Taking Social-Emotional Learning Home
Jay Still, MS, CCC-SLP, and Julia Testori, OTD, OTR/L
Social-emotional skills include the ability to recognize and manage emotions, control impulses, communicate effectively, understand others’ perspectives, solve problems, and build positive relationships. Complex Learners may struggle with these skills due to differences in language processing, executive functioning, sensory regulation, and emotional regulation. These challenges can make it difficult to identify feelings, interpret social cues, respond flexibly in social situations, and manage frustration, especially in demanding or unpredictable environments.
As a Speech Therapist (Jay) and Occupational Therapist (Julia) at Wolf, we believe strongly in the partnership between school and home, especially when it comes to reinforcing lessons we teach during the school day. Families can play a significant role in reinforcing social-emotional skills at home by integrating them into everyday moments and routines. When school and home work together, students are better able to build confidence and apply these skills across settings. Here are some ways to help integrate social-emotional learning into your child’s daily life:
From An SLP Lens:
Practice Social Skills at Home
At Wolf, we prioritize social skills and provide frequent opportunities to practice them throughout the school day. However, these skills are most impactful when they are also reinforced at home. Everyday activities such as role-playing conversations, taking turns during games, and sharing family meals with open dialogue help strengthen communication, cooperation, and listening skills. At the next family dinner, try taking turns sharing highlights and challenges from the day, asking open-ended questions, or practicing active listening without interruptions.
Reach out to your team
Reach out to your team to gain a clear understanding of the social-emotional skills your child is working on. With more information, you are in a better position to ask more specific questions about their day and offer better support and reinforcement of these skills at home in meaningful, consistent ways. Directly communicating with your child’s team also gives you an outlet for resources and advice if there are particular skills you would like to see your child work on.
Newsletter
At Wolf, each classroom posts a monthly newsletter at the beginning of each month that gives a look ahead at what we will be covering in the classroom that month. Regularly checking the newsletter provides helpful insight into current SEL lessons and strategies being taught, allowing for consistent reinforcement and shared language between school and home.
Everyday tips
You can support social skills at home through simple, everyday activities. Model respectful communication by listening and taking turns, and encourage conversation with open-ended questions. Play games that involve turn-taking and following rules, and role-play common social situations to practice problem-solving and perspective-taking. Praise specific positive behaviors and create opportunities for shared activities, like family meals or chores, to strengthen cooperation and communication. Remember, you are a role model for your child, so demonstrate the behavior that you hope to see!
From An OT Lens:
Self awareness
Self-awareness is an important skill to help students better understand their emotions, strengths, and challenges. To work on self-awareness at home, families can encourage their children (and the whole family) to label how they are feeling. Putting emotions into words (i.e., “it looks like you are feeling frustrated, how can I help? “) helps children link feelings and body signals together to help them feel more aware of themselves and their actions.
It is also helpful to reflect on the good and difficult parts of our days. Asking questions such as “What went well today?” or “What part of your day could have been better?” can help children reflect on their strengths and challenges. Families can help their children problem-solve how to use their strengths to help improve something they are struggling with. It is also helpful when parents model these strategies by applying them to their own lives.
Self management
Practicing self-management skills at home can help children manage their emotions, stress, and behavior. Practicing calming strategies together as a family, such as deep breathing, stretching, or quiet activities, can build a student’s toolbox to help them feel better in times of stress or frustration. Creating a consistent and predictable routine is also a helpful way to help students feel secure in their lives. Changes in routine are inevitable, but more tolerable with warnings of how a change will affect a typical routine.
At school, students are asked to practice self-management skills through routine and emotions. At the beginning of the year, students are led through their daily routines with visuals, prompts, cues, and reminders. As the year progresses, they receive fewer verbal prompts and are expected to independently utilize their visuals to know what comes next in their schedule, as well as materials they need to grab for groups. For emotional regulation, students are explicitly taught strategies they can use when feeling intense emotions. They choose ones that work for them and create visuals for strategies that work for them. When they are feeling intense emotions, at first, an adult will provide cues to help them properly utilize their visuals to select and use a strategy. As the year goes on, the expectation is for students to independently utilize their visual supports to help them select a regulation strategy.
Responsible Decision Making
As our students grow older, it is important for them to understand how to make thoughtful decisions throughout their day. Our complex learners receive a lot of social-emotional practice throughout their school days, but in real-life situations, it can be difficult to remember everything they’ve learned due to difficulties with emotional regulation and self-control. The best practice is in real-life situations. It is helpful for families to support our students by talking through the reasons behind decisions, whether big or small, to encourage students to think about the real-life choices they are making. Asking questions such as, “What are the benefits of this decision? Are there any potential consequences?” can help students understand that the decisions they make can carry weight. It is helpful for families to help their students reflect on the decisions they have made and the mistakes. When your child is ready, asking questions like “What could we do differently next time?” can help them evaluate their decisions and make a better choice next time. It is also important to include students in everyday decisions such as planning meals, managing their schedule, or choosing which chores they will complete for the week.
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