Social Emotional Learning in early Childhood

As a parent are you wondering how your child has been doing socially and emotionally at school but you aren’t sure what will be the right questions to ask your child’s teacher.

Since Think and Grow has integrated social emotional learning in the learning activities and curriculum, we will be guiding you as to what questions to ask your child’s teacher. Let’s get to know what social emotional learning is and then we can proceed to the questions

Social Emotional Skills are important for connecting with yourself and others. They not only help us manage our emotions but help us develop healthy relationships and nurture empathy.

This may sound complex but you will be surprised to know that these skills start developing at a very young age right from the birth. For them to succeed in their personal and professional lives, these skills are extremely important but often overlooked by parents and teachers. These skills will help your child

· Develop healthy relationships
· Resolve conflicts
· Gain confidence
· Realize what others are feeling
· Resist negativity and social pressure
· Better know their strengths and weaknesses
· Make logical and practical decisions

If you are a parent of a child within the age bracket of 3-6, please look out for the following signs that will be positively contributing to the social emotional learning of your child.

· Showing cooperation with peers while playing for instance sharing toys
· Uses words to communicate problem rather than screaming
· Becomes more independent in daily lives
· Starts to understand others feelings
· Started listening to you- Being more cooperative

There is a list of questions we have created to help parents get into conversation with their child’s teacher about their social emotional growth:

1. Any sudden changes observed in my child’s behavior lately?
2. Does my child easily get over school work?
3. Does my child play with other children?
4. Is my child expressive with you and other children?
5. Does my child show aggression towards other children?
6. Does my child show concern when another child is upset or hurt?
7. Does my child ever seen unhappy?

Goleman (1995) emphasized on the preliminary evidence that Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) induced positive behavior in students as well as their academic performance. UNESCO in 2002 also carried out a worldwide initiative to promote SEL. It has been scientifically proven that SEL enhances self-confidence in students, increases self-awareness, reduces stress and leads to improved GPA. Research from meta-analysis reveals that participating schools yielded high performance results in academics. SEL programs improved achievement scores by 50%, while 38% had improved their grade point averages. These programs also made schools safer by minimizing behavioral issues by 28%, reduction in suspensions and disciplinary actions by 44%, respectively. At the same time, attendance rates rose with 63% students exhibiting powerful behavior. Harvard University declared SEL as a “ground breaking paradigm” and University of Illinois SEL committee is further bringing more research on SEL and Illinois has been declared the first state to set rules for SEL. However, it has not been accepted and implemented widely by higher education institutes.