Sequence SEL intervention content by developmental stage, targeting skills most salient to each grade or age that serve as building blocks for later complex skills¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 review), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description¶

The article recommends that SEL interventions target and measure skills in a manner consistent with developmental principles rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach across the elementary years. Its recommendation is to "Focus on skills most salient to each grade or age that serve as building blocks for more complex skills later." The strategy works by matching program content to stage-salient skills: simple cognitive regulation and emotion skills in the very early grades, planning and organizing in second and third grade, and perspective taking and conflict resolution in fourth and fifth grade. Studies of SEL programs should also articulate a series of reasonable short- and long-term goals or expectations.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Programs should articulate a series of reasonable short- and long-term goals or expectations aligned to developmental growth

Constraints¶

• SEL programs and interventions frequently target the same skills in the same ways across multiple years, contrary to the developmental sequence

Target Learners¶

• Children in middle childhood, kindergarten through fifth grade

Target Learning Goals¶

• Stage-salient cognitive regulation, emotional, and social/interpersonal skills

Affordances¶

• Jones Three Domain Sel Framework

Claims¶

• Apparent variation in SEL program impacts may be an artifact of imprecise program targets misaligned with too-general outcome measures [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Tailor SEL programming to developmental level, from preschool skill practice through adolescent status-and-respect opportunities
• Social Emotional Learning Curricula
• Make SEL measurement narrower in focus but broader in context and depth, choosing specific measures guided by development and skill trajectories
• Use highly individualized instruction tailored to each specific student with ASD, aligned with their level of mathematical thinking

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Stephanie M. Jones, Sophie P. Barnes, Rebecca Bailey, and Emily J. Doolittle. (2017). Promoting Social and Emotional Competencies in Elementary School. The Future of Children, Vol. 27, No. 1, Spring 2017. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1144815