Mitra

Insightful, minimalist app gets students tracking emotions and values

Bottom line: A practical tool to use in combination with discussion about emotional intelligence and character development.

Please Knock on My Door

Effective and affecting game about dealing with depression

Bottom line: A slow-paced SEL game for helping students understand the nuances of managing mental health.

Florence

Incredibly relatable story about navigating adult love and life

Bottom line: This heartwarming game helps kids empathize with the highs and lows of romantic relationships.

Grades: 10–12 Price: Paid

Get tips for using these tools in the classroom

See related resources

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Emotional Intelligence Apps and Games | Common Sense Education

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Help students identify and manage their emotions. Explore this Emotional Intelligence Apps and Games Top Picks list of 29 tools curated by Common Sense Education editors to find relevant and engaging edtech solutions for your classroom.

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Social and Emotional Activities for High School Kids

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)

Build social and emotional skills into any class.

Summit students rip up their stress.

Summit Preparatory Charter High School in Redwood City, California, uses a variety of activities in the weekly, 90-minute Habits, Community, and Culture (HCC) class, where students learn Habits of Success and develop social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. The school has developed an HCC curriculum for grades nine through 12 and hired two full-time teachers for HCC, but Summit's academic teachers also use some of these activities to build SEL skills and deepen their relationships with their students. Cady Ching, a biology and AP environmental science teacher at Summit, incorporates opening activities into all of her classes: "In my freshman classes, we do them every class period."

Visualization to release stress: Have your students imagine what stress looks and feels like inside their body, and then ask them to release it. "The mindfulness practice makes you think the stress is coming off your body," says Geoffrey, a 12th-grade student.

Noise isolation: There are a variety of sounds that your students hear when they're in your classroom, from students walking in the hallway to outdoor construction noise. Have your students focus on one noise and describe it to themselves and recall the last time they interacted with it.

Here are some of the opening, group sharing, and closing activities that teachers use at Summit:

Opening Activities

Summit students practice mindfulness.

2. Name the emotion you're bringing to class: Have each student call out the emotion they're feeling. This helps each student know how they and other students are feeling, what different emotions look like, and how to better interact with their peers based on how they're feeling.

3. Write down, rip up, and throw away your stress: Have your students write down their expectations and insecurities, rip them up, and throw them away. This emotional check-in takes about three minutes. By acknowledging how your students are feeling at the start of each class, you'll acknowledge their barriers to learning and create a safe space for your students to overcome them.

5. Quote of the day: Introduce a quote relevant to what your students are learning or to a shared experience-for example, an act of violence in the community. You can facilitate a whole-class discussion, group students into pairs, or have each student share a one-word response to the quote. This gives students the space to reflect on their beliefs and experiences and whether they agree or disagree with the quote and other students' opinions, and it gives them insight into their peers' perspectives and feelings.

6. Where we came from: Collect baby pictures from your students. Project one baby picture at the start of class, have your students guess who it is, and then have the featured student share something about their childhood.

7. Starting positive: Have each student tape a sheet of paper to their back and then walk around and write positive qualities about their peers on their backs.

8. Motivational moment: Have two students start the class with a three- to five-minute presentation-and come up with two or three discussion questions-based on their interests. The presentation must be related to the course content in a real-world context. "Many students include a video for visuals and increased engagement, but it's optional," says Ching. Have the rest of the class partner up to discuss their questions for one minute and then give them the opportunity to share out to the whole class. This exercise gives your students insight into their peers' interests.

Grades 9-12 | Redwood City, CA

Enrollment

388 | Charter, Suburban

Per Pupil Expenditures

Free / Reduced Lunch

47%

Data is from the 2014-2015 academic year.

Group Sharing

9. Circle sharing: To encourage active listening, create small groups. Have your students position their chairs in a circle so everyone can make eye contact. To strengthen empathy, you can facilitate deeper discussion around what a student shares by asking, "Why did that student share what they did?" or "What perspective is that student coming from?"

When discussing emotionally charged topics, it's important to have guidelines to foster a safe space. Summit uses the Courageous Conversation protocol created by Glenn E. Singleton when discussing race. The protocol is guided by four agreements-stay engaged, experience discomfort, speak your truth, and expect and accept nonclosure. Here is an example of elementary school discussion guidelines from School 21.

