Social and Emotional Learning is for Everyone!
Winter 2026 (January)
Healthy Social-emotional development is essential at every stage of life—from infancy through adulthood. Building strong social skills and emotional awareness provides a solid foundation for learning, communication, and meaningful relationships. When key elements of this development are missing, challenges can arise that affect success in friendships, education, and daily life and can often manifest in challenging behavior.
The links below offer definitions, strategies, and resources to support growth in these areas across all age groups. There are tools that highlight the importance of nurturing social and emotional development for both children and adults.
The Teaching Pyramid resources on the MAP website offer valuable guidance for teaching, practicing, and reinforcing social-emotional skills at school and at home. These resources include lessons, visuals, and stories to help children grow and thrive.
The California Making Access Possible (MAP), funded by the California Department of Social Services, offers more posts on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) under the Social-Emotional & Behavior Resources.
What Is Social and Emotional Learning ?
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is a term for the way children acquire social and emotional skills. It includes things like managing difficult emotions, making responsible decisions, handling stress, setting goals, and building healthy relationships.
Birth to 12 Months: Social-Emotional Development
Social-emotional development is vital for infants and toddlers as it helps them build healthy relationships, manage emotions, and develop social skills. Early support in areas like empathy, emotional regulation, and cooperation fosters resilience, mental well-being, and future academic success, setting the stage for positive lifelong outcomes.
24-36 Months: Social and Emotional Development
Early support in areas like empathy, emotional regulation, and cooperation fosters resilience, mental well-being, and future academic success, setting the stage for positive lifelong outcomes.
Why Social Emotional Learning is Important in Preschool
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) has become a fundamental component of preschool education, recognized for its vital role in children’s early development. As young learners navigate their formative years, SEL not only enhances their emotional intelligence but also lays the groundwork for their future academic and social success. In this article, we explore why SEL is indispensable in preschool settings and how it contributes to various aspects of children’s growth.
Social-Emotional Development Guides (PDF)
From the makers of the Ages and Stages Questionnaires, use these guides to learn what types of behaviors to expect from your growing child.
Social Emotional Development
PBS for Teachers: Social And Emotional Development
Resources in Social and Emotional Development from the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Learning Media encourage children to develop positive peer and adult interactions and to manage self-expression and feelings. Many of our favorite characters, such as Daniel Tiger and Super Why, teach lessons on confronting our fears, working together as a team, and welcoming a new member to a family. Kindness is explored in a lesson that also challenges a student’s artistic expression by making a Kindness Tree. An interactive activity can be used to encourage and teach appropriate social behaviors. Social problem solving, self-awareness, and empathy are also explored.
PBS for Parents: Helping Toddlers Understand Their Emotions
A critical first step in helping your child learn to cope with their feelings is not to fear those feelings, but to embrace them—all of them. Feelings aren’t right or wrong, they simply are. Sadness and joy, anger and love, can co-exist and are all part of the wide range of emotions children experience. When you help your child understand their feelings, they become better equipped to manage them effectively.
CalHope: Social Emotional Learning Modules
The CalHOPE Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Community of Practice is helping enable California’s schools to be leaders in supporting proactive and early intervention as we collectively respond to the social, emotional, and mental health needs of students, families, and educators.
Social-Emotional Learning for Adults: Self-Awareness and Self-Management
According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional, Learning (CASEL), social-emotional learning (SEL) is “the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.”
This activity is administered by WestEd and is sponsored by the California Department of Social Services, Child Care and Development Division.