Social-Emotional Learning, scientifically referred to as SEL, is an educational process used for both children and adults to learn and apply the knowledge, attitude, and the skills needed to understand and be able to manage their emotions, goals, feeling empathy for others and building relationships with one another. This is a method used throughout our schools to help support self-control and responsible decision making through fun and non-stressful activities that individuals can connect to through social interaction.
Jennifer Buffet and Timothy Shriver of Civic Enterprises stated in their report for CASEL— “The research overwhelmingly shows the linkages among SEL, student outcomes, and school performance. Now, for the first time, we have strong evidence that those on the front lines of American education — our nation’s teachers — embrace SEL in their classrooms, for all students, as well as endorse a more systemic approach to the use of SEL.
Why it’s Essential for Child Development?
Child development is an important part of growing and being successful. One of the essentials to their development is being able to communicate and build relationships with others and having friends they can relate with and be a part of. SEL allows them to do that more easily with fun building activities such as Brackitz because it creates a fun environment to use their imagination rather than sophisticated worksheets they cannot understand.
Being able to dream big and put that into a fun activity helps them:
Communicate better
Learn how things work
Grow in their own way
Connect to others
Feel like they belong
Issues Children Face
Children are very emotional and can feel what we feel which is why it is important to keep a calm environment and self-control when around them. One little slip of irritation and you start back at the beginning with earning their trust. It takes only a second for a child to become fearful or worrisome and it can take a long time to regain their trust.
So what issues cause them to step away from us and not communicate?
In this time where we sometimes feel helpless, children often feel:
Sadness
Frustration
Confusion
Anger
Children and students face things day and night that we don’t understand or cannot relate. As we get older, we forget what it was like for us at their age and yes, we can become frustrated. Being misunderstood is an issue they face. SEL allows us to understand them through ways that make it fun for both us and the child. It allows for growth in both and having that kind of relationship with them is important.
How it helps Educational Development
The Social Emotional Learning process, as stated above, helps them focus on their work and talk to us about the problems they are facing, have faced and builds their confidence in themselves. It encourages them to want to keep learning because SEL allows:
Fun Failure rather than a frustrated child over frustration they feel from a teacher
Storytelling
Cooperation
Motivation
On top of that, it also helps children build in several ways, which makes them who they are and makes growing up easier on them through:
Self-Awareness
Self-Management
Social Awareness
Studies by CASEL, Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning prove that Social Emotional Learning helps both teachers and students but also that to teach the students, one must teach the teachers of the SEL process. Learning Processes Used The learning processes used in the majority of our schools and other educational places generally create an atmosphere that makes students feel:
Low self-esteem
Lack of motivation
Self-loathing
Suicidal
And even hate towards adults and others
Older methods of teaching have helped create school and cyberbullying, hate, sadness, and other negative experiences. Adults may not know why students are struggling. Social and Emotional Learning assists kids in coping with these difficult emotions.
Opposed to the pushy learning methods used today, SEL is designed for Pre-K through 8th grade, en to prepare them for the things they will experience and create an easy going atmosphere for them. It is fun and easy to adjust to and use inclassrooms as well as in different therapies that most processes don’t help with.
Development in the human brain is the most important part of life. It is also important for children to be able to develop cognitively while learning to manage their emotions. This will encourage the motivation to build and have fun while they learn. This will allow them to:
Learn their own way
Bring their imaginations to life through creative activities
This teaching method gives them everything they need, all the time they need, to build and explore who they are without feeling pushed. The SEL method gives children the opportunity to learn at their own pace that might otherwise get discouraged and give up.