Summit students sit in a circle for a whole-class discussion.

10. Write a poem from someone else's perspective. Have your students choose someone they don't know. This helps them to understand that they don't "need to be best friends with someone to empathize with them," explains Ballard.

11. Have a conversation with someone you don't know. Have your students pair up with a student they don't know and provide the pairs with five questions to ask each other. Each student introduces their partner to the class, speaking as if they were their partner, while the rest of the class looks at the student being introduced. "We don't see people sometimes," says Ballard, "and this exercise helps students to see each other more deeply."

12. Play interest and identity-related bingo. Instead of squares filled with numbers or vocabulary words, create cards with information relating to your students. Summit's Bingo cards have things like "'I like to read' or 'I was born in a different country,'" says Armando, a ninth-grade student.

I would like to appreciate Brenda for facilitating the conversation in our small group.

I would like to thank everyone for taking this class seriously.

I apologize to everyone for having my headphones in for half of the time.

Closing Activity

13. Appreciation, apology, aha: Have your students get in a circle and share an appreciation, apology, or realization with the group. Students in Ballard's class have shared things like:

Encourage authentic and timely apologies. Apologizing for something that happened a long time ago has less impact than apologizing for something that happened that day or week. Let your students know that they don't have to name who they're apologizing to when they apologize for what they did.

Help students share helpful, not harmful words. "I often say, 'Appreciations, apologies, and ahas should be something that you genuinely think will be useful for people to hear,'" says Ballard.

Have your students snap, clap, or shake both hands when they hear something that resonates with them. "We snap to let people know that we hear them without exerting our own voice in their narrative," explains Ballard. Students shake their hands when peers share things that are emotionally charged. Ballard often gets this started by saying, "Let's shake it up for that."

"When you pay attention to each other, not only does it build a sense of community, but we're more able to understand other people," says Janet, a 12th-grade student. "If you're able to understand people at a younger age, you could work better with them as adults. That changes how the future generations will be. People can be more accepting, more helpful towards each other."

What makes this a SCHOOL THAT WORKS

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Build social and emotional skills into any class.

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Middle School Activities for Social and Emotional Development

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Attitude Latitudes

Standard Met: McREL Behavioral Studies Standard 3
(Understands that interactions among learning, inheritance, and physical development affect human behavior)

What You Need: Three worksheets: Introvert or Extrovert, Optimist or Pessimist, X-Y graph
What to Do: Ask students what it means to have an attitude. Though they'll likely think it's a matter of having a good or a bad attitude, define attitude as one's "readiness to act or react in a certain way."

Have students describe how they act or react in different situations. Does their attitude change from situation to situation? Hand out the Introvert or Extrovert and Optimist or Pessimist worksheets for students to find out how they rank. Then, have them figure out their "attitude latitudes" on the third worksheet (an X-Y graph). Students will graph their introversion/extroversion score on the horizontal axis and their optimism/pessimism score on the vertical axis to land in one of four quadrants. You might use fictional characters from a book or movie to symbolize each quadrant. (I've used characters from Shrek. You're a "Donkey," for instance, if you're an extroverted optimist.) This will give students some insight into how they relate to other people and how they might harness their energies in the most socially beneficial way.

Brain Freezers

Standard Met: McREL Behavioral Studies Standard 3
(Understands that interactions among learning, inheritance, and physical development affect human behavior)

What You Need: Worksheet and answer key
What to Do: How often do your students think about their own thinking? Distribute the Brain Freezers worksheet. Have students work individually or in small groups to answer all of the riddles as quickly as possible. (You might set a time limit, such as 10 or 15 minutes.) When students are done, ask them which riddles were difficult and which were easy. (They will likely say that riddles in the first column were easier.) Invite students to share their answers. As they do so, write the most common responses on the board. After reviewing the answers and explanations using the supplied answer key, ask students if they have changed their minds about which riddles were easy. Elicit that the riddles in the first column seemed easy, but actually should have made them stop and think. Their wrong answers were the result of "fast thinking." Conversely, the riddles in the second column seemed to require a lot of thought, when the solutions were actually simple; "slow thinking" likely bogged them down.

Use this activity as an opportunity to talk about times that "fast thinking" or "slow thinking" got them in trouble: "Fast thinking" can cause you to jump to conclusions, while "slow thinking" can make you dwell too much on problems.

