For both children and adults, success in school -- and in life -- depends to a great extent on social and emotional skills. These skills include self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, social awareness and relationship skills. Unfortunately, new research shows that these skills took a hard hit for many children during the pandemic, with online learning cutting into opportunities for close personal interaction or even chances to see faces and body language enough to read social cues.

 

This week’s Mom Enough guest, Bridget Durkan Laird, CEO of Wings for Kids, is working with schools and youth organizations across the country to turn this around. Wings for Kids has reached more than 4 million kids with free social emotional curricula and resources. They also offers free practical tools for parents to use at home. In this important conversation with Marti & Erin, Bridget highlights specific examples of the five core competencies of social emotional learning. She also describes the exciting ways Wings for Kids is helping communities around the country give social emotional learning the emphasis it deserves, especially in the after-school hours when children typically have more freedom to explore, choose friends, and experience more of real life with all its unpredictable experiences.

 
WHAT STEPS WILL YOU TAKE TO HELP YOUR CHILDREN DEVELOP THE SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING SKILLS THEY NEED?
Think about the five core social emotional competencies this week’s Mom Enough guest discussed. In what ways do you see your child showing each of these competencies? Which ones seem to be more difficult for your child? Visit Wings for Kids and check out parent resources that might help you support your child in these areas at home.

 
WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SOCIAL & EMOTIONAL SKILLS?
❉ THE ROLE OF PARENTS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A CONVERSATION WITH PAULA FRISK FROM ST. DAVID’S CENTER FOR CHILD & FAMILY DEVELOPMENT. Paula Frisk of St. David’s Center for Child & Family Development joins Marti for an important discussion of what parents can do to protect their children, what parents need for themselves, and what therapeutic resources are available for parents and infants who need help with social-emotional development.

 

❉ FINDING THE RIGHT “SENSORY DIET” FOR YOU AND YOUR CHILD: PRACTICAL STRATEGIES FOR REGULATING EMOTION AND SUSTAINING OPTIMAL ENERGY. Whether we’re kids or grown-ups, we all find unique ways to calm ourselves, rouse ourselves or stay focused on a challenging task, and we use all our senses to do so. Kate Biederman, an occupational therapist from St. David’s Center for Child & Family Development, joins Marti & Erin to shine light on how we can be more aware and intentional in helping our children find the “sensory diet” that will allow them to be their best at home, school or on a trip to the mall.

 

❉ THE WHOLE-BRAIN CHILD: DR. DAN SIEGEL’S INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES FOR NURTURING YOUR CHILD’S DEVELOPING MIND. We all have experienced those moments when our child’s ability to reason seems to fly out the window and raw emotion takes over. Maybe we counter our child’s intense feelings with words of comfort and calm. Or maybe our own frustration rises and we begin to spin out of control. In this episode, UCLA clinical psychiatry professor and popular author, Dr. Dan Siegel, draws on recent brain research to offer an effective and innovative framework for teaching our children to understand how their brains work and use that knowledge to achieve balance, insight and strategies for coping with frustration, disappointment and conflict.