Social-Emotional Learning Assessment: a New RNBC Service
One of the most important jobs of childhood involves making friends, keeping friends, earning the good opinion of others and avoiding the social landmines of rejection, isolation, and loneliness. Children who succeed at these tasks enter adolescence and adulthood ready for success in relationships that are critical for a life well-lived—with spouse, children, friends, and colleagues.
Yet a startling number of children struggle socially. Researchers estimate that at least one in ten children is rejected by his or her peers. This does not mean the trivial rejection we all experience from time to time when someone declines an invitation or would rather talk to someone else. Rather, it refers to broad, unrelenting ostracism by their peers. About one child in three is involved in bullying—some of those children also experience rejection. Still others suffer severe loneliness.
We are happy to announce that, beginning in the fall, RNBC will offer a new social-emotional learning assessment service to help children and their parents understand what is getting in the way socially, and to develop a plan to address each child’s unique needs. “We are really excited about this new addition to our clinical services,” says Dr. Bernadette Evans-Smith, RNBC Clinical Director. ‘We believe this will be an excellent way to refine our assessments so that we can identify social strengths and difficulties and help children and families get the kind of treatment they need.”
The research team at RNBC has been working hard to understand what factors contribute to these social challenges. One of the areas where they have made great progress is in developing ways to assess the social-emotional learning (SEL) skills children need to be socially successful. SEL skills include the ability to “read” others’ nonverbal behavior to know what they are feeling; the ability to understand another person’s perspective; to understand and use the social conventions we all follow in conversation; to engage in effective social problem-solving; and to be able to regulate thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
In Spring, 2009, the RNBC team, lead by Dr. Clark McKown, published two studies that presented evidence of the clinical usefulness of a battery of tests that evaluate a child’s SEL skill level. That work, and additional papers in preparation, suggest that the better children do on SEL assessments, the more competent they are at getting along with other children and at refraining from behaviors that get in the way of positive relationships, such as aggression. In turn, the more they engage in competent behavior and refrain from behavior that gets in the way, the better regarded they are by peers.
The RNBC team has found that children who struggle socially vary in their performance on different tests of SEL. For example, some children have a hard time reading facial expressions. Others have difficulty sitting still and controlling their impulses. These are challenges that require different kinds of intervention. “By identifying each child’s areas of strength and weakness, these tests can help us determine what to do to help,” explains Dr. McKown.
“If parents are concerned that their child is struggling socially, the lack of SEL skills may be a key factor,” says Dr. McKown. “We now have the means necessary to understand the problem and develop a tailored treatment plan. We have been conducting simpler SEL testing for some time. That testing has proven useful. However, we believe our more comprehensive SEL assessment will offer a better way to identify barriers to social success and to point to interventions that will help.”