Setting Boundaries

Standard Met: McREL Behavioral Studies Standard 2
(Understands various meanings of social group, general implications of group membership, and different ways that groups function)

What You Need: Boundaries worksheet
What to Do: To most students, boundaries are the lines drawn between states or nations. Explain that boundaries also pertain to relationships-rules that tell us what we can and can't do. Talk about the boundaries that apply in families, school, and society. Next, hand out the Boundaries worksheet and talk about the types of rules-rigid (hard-and-fast), clear (firm but appropriate), and fuzzy (inconsistent or nonexistent). Have students work in small groups to evaluate the boundaries listed on the worksheet to determine the type of boundary described in each. Review the answers as a class and discuss what life would be like without boundaries. Are they frustrating but important to have? Work with students to create a list of classroom boundaries, organized by physical (respect one another's space), behavioral (listen respectfully), and academic (turn in work on time).

What Sets You Off?

Standard Met: McREL Behavioral Studies Standard 4
(Understands conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among individuals, groups, and institutions)

What You Need: What Sets You Off? worksheet
What to Do: Managing emotional responses is difficult for many adolescents, who are still developing neurologically-the emotional centers of the brain develop more rapidly than the executive centers.

Hand out the What Sets You Off? worksheet. Have students recall a time when they got really angry and then write down "just the facts" about the incident. Students should detail three different experiences on the worksheet. Then, challenge them to look for patterns as to what sets them off. Have they gotten angry at least twice over the same situation or with the same person? This can reveal that certain people or behaviors (e.g., teasing) act as triggers for them. Likewise, it will help identify "danger zones" for confrontations (the locker room, for instance). When you debrief students' experiences, focus on the suggestion "Don't react! Respond." Discuss the difference (reaction is knee-jerk, while response is something you do after careful thought) and how a response might have de-escalated an encounter.

Resolving Conflicts

Standard Met: McREL Behavioral Studies Standard 4
(Understands conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among individuals, groups, and institutions)

What You Need: Two worksheets: What's Their Attitude? Part I and Part II

What to Do: Introduce students to four communication styles: assertive (standing up for yourself and respecting others), passive (doing anything to avoid conflict), aggressive (standing up for yourself and not caring who gets hurt), and passive-aggressive (secretly angry). Give examples of these styles using characters from a book you've recently read in class.

Hand out the first worksheet, What's Their Attitude? Part I, to learn how these different styles play out in
conflicts. Then, create a fictional disagreement, inviting student volunteers to role-play it. Dissect the conflict by identifying who was involved, what each person wanted, how the individuals communicated what they wanted, and if it was resolved, including who "won." Talk about the different communication styles each actor exhibited.

To wrap up, have students complete the questions at the bottom of the worksheet and on the second worksheet ( What's Their Attitude? Part II) to anticipate how they might best act during a conflict. Refer back to these win-win solutions the next time a disagreement occurs in class.

Adapted from Social & Emotional Learning: Essential Lessons for Student Success.
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Grades 6-8: Social-Emotional Skills | Scholastic

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Standard Met: McREL Behavioral Studies Standard 3 (Understands that interactions among learning, inheritance, and physical development affect human behavior) What You Need: Three worksheets: Introvert or Extrovert, Optimist or Pessimist, X-Y graph What to Do: Ask students what it means to have an attitude.

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Activities for Elementary Age Children

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Help students develop their social and emotional skills with these games.

At Playworks, we create a place for every kid on the playground to feel included, be active, and build valuable social and emotional skills. Here are some of the games and activities our schools use to make recess fun for all students.
Games to practice kindness Games to build community Games to teach conflict resolution Games to develop cooperation
Looking for more games for social-emotional learning?

Download our SEL game guide and explore more than 150 games.

Games are indexed by the social and emotional skills they can help support.

We hope you find this resource helpful as you create more opportunities for kids to play and grow!
Download the SEL Game Guide
P.S. Are you an educator?
Learn about more ways Playworks can support your school. Get in touch for a free recess consultation.

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Twelve Games to Teach Social-Emotional Learning | Playworks

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Help students develop their social and emotional skills with these games.

