Can Emotional Intelligence Be Taught?

October 18, 2013 by

We spend a lot of time in our children’s education focusing on literacy and numeracy and academic skills. Are we now realizing the importance of teaching children social and emotional intelligence skills too? After allchild at desk classroom children (and adults) have emotional needs as well as mental and physical.

At Rainbow Planet Connection we believe that teaching social and emotional intelligence is paramount to the well-being of children. Learning these skills will help them in all aspects of life. There is growing evidence that emotions can either hinder or enhance our ability to learn. Imagine being really worried about something in your life and trying to concentrate on learning!!

The following article from the New York Times supports teaching children emotional intelligence.

Below is an excerpt from the article:

Wade’s approach — used schoolwide at Garfield Elementary, in Oakland, Calif. — is part of a strategy known as social-emotional learning, which is based on the idea that emotional skills are crucial to academic performance.

“Something we now know, from doing dozens of studies, is that emotions can either enhance or hinder your ability to learn,” Marc Brackett, a senior research scientist in psychology at Yale University, told a crowd of educators at a conference last June. “They affect our attention and our memory. If you’re very anxious about something, or agitated, how well can you focus on what’s being taught?”

Once a small corner of education theory, Social-Emotional Learning (S.E.L.) has gained traction in recent years, driven in part by concerns over school violence, bullying and teen suicide. But while prevention programs tend to focus on a single problem, the goal of social-emotional learning is grander: to instill a deep psychological intelligence that will help children regulate their emotions.

boy sadFor children, Brackett notes, school is an emotional cauldron: a constant stream of academic and social challenges that can generate feelings ranging from loneliness to euphoria.

But in practice, Brackett says, many children never develop those crucial skills. “It’s like saying that a child doesn’t need to study English because she talks with her parents at home,” Brackett told me last spring. “Emotional skills are the same. A teacher might say, ‘Calm down!’ — but how exactly do you calm down when you’re feeling anxious? Where do you learn the skills to manage those feelings?”

If you agree with the suggestions and comments and you are a parent or are working with children and wish to support them with Social-Emotional Learning then you may be interested in our e-training courses.

  • Our online training courses can be accessed from anywhere in the world!
  • All you need for this course is internet access, an interest in developing new skills and having fun!
  • We will tailor the training schedule to suit your individual needs

On enrolment you will be provided with the full set of Programs and Resources to enable you to deliver between 8-10 sessions of Emotional and Social Skills well-being to groups of young children (primary school age).
We also have lots of activity books and resources about Social and Emotional Intelligence.

Please read our testimonials from others who have successfully used our training courses to suit their own individual situations.

Barbara Westgate – Canada. “I feel this is an extremely valuable program and I am anxious to learn as much as I possibly can from the Developers of the Rainbow Planet“.

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Tips for Parents – can your child’s after-school behaviour be challenging?

October 15, 2013 by

Is your child’s behaviour difficult to manage when you have just picked them up from school?

Your child has been at school all day interacting with other children. Some of these interactions are positive and healthy but others can be challenging and difficult for your child.rainbow planet 000016799650

Is it any wonder that when they have just finished school they can be a little bit difficult!? They have been exposed to other children’s emotions all day!

Many children have issues with bullying, friendships, being ostracised and other challenges with social interactions in the classroom and the playground. I know my daughter did when she was at school!

As a parent you may at times feel helpless as to how you can help your child deal with these issues. The best thing you can do is teach them social and emotional intelligence skills. This will help them to cope much better as they interact with the world in general.

We at the Rainbow Planet Connection offer a range of activities and resources that are designed to help you as a parent to teach your children these skills.

Our resources and training programs have been developed by professionals to promote emotional and social well-being in children. They are based on the creative expression of feelings through the use of art, drama, role-play, creative writing and more.

These activities are designed to develop the right-hand creative side of the brain. I feel that this has a low profile in some schools and should be given more emphasis. Rainbow Planet Connection’s programs encourage children to look inwards to see how they are dealing with their own feelings and how they are coping with the world around them.

cards1One of our resources that is especially popular with both parents and teachers is a lovely colourful set of 32 feelings cards. These have many uses in a variety of situations; for example when your child first gets home from school.

