Tools to foster social and emotional literacy: working with parents and carers

Overview

Parents and carers want to give their children the best start in life. One simple way they can do this is by helping children recognise and manage their feelings, body signals and reactions. As teachers, social workers, counsellors and wellbeing staff, we can support parents and carers with information, ideas and simple, practical strategies to implement at home.

Social and emotional literacy is the ability to understand, manage, and express emotions effectively; fundamental skills for building healthy relationships and navigating social interactions in everyday life.

In this workshop, we’ll explore how practitioners can encourage parents and carers to learn about, model and support their child’s social and emotional development.

What to expect

• An introduction to social and emotional literacy: understanding emotions, empathy, self-awareness, and interpersonal communication.
• Suggestions and ideas for how parents and carers can be their child’s first ‘social and emotional literacy’ teacher.
• Activities to help children recognise and regulate their feelings, build empathy and create healthy, respectful connections with others.
• Practical strategies to recognise and reframe anxiety and other challenging feelings.
• Opportunities to share experiences, insights, and challenges related to social-emotional wellbeing.
• An exploration of a variety of Innovative Resources tools and card sets.
• Take-home resources: handouts or materials to reinforce learning and continue practicing skills outside the workshop setting.

Resources

• Strength Cards® for Kids
• Strength Cards® Unlimited
• The Bears
• Funky Fish Feelings
• Can-do dinosaurs
• Cars ‘R’ Us
• Paperworks
• Anxiety Solutions
• Anxiety Solutions for kids

Suitable for

• Social workers
• Child, youth and family workers
• Health workers
• School counsellors
• Teachers
• Wellbeing staff
• Early year’s professionals
• Counsellors