Promoting School Success Social-Emotional Skills Training Nicole Morrell University of Minnesota Early Risers “Skills for Success”

Social-Emotional Skills Training  What is it?  Tools that assist children with emotion recognition, self control, problem solving, and self esteem.  Why is it important?  An approach is needed that will prepare children for the social, peer, and emotional experiences and challenges they will face in the future.

Curriculums  Incredible Years  Second Step  LifeSkills  Coping Power  PATHS

Most Social Skills Training Programs Include:  Self-Control Skills Training  Problem Solving  Competence Training  Affective Education  Perspective Taking  Self-Esteem

PATHS  Promoting  Alternative  THinking  Strategies

What is PATHS?  PATHS is an empirically validated social- emotional skills curriculum  Designed for children between Kindergarten and 6 th grade  Used most often as a “universal” (whole class/school) prevention curriculum  Adapted for Early Risers as a targeted intervention

PATHS  Places an emphasis on the process of learning and developing skills (less focus on facts)  Designed to help children develop  competent peer relationships  emotion recognition  problem solving skills  positive self esteem  Focuses on helping children to  deal with emotions  learn positive behaviors and reactions

PATHS  A new skill or topic is selected each day and taught according to the curriculum manual (5 volumes)  Comprehensive lessons  Recommendations for ways to present the topic  Illustrations (pictures/photographs)  Activity sheets, home activities, supplementary ideas  Letters to the parents

PATHS  PATHS is designed to address  Behavior – that can be observed  Feelings – that are often not readily observed  Iceberg Analogy

Goals of PATHS  The PATHS program provides in-depth training for dealing with uncomfortable feelings (sadness, frustration, anger, and jealousy) while enhancing self- control and teaching strategies for making and keeping friends.

Organization of PATHS Units  FEELINGS AND RELATIONSHIPS  SELF-CONTROL  PROBLEM SOLVING  SELF-ESTEEM

Feelings and Relationship Units  The ability to label emotions is central to the focus of PATHS  Lessons include approximately different affective states  Taught in a developmental hierarchy beginning with basic emotions (happy, sad, angry, etc.) and gradually introducing more complex emotions (jealousy, pride, guilt, etc.)

Feeling Lessons: Feelings and Behavior  FEELINGS  Units teach children that all feelings are OK to have  Comfortable & Uncomfortable Feelings are signals that communicate useful information If we listen to signals they can be used in a positive way  BEHAVIOR  Children are taught that all behaviors are not OK.  Children are taught to judge and evaluate behaviors.

Peer Relationship Approaches  All components of PATHS are designed to enhance interpersonal relationships through emotional understanding and self-control  Specific topics are also included relevant to developing and maintaining positive peer relationships  Making up after peer conflict  Characteristics and behaviors that make good friends  Different ways to make friends in new contexts  Handling peer teasing (e.g. understanding affective states associated with peer rejections vs. belonging.)

Self-Control and Problem Solving Units  Having self-control or being “in control” means that an individual is able to make choices about his or her actions  When someone is “out of control” that person is not able to direct his or her behaviors and may be considered to be on “automatic pilot”

Self-Control Lessons  Self-control involves several skills that are all important for  Peer relationships  Academic success  These skills include:  Frustration tolerance  Anger management  Taking personal responsibility  Attention and concentration

Self-Control Lessons  Signals on a traffic light are a reminder to regulate their own behavior  Red Light = Stop – Calm Down  Yellow Light = Go Slow – Think  Green Light = Go – Try My Plan  Evaluation = How Did My Plan Work?

Problem Solving Lessons 1. Stopping and Calming Down 2. Problem Identification 3. Feeling Identification 4. Deciding on a goal 5. Generating alternative solutions 6. Evaluating the possible consequences 7. Selecting the best solution 8. Planning the best solution 9. Trying the formulated plan 10. Evaluating the outcome 11. Trying another solution/reevaluating the goal

Self-Esteem Approaches  “Kid for Today”  A designated child is a special helper  Compliments of the group members are directed toward the “Kid for Today”

Training Methods  A new skill or topic is selected each day and taught according to the curriculum manual  Learning is promoted through the combined use of visual, verbal and movement activities  The sequence of the session typically involves  The introduction to the skill or topic  A practice component  Consolidation component

Training Method: Introduction of Skill or Topic  Didactic presentation:  Description or explanation of the social- emotional skill or topic of the day  Guided discussion/dialoging:  Provide examples ask the children questions

Training Method: Practice Component  Engage children in activities as they pertain to the social-emotional skill of the day  Modeling: staff and children take turns demonstrating positive and negative examples of the social-emotional skill of the day  Role-Play: staff and children practice the skills learned by acting in a hypothetical scenario using a range of materials including puppets, video-recordings, etc.

Training Method: Practice Component  Storytelling: tell or read fictional or real-life stories pertaining to the skills of the day  Verbal Mediation: use of language to organize and community their thoughts  Project Participation: involvement in games, crafts or other activities that reinforce the skill of the day  Reinforce the Skill: social and self- reinforcement for utilizing the skill

Training Method: Consolidation Component  Review previous learned skills  Encourage use of skills in other settings  Classroom  Playground  Home

PATHS in action Early Risers Saves the world!

How does social-emotional skills training promote school success?