15 social-emotional learning topics to teach your kiddo

Educational research shared by the Learning Policy Institute confirms what a lot of teachers already know: learning social and emotional (SEL) skills has a positive impact on academic success.

Why is this? When children develop positive relationships with others and know how to identify, express, and manage their emotions, they feel better about themselves. This, in turn, makes them more likely to want to learn and succeed.

But how do you teach SEL? The solution isn't as simple as assigning feeling charts and all-about-me worksheets. It’s offering a curriculum that covers the full breadth of social-emotional learning topics.

At bina, we want kiddos to thrive while in school and beyond, just like you do. That’s why we’ve put together this guide to SEL topics to help foster your kiddo’s social and emotional growth.

What does science say about social-emotional learning?

SEL skills are key to helping children grow up into resilient, self-aware, and empathetic adults. They help kids stay motivated to learn, connect with others in a positive way, and feel confident enough to shoot for the stars.

These skills provide kiddos with the emotional foundation they need to navigate challenges, build meaningful connections, and lead positive lives.

An analysis of 424 experimental studies across 50 countries shared by Yale School of Medicine confirms that SEL programs deliver several powerful benefits for kiddos:

• Improves academic performance by inspiring achievement goals, regular attendance, and engagement in learning.
• Supports positive relationships by improving social skills, self-esteem, and stronger peer connections.
• Increases a feeling of safety by helping kiddos feel included and confident.

Empowering kids with a full SEL tool kit can help them become socially and emotionally prepared to take on the world. Life’s hiccups, big and small, are no match for kids who can draw upon a diverse set of social and emotional skills to problem solve, persevere, and innovate their way through life.

So what topics matter? Here are 15 learning topics you can help your child with. They’re organized into one of the five core SEL competencies outlined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL).

15 social-emotional learning topics covering all five core competencies

You can support your child’s social and emotional growth by covering learning topics in all five competencies.

• Self-awareness helps learners understand their emotions, thoughts, and values across different situations.
• Self-management is regulating emotions and behaviors to achieve positive outcomes. Children experiencing frequent transitions need emotional regulation tools they can use anywhere.
• Social awareness means understanding and respecting diverse perspectives. Children need empathic instructions about cultural differences in communication, personal space, and social norms.
• Relationship skills help children establish and maintain healthy connections. Children are natural connectors when given the right conditions; they don't need to share backgrounds to share passions.
• Responsible decision-making means making constructive choices based on ethical standards. This includes considering both local context and global impact.

Let’s dive into an example of each competency and related SEL topics you can help your child learn at home or with a group of kids.

1. Self-awareness: Developing a personal identity

Maya moves from Japan to Canada with her family. She feels confused during the first week at her new school. Her teacher notices that she speaks quietly during discussions and asks her about it. Maya tells her that speaking quietly in Japan is respectful, but now it makes her feel invisible. Through self-awareness activities, Maya recognizes that her communication pattern reflects her cultural background and not a lack of confidence.

Supporting learners like Maya requires self-awareness learning topics to help them understand and appreciate who they are. With this skill unlocked, kids can better express themselves and share their special gifts with the world.

Here are some of the key areas to focus on. Consider that these topics work especially well in small classroom settings or at home. In these spaces, kiddos feel safe sharing personal experiences with confidence.

SEL topics for self-awareness

• Working on visual art projects to express a personal narrative. Run cultural brainstorming sessions to show how different influences can shape their individual identities. You can use a collage technique or a whiteboard with colored markers.
• Understanding multiple language identities and code-switching. Explore with the kiddos how they change their communication style depending on the language they're speaking or the cultural context they’re in. Ask bilingual or multilingual children in the group to share their personal experiences.
• Exploring “third culture kids” and feelings of belonging. Help students who’ve lived in multiple places to understand their unique perspective. Explain the idea of collecting cultures through a vision board exercise.

2. Self-management: Mastering emotional regulation

Seven-year-old Ahmed’s family has to relocate to a different city. Ahmed experiences a wave of anxiety about leaving his friends and adjusting to a new school. His new teacher introduces him to simple meditation techniques, helping him create a personal calm-down toolkit with a mindfulness jar and silly putty that he can use anywhere, anytime. Later, Ahmed confidently uses these tools to manage his emotions during difficult moments.

Teaching self-management to children means equipping them with portable tools they can use at any moment and wherever they are. Here are some topics to help with self-management:

SEL topics for self-management

• Building flexible routines that work across changing situations. Kiddos need flexible routines that can adapt to changes in life, like changing schools, new siblings, or moving to the other side of the world. Guide the kiddos to create their own routine cards by drawing them and coloring them in.‍
• Mindful movement practices from different cultural traditions. Introduce yoga, tai chi, or capoeira so the kiddos can try different styles and techniques. Ask them to invent their own somatic choreography to look into their feelings.‍
• Stress-management strategies: breathwork and tapping. Teach kiddos age-appropriate breathing techniques like bunny breath or snake breath and tapping routines with positive mantras.

