5 Books & Lessons That Build Social Emotional Skills
Child development is a complex process, and as someone with a graduate degree in early childhood development, I can say that the more I learn about it, the more I realize there is to learn. We know so much about this, but we are always learning more, which is perhaps why I find it so fascinating to dive into new research and find ways to apply it to my teaching practice. One way I am refining my pedagogy is by more intentionally including lessons and opportunities for my PreK students to build social-emotional skills in my classroom. Before I list the 5 books and lessons that build social-emotional skills, I want to share with you today why we don’t take a little peek at the research that led me to make this a priority for my teaching practice. If you want to explore this topic in greater depth and get more than 5 new social-emotional learning lessons, you should check out my Everyday Social Emotional Learning virtual workshop.
Why are social-emotional skills so essential to teach at preschool?
Social-emotional development can’t happen on its own; it requires social interactions. Children need to interact with others to learn these skills. Additionally, research shows that we must intentionally teach and develop these skills; they don’t develop naturally. Take self-regulation, for example, research makes it very clear that its development is highly dependent on appropriate co-regulation. Children need warm, responsive adults to help model and coach them as they build these skills. Early childhood is one of two sensitive periods for social-emotional development in humans, with the other in adolescence. These periods are times of optimal learning and exponential growth; it’s the perfect time for us to spend intentionally supporting our students as they develop these skills.
What social-emotional skills should we focus on?
According to the Ruler Approach Framework developed by Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence, these five skills are essential for building emotional intelligence:
Recognizing emotions in oneself and others.
Understanding the causes and consequences of emotions.
Labeling emotions specifically.
Expressing emotions within cultural norms and social context.
Regulating emotions.
These are the social-emotional skills I am choosing to focus on in the lessons and activities I create and explore with my PreK students moving forward. However, these lessons and activities aren’t the bulk of my mission in supporting my students’ social-emotional development. That is my work as a co-regulator. The number one thing we should focus on is our interactions with our students, being warm and responsive, both emotionally and culturally. I can’t stress enough how important it is to model and coach our students throughout the day for their well-being and development. Learn more about this in my professional development workshop.
Still, we know we need to intentionally focus on teaching specific skills in lessons too – so let’s get back on track and let me share five books and lessons that build social-emotional skills!
