# data[].attributes.body
Overview
- Preschoolers' self-concept consists of observational characteristics like their name and physical appearance
- At around 3 1/2 years old, they will describe themselves with their emotions (which shows an understanding of psychological characteristics)

Parenting with the brain in mind
- Our brain is shaped by experience
- Parents can influence the brain by talking about experiences, nurturing a sense of courage, limiting screen time, spending time as a family, and doing education sports and activities.

The two hemispheres
- Left hemisphere: logical, literal, and linguistics
- Right hemisphere: nonverbal, big picture, influenced by body and lower brain areas (receive and interpret emotional information)
- Young kids are right brain dominant
- Kids will ask "why" when they are starting to use their left brain
- We want both sides to work together

Developing a moral child
- Clear and consistent rules
- Fair punishment
- Rules that are explained
- Physical punishments foster aggression

Five ingredients of intelligence
- Desire to explore: children learn through environment, experience sensory observations, make predictions about observations, design experiments, and evaluate their test, and use innovators DNA (connections between concepts, "what if", desire to tinker and experiment)
- Self-control: executive function is a better predictor of academic success than IQ
- Creativity: able to perceive new relationships and associate creativity with risk taking
- Verbal communication: important for human intelligence, 1000 words known by 3, and we're born with the capacity to speak any language
- Interpreting nonverbal communication: extract social information by examining face and body

Keys to playtime
- Amount of playtime shrunk by 1/4
- More time is spent in school and doing work
- Only 11 hours per week was spent playing by kids
- "Making baby smart" industry has grown, making play seem less important
- Benefits of play: more creative, better language, better problem solving, better memory, less stress, and more social skills

# data[].attributes.body
What is SEL?
-  An educational concept that helps kids gain skills in important areas beyond core school subjects. It helps kids identify their feelings, understand and communicate with others, build strong relationships, and make good, empathetic decisions.

Why is SEL important and needed?
- Teaching and working on social skills in children is a vital building block in their development. Social awareness and knowledge of emotions is important to a child's understanding of themselves and others. After COVID-19 and doing school virtually, children need to learn these skills more than ever. Usually, these skills are developed through school and natural interactions with other peers, but when COVID made school online, children could not interact with their peers since they were at extreme risk of getting this disease, as their immune systems are sensitive. Some children now need to learn social skills and how to understand others' emotions.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/social-emotional-learning-important

"Why Social-Emotional Learning Is So Important for Kids Right Now." Healthline, 28 Apr 2022. https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/social-emotional-learning-important

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Schools have always taken on responsibilities that go beyond teaching history, English, or math. They are an important part of the communities they serve and an integral part of the lives of the students they teach. That's part of why schools have historically taught kids everyday life skills alongside important academic skills.

One set of life skills that are especially important right now involves something called social and emotional learning.

While it isn't a new idea, social and emotional learning is something that will be more useful than ever as kids return to classrooms after COVD-19 and during this stage of the global pandemic.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an educational concept that helps kids gain skills in important areas beyond math, reading, and other core school subjects. SEL helps kids identify their feelings, understand and communicate with others, build strong relationships, and make good, empathetic decisions.

SEL focuses on a set of life skills kids need to understand themselves and communicate with others. For instance, SEL teaches kids ways to improve their:

Through SEL, kids can gain a better understanding of themselves and of the people around them. They can gain the skills and knowledge that will help them understand their emotions, develop their identities, and set goals.

In an important 2011 study, researchers conducted one of the largest and most comprehensive reviews of SEL. They reviewed 213 studies that included over 270,000 students and found, among other things, that participating in SEL programs improves students' performances in their classes. It also has a lasting impact on students and on school communities.

Emotional intelligence, sometimes called emotional quotient (EQ), is the ability to manage your own emotions and understand the emotions of others.

People with a high EQ are able to communicate their emotions. They can take actions to resolve emotions such as anger or stress. They're also able to work well with others and build strong relationships based on empathy and understanding.

There are four key elements of emotional intelligence.

Self-awareness. People who have high self-awareness recognize their own emotions. They understand the ways their emotions affect their motivations and actions.

Social awareness. People with high social awareness are very empathetic. They understand the needs, emotions, and concerns of other people. They are skilled at picking up on social cues and social dynamics.

Self-management. Self-management is the ability to control impulses and behaviors. People with high self-management skills are also great at sticking to commitments and adapting to change.

Relationship management. Creating and maintaining strong relationships with others is an important life skill and is one of the key elements of emotional intelligence. People with strong relationship management skills are excellent at communication, conflict resolution, and teamwork.

Emotional intelligence is important in every area of life. Giving them the tools and education they need to strengthen their EQ benefits kids in a variety of ways.

Additional benefits of SEL include improvements in:

relationships at home and at school

empathy

self-esteem

self-awareness

communication skills

positive thinking patterns

problem-solving

stress response

mood

motivation

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed life in the United States and across the world. While we have all faced disruptions to our daily routines and lives, children have faced some of the largest changes.

Remote learning made school possible during the pandemic. Kids with certain educational and learning styles saw some benefits from remote learning. However, for many other school-aged kids and teens, this disruption was incredibly difficult.

The pandemic didn't just mean the loss of classroom learning and the adjustment to a remote school day.

Schools provide community services that go far beyond academics. For instance, kids went without the social structure school attendance provides. Daily peer interaction, athletics, arts activities, field trips, school dances, graduations, and other events simply weren't available.

Kids with unsafe and unstable home lives were unable to escape to the safety of school during the day. Additionally, 22 million American children rely on free school lunch programs. Many of these children faced increased food insecurity during the pandemic without access to a school lunch.

Children also faced the stress of the pandemic itself. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, as of June 2021, over 140,000 children in the United States had lost a parent, grandparent, or caregiver to death from COVID-19. Many other kids watched relatives battle the virus.

Other kids might have been in constant fear of a relative contracting COVID-19. A parent's job loss, lockdowns, and the unpredictability of the pandemic are just a few of the other factors that many kids have been dealing with over the past few years.

So it's no wonder that the United States is seeing a youth mental crisis. Data gathered since the start of the pandemic has demonstrated a sharp rise in kids of all ages seeking mental health care:

In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Children's Hospital Association declared a state of emergency in national child and adolescent mental health.

Between March 2020 and October 2020, mental health related emergency room visits spiked 24 percent for children ages 5 to 11 and 31 percent for children ages 12 to 17.

In 2020, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago surveyed 1,000 parents around the country. 71 percent of parents felt the pandemic had a negative impact on their child's mental health and 69 percent called the pandemic the worst thing that had happened to their child.

In a 2020 survey of high school students, nearly a third of respondents said they felt much more unhappy and depressed than usual.

As kids return to school, SEL programs will be especially important. Kids have been through a hard few years. Many will need extra support. SEL programs are ideal for providing that support.

SEL programs can help kids manage the overwhelming stress and emotional impact of COVID-19 and can help them readjust to the school environment.

You can use SEL in a number of ways. Some teachers choose to incorporate it into their classrooms throughout the school year. There are ways to work using SEL monthly, weekly, or even as part of daily teaching.

For instance, one key component of SEL is helping kids identify the emotion they're feeling that day. Teachers can use age-appropriate tools and journaling prompts to have children do a quick daily assessment of their own feelings.

More time-intensive SEL activities include:

writing prompts about fears, goals, and problems

reading passages from diverse perspectives and discussing them empathetically as a class

theoretical problem-solving activities

teamwork activities

SEL can be a powerful tool to help kids learn everyday social skills and emotional intelligence. These skills can improve how kids perform in the classroom and improve their interactions with other people. They can also improve their self-esteem.

SEL and emotional intelligence have always been highly important, but this educational tool will be more important than ever as kids return to the classroom after COVID-19.

The pandemic has been rough on the mental health of kids of all ages, and the skills taught in SEL programs are a powerful way schools can support their students as they readjust.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Social and Emotional Learning Is So Important Now

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Schools have always taken on responsibilities that go beyond teaching history, English, or math. They are an important part of the communities they serve and an integral part of the lives of the students they teach. That's part of why schools have historically taught kids everyday life skills alongside important academic skills.

# data[].attributes.body
Kids identify moods and emotions and match the emoji to the correct picture.

Cognitive Benefits
- With a wide vocabulary of emotion language, kids are better able to pinpoint what they are experiencing.
- Emotional understanding is vital to emotional intelligence.
- The brain cannot learn while in a heightened state of emotion, so allowing the feeling to come and go is important.

Social and Emotional
- Being able to identify, understand, express and manage feelings provides long term benefits to mental health and wellbeing.
- Playing gives toddlers a chance to express and manage their feelings.
- Developing a healthy acceptance of feelings comes from making space for strong emotions and validating experience.
- Developing self-awareness around calming things can occur once a child learns how to identify their emotions.
- Expressing ourselves often makes people less likely to engage in negative coping patterns, which leads to mental health concerns.

At Home Strategies
- Talk about feelings.
- Develop vocabulary.
- Talk about if you like or dislike certain feelings and why.

# data[].attributes.body
Read the emotion stories and match them to the correct puppet.

Cognitive Benefits
- A wide vocabulary of emotion language allows kids to be better at pinpointing what it is they are experiencing.
- Emotional intelligence comes from the understanding of emotions.
- Brains can’t learn in a heightened state of emotion, so being able to let feelings come and go is essential.

Social and Emotional
- Identifying, understanding, expressing, and managing your feelings allows you to experience long term benefits to your mental health and wellbeing.
- Toddler play allows the child to express and manage their feelings.
- A healthy acceptance of feelings comes from feeling safe having strong emotions and validating your experiences.
- Once a child can identify their emotions, they can begin to develop self-awareness around what soothes them.
- Expressing ourselves in a routine manner makes us less likely to engage in negative coping patterns.

At Home Strategies
- Read a story and talk about the emotions in the story.
- Talk about when you have felt that feeling/emotion.
- Allow your child to talk about their connections to the feelings in the story.

# data[].attributes.body
Read the story, “I’m NOT just a Scribble” and create scribble characters for different emotions.

Cognitive Benefits
- A wide vocabulary of emotion language allows kids to be better at pinpointing what they are experiencing.
- Emotional understanding is a vital part of emotional intelligence.
- Being able to let feelings come and go allows the brain to be calm and learn because your brain can’t learn while in a heightened state of emotion.

Social and Emotional
- Kids who can identify, understand, express and manage their feelings experience benefits to their mental health and wellbeing.
- Kids express and manage their feelings through play.
- When parents make space for their child’s emotions and validate their experience, their child develops a healthy acceptance of their feelings.
- After being able to identify their emotions, kids can begin to develop self-awareness around what calms them.
- Expressing ourselves often helps us avoid engaging in negative coping patterns.

At Home Strategies
- Talk about what faces look like during different feelings.
- Talk about sounds that go with different feelings.

# data[].attributes.body
Assist kids in creating a feelings monster.

Cognitive Benefits
- Being able to pinpoint what they are experiencing is easier with a wide vocabulary of emotion language.
- Emotional understanding is key to emotional intelligence.
- The brain cannot learn in a heightened state of emotion, which makes allowing feelings to come and go is vital.

Social and Emotional
- Kids who identify, understand, express and manage their feelings experience benefits to their mental health and wellbeing.
- Playing with your kid allows them to express their feelings and practice managing them.
- Understanding emotions and validating experiences allows your child to develop a healthy acceptance of their feelings.
- Once a child can identify their emotions, they can develop self-awareness around what calms them.
- Using negative coping patterns can be avoided if expressing our ourselves becomes routine.

At Home Strategies
- Talk about the feelings words and connect them to the facial expression that is made when having that feeling.
- Talk about times you have felt different feelings.
- Talk about how feelings can change.