Emotional literacy

Sign, SEAL, deliver

If Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning are crucial to a happy life, we need to consider this when planning therapy. Speech and language therapist turned life coach Catherine Williamson and life coach Jenny Maguire discuss the SEAL primary emotional literacy curriculum for England and a complementary workshop they offer to parents.

tudents who are anxious, angry or depressed dont learn; people who are in these states do not take in information efficiently or deal with it well when emotions overwhelm concentration, what is being swamped is the mental capacity cognitive scientists call working memory, the ability to hold in mind all information relevant to the task at hand. (Goleman, 1995)

READ THIS IF YOU WANT TO FORGE INTER-PROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION RAISE SELF-WORTH AND CONFIDENCE HAVE A LONG-TERM IMPACT

In a report commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills, Weare & Gray (2003) say there is sound evidence, mainly from the United States, that work on emotional and social competence and wellbeing has a wide range of educational and social benefits. This includes greater educational and work success, improved behaviour, increased inclusion, improved learning and greater social cohesion. The Government set up Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) in 2005 as a way of helping children in England to: 1. Be effective and successful learners 2. Make and sustain friendships 3. Deal with and resolve conflict effectively and fairly 4. Solve problems with others or by themselves 5. Manage strong feelings such as frustration, anger and anxiety 6. Be able to promote calm and optimistic states that promote the achievement of goals 7. Recover from setbacks and persist in the face of difficulties 8. Work and play cooperatively 9. Compete fairly and win and lose with dignity and respect for competitors 10. Recognise and stand up for their rights and the rights of others 11. Understand and value the differences and commonalities between people, respecting the right of others to have beliefs and values different from their own.

Life skills
Life Coaching is a dynamic approach to help people of all abilities make the most of what they are good at and is therefore an excellent complement to the SEAL initiative. Coaching is about helping children or adults understand what they find difficult and what they want to change and then to identify the steps to get there. These truly are life skills, the tools we need to become resourceful and successful in our adult lives.

Catherine Williamson

Jenny Maguire

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Division's ambition is for every child with special educational needs to reach their full potential in school, and to make a successful transition to adulthood and the world of further education, training or work (www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/ sen/). As both a speech and language therapist and Life Coach, I am particularly interested in the potential of SEAL to benefit the estimated 7.4 per cent of children (2-3 per class) who have language difficulties of varying severity (I CAN, 2001). It is recognised in the Joint Professional Development Framework (I CAN, 2001, p.6) that, In the classroom, SLCN (Speech, Language and Communication Needs) can have a major impact on childrens ability to think and learn, and can affect their behaviour and social and emotional development. A fellow Life Coach, Jenny Maguire, has a son at St Josephs Primary School in Wrightington. She noticed new school work seemed similar to some of the goal setting techniques she uses with clients. She approached the head teacher to find out if we could support this excellent practice in improving the Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning of the children by working with their parents. We shared ideas, identified common themes and got the goahead to see if parents would be interested. We sent parents an initial letter. This included a questionnaire about responsibility for ensuring these social and emotional aspects of their childs learning are met: religious input in their life feelings of self worth a high standard of reading or writing a good circle of friends the ability to voice their opinions an active role in the community a healthy lifestyle. We asked the parents to consider the responsibility they believe the child, parent or teacher has for the childs development in each area on a scale of 1-10. The response led to the first parent workshops going ahead in January 2007. Responsibility is one of the key SEAL areas. Millman (1999) says self-worth refers to your overall sense of value, worth, goodness and deservedness. Of parents who responded, 63 per cent rated their childs responsibility for their self-worth as less than 5, and 64 per cent said they would like to give their children more confidence. It became apparent to us that the parents would benefit from looking at how giving children responsibilities can raise self-worth and confidence. One parent who attended agreed to discuss getting her 8 year old a pet. The parent and child entered negotiations and agreed that if the child could show she had looked into and researched what having a pet would involve and how this would be maintained then she could have one. This parent was amazed at how much effort her child put into this and how thoroughly she thought through the implications (frequency of feeding, cage cleaning, health care). The child identified the responsibilities she needed to take and those she would need help with (buying food, bedding). Children can learn to take responsibility by using thinking skills and feelings together to guide their behaviour. Taught calming-down, problem-solving and conflict management techniques use language to empower children to make sense of their world and what is happening to them. Teachers, therapists and parents working collaboratively and creatively can give the child with speech and language needs access to the SEAL curriculum through supporting

SPEECH & LANGUAGE THERAPY IN PRACTICE Winter 2007

Emotional literacy

the spoken word with tools such as sign and symbols. I found my speech and language therapy background invaluable in running the parent workshops, both in conveying the importance of language and for helpful resources. Our work on praise drew on tools I used previously with children who stammer. It aims to build self-esteem by ensuring a ratio of 5 positive comments to every 1 negative (Grantham, 2000). Another workshop involved exploring how the word dont features heavily in our language and has implications for our ability to focus on what we should be doing instead.