Just ask them to pick a card that best explains how they are feeling. This will help you understand how this might be affecting their behaviour. They may for instance pick ‘sad’. If you encourage them to talk about this, they may say that they are not friends with someone in their class anymore.

Then you can ask them to pick another card that expresses how they would like to feel. Perhaps they will pick ‘happy’. Then you can ask ‘What can you do to make yourself feel happier?’

An extension of this exercise is to encourage your child to sit down quietly with paper and crayons and draw a picture of how they feel or how they would like to feel. You would be amazed at how therapeutic this is for your children. A calmer happier child benefits you as a parent and makes your life easier! All our books have art extension activities.

girls in sand
Many children haven’t been taught skills for coping and responding to life and how to manage their own emotions in healthy ways.

Now you as a parent can help them to develop these skills!

Comments from other people who have used Rainbow Planet Connection’s products with children.

Module 5 – Exploring and Expressing Feelings Book plus Colourful Card Set provides a rich resource of ideas that encourages children (and adults) to become more deeply aware of their feelings and the workings of their bodies.
It is equally valuable for the group leader/facilitator working with children as it is for a parent with their own child. This resource is full of lists, instructions and step-by-step planning to accomplish the activities. It also comes with 32 feelings cards and a booklet with ideas for using them.

“I recommend these cards for teachers, counsellors, people who run workshops and most importantly for families to use on a daily basis.”

More testimonials.

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Should children start school later?

October 9, 2013 by

British academics and teachers have highlighted the need to learn through play in an article in The Guardian on 12 Children drawingSeptember 2013 and called for a later start to formal schooling. Do you agree?

They wrote a letter to Michael Gove (UK Secretary of State) to demand that children be allowed to learn through play and to call for a delay the start of formal teaching and testing.

The letter says:
Very few countries have a school starting age as young as four, as we do in England. Children who enter school at six or seven – after several years of high-quality nursery education – consistently achieve better educational results as well as higher levels of well-being.

One of the signatories, Cambridge researcher David Whitebread, explains why children may need more time to develop before their formal education begins in earnest. I was delighted when I came across this article. I have felt for a long time that children need to play and have fun before we put too much pressure on them to be successful academically.

As a school psychologist I have seen many young children who had emotional and social issues which needed to be addressed before they could be receptive to learning. Allowing them to play and have fun whilst learning these social and emotional well-being skills provides them with a great foundation for the rest of their lives.

Happy child with painted handsWith this in mind I created Rainbow Planet Connection several years ago which offers resources and training for teachers, parents and other professionals in this area.

Our philosophy is that EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL WELL-BEING are now being recognized as key factors in helping children to develop in a much healthier way, where they feel happier about themselves and are more likely to be successful in learning.

The programs and resources developed by The Rainbow Planet Connection are based on:

  • Teaching and encouraging children to be responsible for their own energy and emotional state.
  • Teaching children how to express their feelings in a fun, creative way using Art, Drama, Movement, Music, Story Telling and other creative activities.
  • Encouraging children to express their feelings, without being embarrassed or ashamed of them, and without blaming or hurting others in the process.
  • Teaching children to communicate and interact with others in more responsible, caring ways.

Dr. Maurice Elias, a leading child psychologist, researcher and expert on SEL from Rutgers University says:

“Emotional well-being is “dramatically and positively predictive not only of academic achievement, but also of satisfactory and productive experiences in the world of work and marriage, even of better physical health.”

The Montessori and Steiner schools have for many years adopted the philosophy that a child is better left until the age of seven before they are taught more academic subjects as outlined below. Waldorf (Steiner) pedagogy distinguishes three broad stages in child development, each lasting approximately seven years.

The early years education focuses on providing practical, hands-on activities and environments that encourage creative play. In the elementary school, the emphasis is on developing pupils’ artistic expression and social capacities, fostering both creative and analytical modes of understanding.

For more information about Rainbow Planet Connection’s online training, kid’s activities and workbooks, please visit our website and read our testimonials about other people’s experiences using our resources.

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Tips to help children refocus and calm down!

October 3, 2013 by

REFOCUSING – A WONDERFUL TECHNIQUE

Imagine this! A group of children who want to learn, who are calm, relaxed and receptive to learning.
Children who are having fun and being creative. Whose emotional energy state is stable and focused.
How can you achieve this?

