The Power of Social and Emotional Learning

Home Early Development Stages Self-Regulation Families Resources

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SEL helps students understand and manage emotions, act with empathy, and make caring choices. Educators build SEL through explicit skill teaching and strong classroom relationships. Use this site to find stage-specific milestones, classroom moves, and family strategies.

Visual suggestion: Insert an image of the CASEL 5 competencies. Add alt text like: Five SEL competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision making.

Early Experiences Shape Adolescent SEL

Prenatal development and care: Maternal health, stress, and exposure to toxins can affect fetal brain development that later shows up in attention and emotion regulation.

Early childhood experiences: Consistent and responsive caregiving supports secure attachment, which predicts better emotion regulation and peer competence across school years. Chronic stress without supportive relationships can raise reactivity and anxiety.

Visual suggestion: Flow chart: Prenatal Care → Secure Attachment → Self-Regulation → Adolescent Well-Being.

Developmental Stages and Milestones

Choose three stages to highlight. Below are examples for Infancy, Middle Childhood, and Adolescence. Replace or add stages as needed.

Infancy

Milestones: Social smile by about six weeks. Seeks comfort from familiar adults. Separation protest peaks near 15 to 18 months. Secure attachment supports later self-regulation.

Classroom strategies:

  • Warm, contingent responses and consistent primary caregiving.
  • Emotion talk with simple labels and picture books focused on helping and kindness.

Family strategies:

  • Daily serve and return interaction.
  • Name feelings and create predictable goodbye rituals during separations.

Middle Childhood

Milestones: Perspective taking grows. Fairness and peer status shape motivation and behavior. Rule-based morality develops.

Classroom strategies:

  • Cooperative learning with clear roles that practice listening and conflict steps.
  • Class meetings that rehearse responsible decision making.

Family strategies:

  • Home jobs with checklists and timers to build responsibility.
  • Family meetings that model calm talk and perspective taking.

Adolescence

Milestones: Identity exploration. Heightened sensitivity to peer evaluation. Executive functions and emotion regulation continue to mature.

Classroom strategies:

  • Advisory circles with protocols for sharing, feedback, and goal setting.
  • Projects with real audiences to build purpose and relationship skills.

Family strategies:

  • Autonomy-supportive choices with clear limits and rationales.
  • Shared calendars and check-ins about sleep, stress, and screens.

Safety note: Include mental health warning signs and help-seeking scripts on your site. Post the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Follow school protocols and coordinate with counseling staff.

Teaching Self-Regulation

Definition: Self-regulation is managing emotions, attention, and behavior to meet goals.

Examples in class: A student pauses and breathes before responding in conflict. A learner uses a checklist and timer to stay on task.

Modeling and Instruction

  1. Think-alouds: Say your plan, feeling, and strategy choice during tasks.
  2. Visuals: Use timers, checklists, and emotion scales students can use independently.
  3. Co-regulation: Calm tone, brief choices, space, and a return plan after dysregulation.

Poster idea: Pause → Plan → Do → Reflect. Place near a calm corner with sensory tools.

Partnering with Families

  • Daily emotion check-ins: one good thing, one hard thing, one gratitude.
  • Family calm-down routine: deep breathing, short breaks, stretch, or a short walk.
  • Problem-solving conversations: state feelings, describe the problem, brainstorm, agree on a next step.
  • Encourage positive social outlets like clubs, sports, arts, and service.

Tip: Share a one-page PDF of home strategies in multiple languages when possible.

Resources

  • CASEL. Fundamentals of SEL. (overview of competencies and schoolwide practices)
  • Ormrod, Anderman, & Anderman. Educational Psychology: Developing Learners, 10th ed. (developmental milestones, peer relations, moral growth)
  • Palmer. Social and Emotional Development in Early Learning Settings. (policy context and the role of nurturing relationships)

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