Social Emotional Learning (SEL) has become an integral part of our ecosystem, especially in our education system. It is the process by which children and adults develop the knowledge, self-awareness, and personal well-being to build the emotional competencies that help them thrive in academics and life.
Many schools are integrating SEL into their core curriculum. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 included SEL as a key part of the education system. SEL programs aim to equip students with vital skills such as empathy, self-awareness, and relationship-building, which are essential for personal and professional success. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for SEL as students faced increased stress and emotional challenges during remote learning. Government and educational institutions are increasingly investing in SEL initiatives to support the emotional well-being and overall development of students.
The CASS conducted by the Centre for Science of Student Learning (CSSL), an NGO that builds capacity for students' learning assessment and research how students learn, has found that levels of acquisition of SEL skills among students are low across government and private schools in the country. The study has also found that there is a correlation between students' social and emotional development and their academic scores. It was observed that students’ performance was enhanced by 16% in a direct correlation with their social and emotional learning scores.
Let us take a look at some simple age-wise SEL activities that can be helpful for children and can be used by both parents at home or educators in the classroom.
Toddlers and Preschoolers
Play: This is the best form of learning for toddlers. This is a phase where they need a lot of parental guidance so spend a lot of time with them displaying different emotions, and building their motor and sensory skills. You can use different sensory kits or board books to engage them. Reading or storytelling is also a good way to expose them to the world of emotions, feelings, and actions.
Art: Give them a blank canvas and let them explore with kid-friendly colours. Let them try first however they want – this helps to build imagination and creative thinking. Don’t tell them the sky is blue or the grass is green, let them try and then you can make them aware. It also helps them to identify things and associate attributes with them.
Mood charts: This is a very crucial thing to introduce for toddlers and preschoolers because it will help them to recognize and understand stage-wise emotions better. You can draw or print out faces displaying different moods and emotions and have the kids glue them or tape them on a piece of paper. You can then practice making these faces with your child in the mirror and label the emotions of the faces you are making. You can hang the mood chart so that when your child are feeling sad, angry, hurt, or afraid, it’s easy to access and their child can point to it.
Elementary School-goers
Play: You can upgrade the type of play to add the learning angle like board games to induce concentration and focus, taking turns, understanding time management, and many others. Preschoolers and elementary school-age children still need play time and imaginative play as activities to develop their emotional intelligence. However, as they get older their play will be more elaborate.
Art: Parents can encourage kids to write and illustrate a story—or their own comic strip—about how they are feeling. Lead by example by sitting with your child and illustrating your own story sharing emotions.
Mindfulness Activities: Kids this age can start to learn simple mindfulness activities like deep breathing and yoga as a family. It's a great way to help children get in touch with their bodies and help regulate their emotions by tuning into how their bodies are feeling.
Middle School-goers
Goal Setting: This is an important aspect that needs to be understood because it forms the basis for decision-making, analytical skills, time management, responsibility, and many other related skills. Both parents and educators can plan activities to emphasize this and help children learn.
Mindfulness Activities: Older children also need access to the arts to release stress and anxiety and to continue to build their social-emotional intelligence. Sometimes our tweens and teens may not be ready to share what is going on. However, they may be able to express themselves through their art, music, song, or dance.
Expression Activities: Self-expression is an important aspect of SEL. So, the idea is to make them aware of different ways to express their feelings and emotions. They need to understand the norms of communication- both verbal and nonverbal. Debating, extempore, simple speaking activities, or developing a hobby like writing, sports, etc. should be encouraged at this stage.
High School-goers
Journaling: We can encourage our kids to write down their feelings in a journal. As parents, we can even have this be a family activity where a parent and child set time daily or weekly for writing down our feelings and emotions.
Mindfulness Activities: Older children also need access to the arts to release stress and anxiety and to continue to build their social-emotional intelligence. Sometimes our tweens and teens may not be ready to share what is going on. However, they may be able to express themselves through their art, music, song, or dance.
Presentation Activities: They need to develop and improve presentation skills and also work on other life and social skills like creative thinking, analytical skills, empathy, leadership skills, etc. Hence, activities like group discussion, presentation, and related activities can help them a lot.
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