Introduce ‘Refocusing’ into your dayrelax kids feet oct 2013

Introduce 5-15 minute sessions throughout the day, which are spent on helping the children to refocus and center their energy. Help them to change their hyperactive, scattered energy state to a calmer more peaceful one and be more receptive to learning!
This is time well spent for yourself and the children to recharge your batteries. This helps make your day easier and to flow.

How do you do this?

You can weave into your day short sessions of refocusing the child’s energy and attention by introducing Breathing and Body Awareness and Relaxation/Visualization exercises into your day.

For example at the beginning of the day or just after lunch when the children’s energy may be scattered you can use one of the relaxation and refocusing activities from Module one of the Rainbow Planet Connection resources.

For example, Activity 2 called ‘the Garden’ takes them back on a journey to a special garden where they feel peaceful and relaxed. A worksheet accompanies this visualization where the children can draw a picture of what they saw in their beautiful garden.

Or you can use techniques, which facilitate the release of pent up emotional energy such as putting the Feelings Cards around the room at the beginning of the day e.g. angry, sad, happy etc. You then ask the children to stand next to the one that most describes how they feel.  Then allow them to say why they feel like this.
This technique enables children to let go of emotional energy, and release and clear this from their body to become more receptive to learning.

You can use the activities we offer with the whole class over a number of weeks perhaps during circle time. Or you can use them with children in small groups. Some of the exercises from Body Awareness Module 2 involve teaching children relaxation and body awareness techniques to help them to get in touch with their feelings and where they are in their body.

They tune in to the colour and shape of the feelings and how these feelings are affecting them and their behaviour. They then learn how to breathe deeply and change the colour and shape to a more harmonious one if necessary.

This type of exercise works brilliantly with children (and adults) and I have used it many times over the course of my professional career as both a teacher and a counsellor. You can help the children and yourself get into a totally different state quite quickly using these methods.

You probably have children in your class who are challenging when it comes to sitting quietly and concentrating. They may even have lots of issues, which are causing them emotional hurt and pain. You can’t fix this for them but you can provide them with a wonderful school environment where they feel safe and nurtured. You can create a six-hour day for them where they leave behind their hurt and are present and open to learning.

Rainbow Planet Connection has lots of ideas and exercises you can use for ‘refocusing.’

Below is some feedback from facilitators who have used Rainbow Planet Connection’s Refocusing and Calming Activities with positive results:

  • “The children immediately took to the breathing exercises and many come into each class, asking when we can do our breathing/relaxation exercises. I believe the children are learning to exercise self-discipline and to self calm. I have to push them out the door when it is time for them to leave – really!”
  • With other groups ages ranging from 5-12 years:
    “I was really surprised to see how they identified with different shapes and colours which represented different feelings. I found this the most awesome part of the night; I didn’t realize how readily they would identify and label.”
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HOW DO EMOTIONS AFFECT CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOUR?

January 18, 2013 by

 

HOW DO EMOTIONS AFFECT CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOUR?

HOW CAN EMOTION AND SOCIAL WELL BEING MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

If a child is emotionally upset whether the emotion is anger, guilt, sadness or a range of other emotions, then they are not likely to function in a healthy way with regards to their behaviour. They may for instance express their anger by projecting it onto others as verbal aggression or violence. The other person that they project it onto may not have been the instigator of the emotion but an innocent bystander!

Children who have inner emotional turmoil are unlikely to be receptive to learning or responding in an appropriate way.

If you are working with these children it is extremely useful to have ideas and resources to help them express their emotions in non-violent ways.

I know that as a counsellor myself for many years, I was constantly looking for resources to use in my counselling role, especially ones that were interactive and fun.

WOULD YOU LIKE IDEAS AND RESOURCES TO HELP THE CHILDREN

THAT YOU ARE WORKING WITH?

 TO HELP THEM TO BECOME MORE SOCIALLY AND EMOTIONALLY HEALTHY?

We offer stimulus materials and activities to help to encourage children to open up and express themselves so that emotional healing can take place.

The activities we offer are based on the use of art therapy, drama, role play, dance and movement and creative writing to encourage children to express their feelings.

Art therapy for example, is a very useful and effective tool to use one on one or with small groups of children to help them to express their feelings.

Many children find it difficult to talk about their feelings but if they are drawing a picture it seems to put them at ease and they often begin to open up.

Other activities are offered which are based on inner body work. This involves looking inside the body to find out where the feeling or hurt is and then breathing it and/or doing other exercises to express and release the feeling.

Drama and role play activities are offered as part of our program and provide fun, effective ways of helping  children express their feelings and find better ways of responding to life issues.

WOULD YOU LIKE TRAINING TO HELP YOU TO IMPROVE YOUR REPERTOIRE OF SKILLS AND IDEAS FOR SUPPORTING CHILDREN’S EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL WELL-BEING?

As well as a number of Activity based books we also offer an E-training course for anyone working with children and supporting their social and emotional well-being.

More about of this course

  • This e-course has been created to provide resources and training to encourage and support the development of SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE in children
  • Teaching EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE skills has been found to be a KEY FACTOR in producing happy kids with good self-esteem who are socially and educationally more successful
  • The Program focuses on helping children to learn how to manage their own emotional energy as well as how to be more aware of other people’s emotional energy and how it affects them
  • It introduces them to relaxation, visualization and breathing and body awareness techniques and teaches them how to use these techniques to centre and manage their own energy
  • Creative self-expression activities are uses throughout these sessions including games, role-plays, movement/dance, art, story telling and more, to help children to explore and express emotions
  • The program also helps to empower kids to deal with life issues such as bullying, friendships, anxiety etc

If you would like more detailed information about our resources or our training courses please go to www.rainbowplanetconnection.com

Or e-mail carol@rainbowplanetconnection.com

Written by Carol Wood

 

 

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Is there something missing…

November 30, 2012 by

Is there something missing in what we are teaching our children?

Based on the growing concerns that many parents and teachers have regarding children’s development, perhaps we need to ask ourselves this question!

Many of our schools are full of children who want to blame, tease and put other kids down. They continuously engage in power struggles and win-lose games. We still see the bullies and the victims.

We also see children who are sad, depressed and those who are ostracized by others.

Teaching children Social and Emotional Intelligence skills can help to address these issues.

If a child is in charge of their own emotional energy and response to others and learns how to take others people’s feelings into consideration, this will help to them be more emotionally healthy and generally have a greater sense of self-worth.

Exciting New Kid’s programs to support the development of Healthy Social and Emotional Intelligence Skills

We offer a program that can be used by teachers, child care workers, counsellors or other professionals working with children.

We would like to share a very interesting review from Barbara, a Yoga teacher in Canada who joined our E-course Training for Group Leaders and has been running our Kid’s program.

Barbara has been offering this innovative, program to 3 different groups of children over the last 5 weeks.

  • This program is designed to support and help children to develop healthy social and emotional skills.
  • It uses breathing and body awareness techniques to help children to centre and manage their own energy.
  • It also encourages children to develop healthy social interactions and more effective ways of relating to others.
  • Games and creative, fun activities such as art and drama form a large part of the course content

I sent Barbara some questions and here are her answers along with some other comments:

Q. Barbara why were you drawn to the Rainbow Planet E-course Training Program?

A. I have been interested in Social/Emotional Intelligence for many years. It was several years ago, now, when I first came across your website and subscribed to your newsletter. What you are doing and offering sounded so in tune to what I feel children need. I was not in a position to travel to any of the countries where you were offering the workshops so I ‘jumped’ at the possibility of doing an E-course. Thus far, I have not been disappointed.

Q. How are the parent’s responding to what you are offering the children in this program?

A. I hoped to attract 5 children with whom to do the assignments and was overwhelmed by the response. I now have 3 groups with a total of 20 children. PARENTS WANT THIS FOR THEIR CHILDREN. I have been asked if I will continue to offer the classes after this series end. I continue to get calls from parents who have heard through others about this program. Just tonight a parent came early to tell me how her son is using the information at home and at school. Yesterday he encountered a child who was in his personal space. He attempted to handle the situation but he was sent to the back of the room by the teacher so he would not have to encounter the behaviour that was bothering him. Today the same thing happened again and he stopped, assessed the situation and using a confident voice asked the child to stop the action that was irritating him. She did! The parent spent some while giving further examples of how the programme is working and how she too is learning to use the exercises for her own betterment. She also said her son is loving the classes. Truthfully, I have had numerous positive responses and much encouragement from most of the parents.

 

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