3. Social awareness: Fostering cross-cultural perspectives

During a virtual classroom celebration, Amara shares that her family celebrates Eid, while Leo talks about Dia de los Muertos. Their teacher facilitates a discussion where the students learn how people honor important cultural moments in different ways.

When we teach social and cultural awareness to children, we’re preparing them to be empathetic and understanding adults. Here are some topics to help students recognize that what feels natural to them might feel different to someone else, and that’s perfectly ok.

SEL topics for social awareness

• Recognizing differences in personal space and touch. Everyone has varying comfort levels with physical proximity and touch. You can explore this with a “personal space bubble” activity using hula hoops to help kiddos visualize comfortable distances for different interactions.
• Practicing respect and cultural humility to avoid assumptions. Cultural humility means recognizing we don’t know everything about another person’s background and being willing to really listen. Start a “curiosity jar” where kids submit questions about different cultures to encourage respectful inquiry.
• Learning about diverse family structures and roles. All families are different. Some are extended families, others are single parents, and others are same-sex parents or even guardians. Invite the kiddos to create a family portrait gallery where every configuration is celebrated equally.

4. Relationship skills: Building social connections

Two students from different parts of the world discover they both love marine biology. Despite subtle language differences and cultural backgrounds, they work together on a project about coral reef conservation. Their shared interest becomes the foundation for a genuine friendship.

Teaching kiddos to build relationships across cultures prepares them not just for school, but for life. Here are some skills to help students learn how to build relationships and friendships around common interests and mutual respect.

SEL topics for relationship skills

• Building friendships through shared interests. Like the example above, the best friendships often form around common passions, whether that’s art, science, or sports. With the learners' feedback, create “interest clubs” where dinosaur enthusiasts, artists, or chess players can gather and build their relationship skills together.
• Communication strategies for diverse groups. Teach strategies for communication across language barriers and communication styles, embracing visual communication and sign language. Make a picture dictionary together with words and symbols as a bridge-building tool.
• Creating multicultural common spaces to build collaboration skills. Ideate projects that require teamwork across cultural lines, like a “Global Solutions Project” where teams design playgrounds for multiple climates. Assigning roles that align with strengths will make sure everyone has a part to play.

5. Responsible decision-making: Creative problem-solving

While working on a project about environmental conservation, a group of students talks about how to reduce waste. One of them shares how her family in Japan separates trash into many categories. Another explains how his community in Kenya uses reusable containers in the markets. Together, they make a slide presentation sharing sustainable solutions to the problem. They end up learning how issues can be resolved through diverse perspectives and collaborative decision-making.

By teaching responsible decision-making to your kiddos, you’re helping them develop flexible thinking skills for any situation.

SEL topics for responsible decision-making

• Using artistic thinking processes for everyday problems. Have your kiddos approach problems like artists approach a blank canvas: with creativity, experimentation, and openness. The practice of sketching and brainstorming on paper will introduce them to new ways of thinking.
• Simulate group challenges to inspire collaborative problem-solving. Present scenarios that will require teamwork, like “How would you design a playground for children with different abilities?” Adding constraints like a budget and timeline will make them feel like the problem is realistic.
• Making decisions that consider global impact and local context. Help your kiddos understand that the decisions they make may have long-term ripples. Work on a “decision ripple map” and draw expanding circles from their decision that affect their family, school community, and world.

How we incorporate social-emotional learning at bina

At bina, social-emotional learning isn’t a lesson squeezed between math and science. Instead, we practice schoolwide SEL by integrating it into the entire school day. SEL and life skills make up 25% of what our kiddos learn.

The content flows naturally through our biomes, allowing our teachers and co-teachers to observe emotional development in real-time and adapt support accordingly.

The social and emotional learning topics you learned about in this guide are all part of the day-to-day at bina. Your kiddos receive all the tools they need to become emotionally intelligent. And it all flows naturally, rather than feeling forced.

If you’re curious to learn more about bina, see if we’re a good fit in the form below.

FAQs

Are there any learning apps that can help my child learn social-emotional topics?

There are lots of apps with SEL themes your kiddo might enjoy. SuperNoodle is designed to help build healthier, happier kids; it offers emotional learning for elementary students. Smiling Mind offers guided meditations that are kid-friendly, and Calm is great for mindfulness meditations and breathing exercises.

What books are good for teaching SEL topics?

Books that help kiddos identify their emotions and encourage positive self-worth can help support social-emotional growth. There are tons of great options, ranging from The Bad Seed by Jory John for early learners to The Science of Unbreakable Things by Tae Keller for middle school-aged kids. Here are 10 more SEL books worth checking out.

How can I implement SEL at home?

Try starting with daily emotional check-ins where everyone shares their feelings. Help kiddos name their emotions freely without judgment and make them feel safe. You can also build up their problem-solving skills by asking them open-ended questions throughout the day. Finally, read books together that explore emotions and discuss the story.