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Activities for Preschoolers

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Some links on this site are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission to keep this site running at no cost to you. See Disclaimer and Disclosure policy for full details Inside: 100 + social skills activities for preschoolers that teach them about manners, making and keeping friends, understanding their emotions, and more!
Social skills activities for preschoolers helps teach young children valuable social skills. There are many benefits to children developing pro-social skills. For instance, research indicates that academic success in the first few years of school is significantly based on the development of children's social and emotional skills. When kids lack crucial social skills, it makes it difficult for them to learn. For example, if a child struggles with listening and controlling their negative behaviors, focusing during class and retaining the information they are taught can be challenging.
Essential Social Skills For Preschoolers
Many kindergarten teachers report that in order for preschoolers to make a smooth transition to school, they need to have certain social and emotional skills. They need to be able to:

have positive relationships with peers

listen and follow directions

solve social problems

effectively communicate emotions

work well with others

use good manners

I've compiled a list of social skills activities for preschoolers to help teach young children how to get along with others, how to make and keep friends, and how to effectively communicate their emotions. I hope you find this list of activities useful!
Feelings and Emotions Social Skills Activities For Preschoolers
Related Article: The Ultimate Guide To Social Skills Activities For Kids
Social Skills Activities For Preschoolers To Build Listening Skills Friendship Social Skills Activities For Preschoolers Teamwork/Cooperation Social Skills Activities For Preschoolers Good Manners Social Skills Activities For Preschoolers Decision Making Social Skills Activities For Preschoolers

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100+ Social Skills Activities For Preschoolers - Kiddie Matters

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Some links on this site are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission to keep this site running at no cost to you. See Disclaimer and Disclosure policy for full details Inside: 100 + social skills activities for preschoolers that teach them about manners, making and keeping friends, understanding their emotions, and more!

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How Parents Can Guide Social and Emotional Health

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As our understanding of human development expands, and the innovation economy demands new kinds of literacies for success, schools and districts are expanding their curricula to include the education of the whole child. Districts are seeking ways to create learning environments for students that help them excel as global citizens, think creatively and collaboratively, and reflect on situations and make iterative adjustments as needed. Schools are recognizing that students who are self-aware and able to understand their own emotions are more socially adept and have a greater ability to relate to others. These students are responsible decision makers, both academically and socially. Students with a strong social-emotional skill set are primed for greater academic success.

SEL in the Classroom

In an effort to accomplish these goals, districts are prioritizing social and emotional learning throughout the school day. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) explains that social-emotional learning can happen within schools and classrooms in a variety of ways. SEL skills can be taught explicitly by the teacher through direct instruction and role-playing. Instructional strategies, such as cooperative learning, can be used within the classroom to promote the development of social-emotional skills. SEL can be integrated with the existing academic curricula in literacy, math, and social studies. Finally, schools can work to create a climate and culture focused on social-emotional learning as a wrap-around support of all that is happening within classrooms.

SEL instruction, at its best, is a live, dynamic curriculum, growing and changing in response to students' needs. While there is value in the explicit teaching of SEL skills, for SEL instruction to be most successful, it must also be embedded within a school day in a way that feels natural and purposeful. Students, for example, might discuss and role play active participation during group work immediately before they begin working in collaborative groups.

SEL in the Home

Though the addition of social-emotional learning to the standard set of curricula offerings has marked benefits for developing the whole child, social-emotional skills cannot be learned in the vacuum of school alone. In schools, students are usually grouped with peers of the same age and similar ability levels. There is a baseline expectation of a common set of school rules. There is often a safety net of teacher intervention that creates artificial constraints on social interactions. Overall, there are a limited set of experiences that the school can use to anchor social-emotional instruction.

Extending this kind of learning into the home broadens the array of real-world experiences for students to learn and practice social-emotional skills. Engaging families as partners in that learning can also add greater meaning and relevance to the lessons happening at school. Social-emotional learning outside of school can be dynamic and responsive, growing and changing depending on what EACH child needs. Furthermore, extending SEL conversations into the home allows for instruction that is mutually reinforcing with what is happening in the classroom.

SEL in the home means that families can use moments that happen organically to grow students' SEL skills. Trips to the grocery store, playing a board game, responding to a family experience, opportunities to meet new and different people while out and about, and other experiences that happen every day add breadth and depth to social-emotional learning instruction and practice. In short, homes and their surrounding communities are ripe with opportunities for social-emotional learning growth. This type of highly personalized learning allows families to utilize students' strengths as SEL superpowers and fill in gaps that emerge in everyday life, empowering students to independently apply these lessons as needed.