Figure 1 Smiley rating scale

Goal setting

Interestingly, in the pre-SEAL workshop questionnaire, 33 per cent of parents who responded said it was not their childs responsibility to learn that was up to the teachers and parents to do! Yet one of the key outcomes of successful work to develop social and emotional skills is independent and autonomous children who are able to take ownership of their learning and behaviour. Speech and language therapists routinely involve children in goal setting and measuring performance using tools that are not dependent on language such as the smiley rating scale (figure 1). This experience can be helpful when exploring ways that teachers can constantly encourage children to take ownership. Ideas might include: a. involving children fully in the decision to implement the SEAL curricular approach, and making sure they, as well as adults, understand the purpose of the work and the hoped-for outcomes b. involving the children in the identification of criteria that demonstrate success c. involving children in the evaluation of their learning d. allowing children to determine their own questions for enquiry and debate e. using behaviour management techniques that

encourage children to make a choice about their behaviour (such as golden time where the children are able to choose their own reward for good behaviour) f. providing opportunities for children to determine class and playground rules and routines, and ground rules for the activities to develop their social, emotional and behavioural skills. St Josephs has a school council whereby the children help sanction poor behaviour. Our Coaching Workshops for parents play an important role because skills learnt in school are not meant to stay in school; children need to develop these skills in all aspects of their lives, and parents are the teachers who do this at home. But what if parents themselves dont know how to develop these skills? What if they dont feel empowered to teach their children the valuable skills of negotiation, compromise and responsibility? As listening professionals, speech and language therapists often find themselves supporting parents. Our workshops give a wider range of parents a rare opportunity to press pause, look at where they are now and learn how to: 1. Get their children to take responsibility for their role within the family. See Doughnut in figure 2. 2. Talk so children will listen and cooperate stop telling them what they dont want them to do and start saying what behaviour they want to see.

3. Effectively reward children to keep them motivated and keen to develop themselves. It is essential that children are involved in determining their reward. As Brophy (2004) showed, children learn more from intrinsic motivation - when they are doing a task to please themselves - rather than when they are told to do it with a reward in place. 4. Manage their time more effectively so they can spend quality time with the children. This includes leading by example. In our Goal Setting workshop, parents realised they had stopped setting themselves goals and instead focused their energy on the children. When we asked the question What do you want for your child a life full of new possibilities until they are 40 or a life full of new opportunities until they are 80? well, you could have heard a pin drop as realisation dawned. 5. Build their own self-confidence so that they provide a positive role model for their children. The feedback from the parents has been very positive: I felt that it has been one of the best presentations I have ever been to, everything was so poignant, and we just thought thats me, I do that! The difference is unbelievable. I have noticed that the children respond more positively and we are now showing them that as parents we trust them and have confidence in them.

Essential factors

The Primary National Strategy says, Social, emotional and behavioural skills underlie almost every aspect of school, home and community life, including effective learning and getting on with other people. They are fundamental to school improvement (DfES, p7,

I Would like Molly to become more responsible for one of the following chores: Saving some money Doing the dishes Looking after the pets Watering the plants Folding the washing Preparing the meals Helping with the hoovering Keeping her room tidy

This will allow me to: Spend more time doing what .......................... wants me to do See how responsible my child can be Remain calmer with my children as my workload lightens See their confidence grow

In return I will reward Molly in one of the following ways: Financially Spend agreed time together
What responsibilities does your child have?

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Figure 2 Doughnut of responsibility

SPEECH & LANGUAGE THERAPY IN PRACTICE Winter 2007

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Emotional literacy

2005). Identified essential factors to successful implementation of SEAL include: a. Senior management commitment to the principles and understanding of the implications. St Josephs staff are all committed to the SEAL initiative and it is carried on throughout the school. b. A school which makes sure all individuals feel valued and listened to where childrens achievements are celebrated. c. Teacher insight and knowledge into the emotional factors that affect learning. This has also developed via the parent participation in the workshops, as staff felt they understood the views and aspirations of parents more. d. The active involvement of children themselves. St Josephs have noticed the children respond well to being talked to positively. The Year 6 children had a new cloakroom and their teacher would regularly comment on how tidy it was or that certain areas were really tidy, which made the children motivated to keep it this way. e. Proactive work with parents. At St Josephs this is an on-going area of work as it is becoming more evident that the negative attitudes of some of the children are influenced by parents. Weare & Gray (2003, p.24) quote Cumbria LEA: Childrens behaviour is a consequence of their social and emotional development and their mental health; it is learned.

