Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is a process that allows you to put knowledge, attitudes and skills into practice in order to recognize emotions, achieve specific goals and make a positive impact in your academics and career. It is beneficial to children and adults both as it improves social skills, academic achievement and overall mental health. It encourages children to understand the emotions of other people as well as their own, helps build healthy relationships and teaches them to make better decisions in life.
In short, SEL allows individuals to learn and apply social, behavioral and character skills in schools, organizations, business and society.
Social Emotional Learning makes you more aware of your own body. Studies prove that children who receive Social Emotional Learning are less likely to have mental health disorders, abuse drugs, get arrested for disorderly conducts or contract sexually transmitted diseases. They are also less likely to drop out of schools and colleges.
Especially in schools, communities and workplace, SEL plays a huge role to develop self-awareness, self-management and improve relationship within the society. To achieve social and emotional skills, students must engage themselves in sports, extracurricular activities and leadership opportunities. They must work to maintain social involvement. It is necessary for students to focus on being socially inclusive and empathetic within the school environment.
SEL is also helpful for children with disabilities. It doesn’t target a particular group, so its purpose blends with everyone. However, it can prove to be a challenge for any child, irrespective of their abilities. It is not easy to work with students and adults with low self-esteem and self-efficacy. Anxiety, discomfort and comparing one’s life to another can lead to negativity and frustration. Therefore, SEL should be inclusive and identify the areas of problems regardless of the child’s mental and physical condition.
For SEL to work, the schools and classrooms need to provide a safe and positive learning place to the students. They must be respected and their efforts should be appreciated. The schools need to come up with goals to achieve while teaching the students the benefits of Social Emotional Learning Some of the areas to address can be bullying prevention, character development, behavior management, etc. The schools can promote community service, sports activities, leadership skills, and individual performances. However, these needs should not clash with the schedule of the school and fit within the curriculum.
SEL is a framework that thrives to come up with strategic plans and promote social, emotional and academic wellbeing of the students. It is built on trust, participation and positive attributes SEL is not the end result, it is a process that leads to social and emotional growth of a person.
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