To extend social-emotional learning into the home, families can:

Create avenues for learning. Use family experiences as springboards for conversations. When visiting a park with your family, watch and observe your child. How does your child meet new friends? How do they respond when they're frustrated? How do they share or take turns? Notice what your child does well, and find something they need to refine. Make a mental note of specific moments and even take a few pictures. Use these to help your child reflect on their own social-emotional skills and growth over time.

Books are another platform for conversations around social-emotional learning. While there are a plethora of books about specific SEL topics, the books you already have in your home contain examples of friendship, conflict, and dialogue. These books can serve as visual models for social experiences. Talk about the characters and what is happening in the story to give your child access to the words and language used to describe different feelings.

Anticipate and preview experiences. Talk aloud about what a particular experience might be like to build your child's ability to recognize their own feelings and develop their own methods to prepare for a situation.

Listen. When your child has a tough moment, create a space to listen. Listening is a simple and easy way to validate the feelings that kids experience, regardless of the size of the problem.

Reflect. As things happen in the world around you-whether it be a relatively insignificant moment at a sports game or something that makes national headlines-engage your child in conversations that help them identify problems and design solutions. When kids work through the problem-solving process with you, they grow their ability to think critically on their own.

Self-talk. When you're feeling frustrated in the grocery store checkout line and take a deep breath to keep your cool, invite your child into your world by using self-talk. Say, "We are in a hurry, and this line is not moving very fast. I am feeling frustrated, so I'm going to take a deep breath." This quick exchange teaches your child words to associate with their feelings as well as strategies like taking deep breaths. SEL does not need to be complex to be effective. The words you use will become your child's inner monologue when they're faced with similar situations.

Personalize your conversations. Your family's background and experiences will inform how you talk with your child about their world. The more you personalize conversations about social-emotional learning, the more relevant that learning becomes.

Build up your child. Social-emotional learning is about helping your child learn and apply the skills and understanding needed to manage their feelings. When your child is struggling with something new, remind them of a time they worked hard to overcome obstacles. By shining a light on your child's past successes, their path forward is a bit clearer.

Join forces. Connect with others, and don't hesitate to access tools available to you. There is no right or wrong way to partner with your child as they develop social and emotional skills. Add to your parenting toolkit with resources such as:

Parachute: a user-friendly, research-backed parenting app that provides easy access to solutions for common parenting challenges

Mind Yeti: a mindfulness app with guided sessions that help kids destress, focus, get along with others, and relax

Confident Parents, Confident Kids: a site with parent and child resources that support social-emotional development

Parent Toolkit: a site with information and articles about all aspects of child development

Empowering Families

Bringing social-emotional learning into the home adds personalization and relevance for children. It gives students real-world opportunities to plan, problem-solve, and reflect as they grow their social-emotional skills. It strengthens relationships among family members, encouraging regular and ongoing conversations between parent and child. Bringing social-emotional learning into the home empowers families to use life's moments, both good and bad, as ways to help their child grow. With that in mind, parents can reframe the messiness of everyday life as a series of opportunities for real-life, in-the-moment, social-emotional dialogue with their child.

For more, see:
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Kristen Thorson is a Getting Smart Columnist. She is known for her experience as a teacher, interventionist, and curriculum and assessment developer. Connect with her on twitter: @kristenthorson

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Extending Social Emotional Learning into the Home | Getting Smart

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As our understanding of human development expands, and the innovation economy demands new kinds of literacies for success, schools and districts are expanding their curricula to include the education of the whole child. Districts are seeking ways to create learning environments for students that help them excel as global citizens, think creatively and collaboratively, and reflect on situations and make iterative adjustments as needed.

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Parent Information on the Importance of Social and Emotional Learning

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Parents, are you wondering what all the talk is about SEL and social-emotional skills? Chances are you're already doing a lot to support your child with these skills, so keep reading to make additional connections about what it is, why it's important, and what resources you can turn to if you're interested in doing more.

Why do youth need social-emotional skills?

