What Social and Emotional Learning is:
The process of individuals acquiring skills to manage their emotions, show empathy, maintain their relationships, and make decisions that are responsible. What happens to a child before they are born and during their early childhood has a lasting effect on how adolescents tolerate stress, form relationships, and regulate their emotions. Due to the brain's plasticity in the early years, mental health issues in adolescents have been found (Sebők-Welker et. al, 2024).
Three Developmental Stages:
Prenatal
Many think that prenatal children have no social-emotional milestones, but they do. Three of these are: responding to voices, absorbing stress, and responding to and hearing the mother's heartbeat. There are many strategies that should be implemented to develop socially and emotionally in the womb. Two of these are talking to the baby regularly and managing emotions and stress.
Toddlerhood
Toddlers reach many social-emotional milestones throughout the short few years of toddlerhood. For example, a toddler will show affection towards preferred people around twelve months, show defiant behaviors around eighteen months, and showing concern for others at twenty-four months (Ages and Stages, 2021). To help toddlers develop emotionally and socially, teachers can read literature that teaches about emotions and naming those emotions. A teacher can also teach calming techniques such as breathing or they can create a calming corner in the classroom.
Adolescence
The social and emotional developmental milestones of adolescence fall under a few categories. Some of these are identity, independence, and responsibility. Identity starts to take shape during this stage of life through experimentation of things like clothing, hair, and friend groups. Independence in how they spend their time and what they spend money on is another key milestone. Finally, responsibilities will be taken on such as chores at home or after-school activities (Raising Children Network, 2026). Encouraging emotional awareness by naming emotions and talking about what they mean is one strategy to promote SEL in adolescents. To build strong relationships in the classroom, create teams of students, pairing the socially adept with the socially inept.
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Self-Regulation
Self-regulation is the ability to regulate or manage your emotions and behaviors through different situations. For example, if something bad happens like stubbing a toe, one would take a deep breath and count to ten before reacting. Another example is making yourself get out of bed at a decent time to start your day without letting your emotions get the better of you. To teach self-regulation in the classroom, there are several techniques that can be used. One example is teaching the children to breath in through their nose and out through their mouths when upset. You can also teach children to talk their emotions outloud by verbally speaking how you are feeling at any given moment. Finally, you can also hold a daily check-in with the whole class where you go around and tell the class how you are feeling that morning.
Strategies to use at Home
Here are some strategies and self-regulation skills for families to use when they want to develop social and emotional learning at home:
For prenatal-
-Talk to your baby through in the womb often so they become aware of your voice
-Take care of yourself physically and emotionally, avoiding stress
Toddlerhood-
-Maintain consistent routines
-Model emotions and reactions to emotions
-Read picture books and point out how the characters are feeling and reacting to the other characters in the book
Adolescence-
-Teach breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth (visualize smelling flowers and blowing out candles).
-Read literature and discuss the emotions of the characters.
-Discuss emotions in an open manner.
-Create a safe space for your child/children to go when they are overwhelmed with their emotions.
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References:
Ages & Stages. (2021). ASQ:SE-2 social-emotional development guides. https://agesandstages.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/ASQSE2-Social-Emotional-Development-Guides.pdf
Raising Children Network. (2026). Social & emotional changes: 9–15 years. https://raisingchildren.net.au/pre-teens/development/social-emotional-development/social-emotional-changes-9-15-years
Sebők-Welker, T., Posta, E., Ágrez, K., Rádosi, A., Zubovics, E. A., Réthelyi, M. J., Ulbert, I., Pászthy, B., & Bunford, N. (2024). The Association Between Prenatal Maternal Stress and Adolescent Affective Outcomes is Mediated by Childhood Maltreatment and Adolescent Behavioral Inhibition System Sensitivity. Child psychiatry and human development, 55(5), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-023-01499-9