We are in an environment that Social emotional learning, or SEL, is the framework that helps children and young adults learn critical skills that will contribute to their success. Parents and family are vital in the role at home supporting their children’s social and emotional needs.

What skills does SEL target?

The five domains of SEL include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationships, and decision-making. Each of these areas includes several skills that contribute to the whole individual. For example, self-management helps learners develop skills for organization, planning, and self-control. Social-awareness helps kids understand expected behaviors, perspective-taking, and empathy. All these skills play a huge role in a child or young adult’s everyday success.

Self-awareness

Self-awareness is having a clear and accurate understanding of ourselves. That includes understanding strengths, working through challenges, recognizing emotions, and considering future aspirations.

Self-management

Self-management means taking responsibility for our own choices to work towards goals. It includes using self-control, developing positive study habits, managing emotions, and persevering through challenges.

Social awareness

Social awareness is understanding the social world. That means understanding the social expectations, reading social cues, perspective-taking, developing empathy, and celebrating our differences.

Relationships

Relationships are the positive connections we have with others. It involves understanding healthy relationships, effectively communicating, working with others, developing friendships, and using conflict resolution to solve problems.

Decision-making

Decision-making is using strategic methods to make positive choices. It includes developing responsibility, problem-solving, navigating through peer influence, owning choices, and choosing healthy habits for the future.

Social emotional learning skills are vital to individuals’ development. Every educator wants their learners to understand their own strengths and challenges, effectively cope with challenges, persevere through adversity, have thoughtful for others, develop lasting relationships, and make good decisions for them and others. These are just a few examples of what skills social emotional learning can cover.