Think of a time when your child had a falling out with a friend or a difficult time fitting in socially. Maybe it was a time you received a phone call from the principal as a result of a situation at school, or when your child came home from school sad or upset, or couldn't sleep because of an incident at school. Or was it a situation where your daughter or son could not finish a group academic project because of a problem with classmates?

Unfortunately, youth often have these and other types of negative experiences. Parents are there to help in any way they can, but over the long-term social and emotional skills can minimize the worst of these experiences and make youth's experiences in life easier to manage.

With social-emotional skills, they can establish rewarding relationships with others, maintain meaningful relationships, and handle difficult social situations. They can manage times of high stress, and during times of anger, keep from launching into destructive actions they may regret later.

What are social-emotional skills?

Social-emotional skills are the strategies one has for managing strong emotions, navigating relationships, working effectively with others, solving difficult problems, and making responsible decisions.

Social-emotional skills pave the way for positive life experiences. When these skills are taught and supported, youth are more likely to succeed academically and have a positive attitude toward self and school, and less likely to experience emotional distress and use drugs.

Where and when are they used?

Social-emotional skills are needed and used from early childhood through adulthood. There is never a time they aren't needed. We use these skills many times a day, navigating sibling and parent-child relationships, friendships, social and academic situations at school, our jobs, and anything we do in our communities. We need them for in-person interactions and even when communicating by phone or email.

For example, if a friend texts me about having an extremely bad day, I use my skills for empathizing when responding to her. If I don't recognize and acknowledge her feelings and instead tell her to "toughen up," I may not keep that friend.

What's SEL? Is it different from social-emotional skills?

SEL stands for social-emotional learning. According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, it's the process by which we learn and apply social-emotional knowledge, attitudes, and skills for understanding and managing emotions, setting and achieving goals, establishing and maintaining relationships, and feeling and showing empathy for others. Second Step is considered an SEL program because it provides a process for learning and practicing many important social-emotional skills. This SEL: What and Why video explains SEL in less than three minutes.

As a parent, how can I learn more about this and support it at home and in my kid's school?

Two ways to support social-emotional development at home are through the SEL Passport Challenge and with books. This reading list includes books on topics such as friendship, cooperation, bullying, dealing with anger, and problem-solving. For parents and caregivers of children ages two through five, check out this Sesame Street-Committee for Children resource on navigating challenges, and if you are a parent of a teen, look into ParenTeenConnect to support your teen with real issues at home. For more information, check out this list of curated blog posts on Edutopia.org.

How does SEL help prevent bullying, or to protect kids from abuse?

Bullying thrives in situations where bystanders (those who know about and witness bullying) don't stand up for those who are being bullied or don't report the bullying. Students who are bystanders to bullying can use social-emotional skills, such as assertiveness, to stand up to and report bullying when they see it. Because having friends can be a protective factor against bullying, friendship skills are another important social-emotional skill to have.

Safety skills, confidence, skills for identifying one's own feelings (for example, recognizing when something someone says does not feel "right"), and assertiveness skills such as refusing and reporting can make the difference in a potential child abuse situation because they build capacity to recognize a situation is not okay, to say "no" and to report it.

Although social-emotional skills alone don't in themselves prevent bullying or child abuse, they're one of many factors that can affect these types of situations, especially when an adult isn't present.

If your child's school hasn't already reached out to you about social-emotional learning, start a conversation. Ask the staff what they're doing to promote SEL and how you can get involved. Share what you're doing to promote SEL with your child at home.

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Let's Talk SEL: Parents, This Is for You! | Social-Emotional Skills | Committee for Children

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Parents, are you wondering what all the talk is about SEL and social-emotional skills? Chances are you're already doing a lot to support your child with these skills, so keep reading to make additional connections about what it is, why it's important, and what resources you can turn to if you're interested in doing more.

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The Impact of Daily Interactions and the Words We Choose

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Teaching Social and Emotional Growth One Kid at a Time

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Classroom Examples of Social and Emotional Learning and Character Development

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Bringing Character to the Classroom

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Social and Emotional Learning: A Schoolwide Approach

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Social and Emotional Learning in Schools

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5 Keys to Social and Emotional Learning Success

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Roberson, Pam Unconventional PPT (1).pptx

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Store photos and docs online. Access them from any PC, Mac or phone. Create and work together on Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents.