Social skills
2013 CASEL GUIDE Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs: Preschool and Elementary School EditionBased on more than a year of extensive research and analysis, the CASEL Guide identifies 23 school-based programs that successfully promote students’ self-control, relationship building, and problem solving, among other social and emotional skills.
MindUP is a comprehensive, classroom-tested, evidence-based curriculum framed around 15 easily implemented lessons that foster social and emotional awareness, enhance psychological well-being, and promote academic success.
The MindUP classroom is an optimistic classroom that promotes and develops mindful attention to oneself and others, tolerance of differences, and the capacity of each member of the community to grow as a human being and a learner. MindUP’s expansive dynamic is built to a large extent on routine practices that are inherent to the MindUP Curriculum. Over the course of the MindUP experience, children learn about the brain and how it functions, in the process gaining insight into their own minds and behaviors as well as those of the people around them. |
Open Circle is a comprehensive, grade-differentiated social and emotional learning (SEL) program for grades Kindergarten through 5, for children, their teachers, administrators, other school staff, parents, and other caregivers.
Implementing the Open Circle program in schools gives children and adults the chance to develop rela- tionships that support safe, caring, and highly-engaging communities. View a YouTube video about the program. |
Social Stories—teacher- made books written for children on topics relevant to an individual—can provide assistance for those toddlers and preschool-age children who need help in the transition process. Here is an article that describes when to use them and how to write a social story.
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Emotional regulation can be defined as the ability to separate your emotional responses to a problem from the thinking you must perform to resolve the problem. The 5-point scale is a visual system that can help to organize a person’s thinking when working through difficult moments, particularly those that require social understanding.
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The Social Thinking Curriculum is another great option for social learning in a school. Social thinking is what we do when we interact with people: we think about them. And how we think about people affects how we behave, which in turn affects how others respond to us, which in turn affects our own emotions. This curriculum helps to improve social thinking. Here is some of the vocabulary that is used and the skills that are developed. Here is a diagram that shows the skills it develops.