The concept of social-emotional learning is garnering a lot of attention in the education field. This stands to reason after years of facing a pandemic that exacerbated emotional distress for many.
Furthermore, longitudinal studies in the UK have shown that developing adequate social-emotional skills before the age of 10 is a predictor of satisfaction, well-being, career success, and general good health in adulthood. Considering that, it’s well worth learning more about the subject and putting good practices into place.
Understanding social-emotional skills
Social-emotional skills describe a person’s ability to understand and manage emotions. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has identified five basic skills to develop:
Self-awareness
Self-awareness develops from the very first years of life. From the age of two, children are able to recognize certain physical manifestations of emotion. As language develops, they learn to name basic emotions such as happiness, anger, sadness, and fear. Guided by the adults around them, children are eventually able to identify more complex emotions such as pride, embarrassment, excitement, and disappointment.
Self-management
Self-management refers to the techniques someone uses to regulate the emotions they feel and control how they experience and express them. According to Fischer (2000), both context and gender significantly influence emotional behavior and regulation. The same behavior will be received differently depending on whether it comes from a masculine or a feminine person. This is an example of cognitive bias that needs to be addressed in order to promote gender equality.
Social awareness
Social awareness is the ability to understand others and empathize with them. At first, children are inherently self-centered and have difficulty understanding the emotions of others. By the age of five, they learn to put themselves in other people’s shoes as a way to understand their emotions and answer hypothetical questions.
Relationship skills
Relationship skills are the ability to interact with others in various types of relationships, both vertical (relationships with individuals who have more power or knowledge, such as parents and teachers) and horizontal (egalitarian relationships with peers). They also help individuals adapt to different social situations.
For example, a child who has developed good relationship skills will usually observe a group for a while before trying to join in. On the other hand, a child with weaker relationship skills will try to join in by interrupting, which can lead to rejection by their peers.
Responsible decision-making
Responsible decision-making is the ability to solve problems and make appropriate choices based on the situation. Everyone needs to be able to analyze and reflect on a situation to understand it, assess it, come up with possible solutions, and anticipate the outcomes.
Helping children discover their emotions
For social-emotional skills to develop properly, it’s essential to create a secure environment for children so that they can form attachment bonds with the adults around them.
Every day, the adults around children help them discover their emotions. Acting as guides, they offer valuable emotional support by naming the children’s emotions and their own. Adults support children as they discover the physical manifestations of emotions, both in themselves and in others. Whether these scenarios take place in real-life situations, role-playing, or literature, they have a real impact on the development of empathy. Adults are also responsible for setting limits on the expression of these emotions within a safe, predictable framework.
Furthermore, adults offer a range of strategies for reducing tension. They encourage children to use these strategies independently but are there to support them when needed. Recommendations include moving an upset child to a quiet place away from others, if necessary, to help them calm down more quickly.
Every day, adults express interest in children’s emotional experience by asking them open-ended questions and giving them room to share their experiences and adjust their behavior for the future.
Schools recognize the importance of social-emotional learning for their students and are implementing a variety of programs to help them develop the necessary skills. These programs rely on a few vital elements:
- Using a range of strategies to teach key skills, both during periods dedicated to social-emotional learning and as part of day-to-day teaching.
- Starting early (in kindergarten) with a focus on the long term.
- Giving specific feedback when students demonstrate good social-emotional skills.
The most important element is modeling the social-emotional behaviors and communication skills required for successful human relationships. This modeling is most effective when done in all of a child’s learning environments, both formal and informal. Don’t forget that you are a model children watch and emulate as you navigate the stresses of everyday life. They are learning from you all the time.