St Josephs wants to get parents on board so that the valuable work done in school can be reinforced at home. A Special Educational Needs Coordinator in a poorer area of Stockport said that, although he agreed with our workshop plan, he felt his parents would not be able to access this level of learning. His school is using SEAL to teach parents the basics first. Many parents can feel overwhelmed with the thought of going back into the school environment and their own experiences of education can make it hard for them to access new information. In these cases just getting them to come into school is an achievement. We have finished the project pilot and are evaluating the results. We plan to seek accreditation for the course and roll it out to other schools. We are also making links with the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority approved PEARL (Personal, Employability, Achievement and Reflection for Learning) Programme. This framework aims to be a cohesive mechanism that allows competencies in key areas such as willingness to learn, self-motivation and team work to be accurately assessed and accredited. This is the first performance based system for measuring and awarding learners social, emotional and behavioural skills. Our plans may be ambitious but we are buoyed by the schools enthusiasm and excited about the future.

Catherine Williamson (www.meettherealu.co.uk) has a BSc Speech Therapy & Pathology and a Diploma in Life Coaching. Jenny Maguire (www.noguiltzone.co.uk) has a Diploma in Life Coaching. For further information, e-mail catherine@meettherealu.co.uk.

Acknowledgement

With many thanks to Mrs Keating, Head Teacher, parents and staff at St Josephs Primary School, Wrightington, West Lancashire. SLTP
Catherine and Jenny are running The Amazing Womens Day on 27th February, 2008 at Maxwell Hall, Salford University, Manchester from 10am-4pm. The cost is 50 and the aim is for participants to Appreciate all that you are and all that you can be. Further details will be available on www.growingdreams.co.uk.

References

Brophy, J. (2004) Motivating Students to Learn. 2nd edn. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. DfES (2006) Primary National Strategy - Excellence and Enjoyment: social and emotional aspects of learning. Crown copyright. Available online at: www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/publications/banda/seal/pns_seal137805_guidance.pdf (Accessed 20 October 2007). Goleman, D. (1995) Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books. (Taken from Primary National Strategy, p8, 2005). Grantham, P. (2000) How To Build Clients Self Esteem workshop. Harrogate: Skills Development Service. (Further details at www.skillsdevelopment.co.uk/seminars.php?courseid=1.) I CAN (2001) Joint Professional Development Framework. London: I CAN. Millman, D. (1999) Everyday Enlightenment: The Twelve Gateways to Personal Growth. Warner Books. Weare, K. & Gray, G. (2003) What Works in Developing Childrens Emotional and Social Competence and Wellbeing. University of Southampton. Available online at: www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR456.pdf (Accessed 20 October 2007).

REFLECTIONS DO I HELP CLIENTS FIND WAYS TO COPE IN SPITE OF THEIR COMMUNICATION DIFFICULTY? DO I UNDERSTAND THAT SOME CARERS NEED TO DEVELOP THEIR OWN EMOTIONAL LITERACY BEFORE THEY CAN HELP THE CLIENT? DO I MODEL PERSONAL GOAL SETTING BEHAVIOUR? How has this article been helpful to you? What are you doing to address social and emotional aspects of learning? Let us know via the Winter 07 forum on the www.speechmag.com members area.

resources
Community Therapists
The Community Rehabilitation Team Network has been rebranded as the Community Therapists Network. It is for therapists providing care and support in the community for people living with long-term conditions. www.communitytherapy.org.uk

Politics

Telehealth

The Disability Rights Commission has produced a downloadable booklet Getting involved in a political party Information for people with learning disabilities. The DRC is now part of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. www.equalityhumanrights.com (search Publications)

React 2

The life skills module of the React 2 rehabilitation software will be ready early in 2008. Trial versions of all programs can now be downloaded from Propeller Softwares website. www.propeller.net

TinyEye technology has been developed for speech and language therapists to offer remote consultation and therapy services using a head set and web camera. www.tinyeye.com

Crime talk

Talking Mats and dementia

Transition

Crimestoppers has a new website aimed at getting young people aged 11-16+ involved in discussions about crime. www.shadowcs.co.uk/

The Transition Information Network is an alliance of organisations and individuals who want to improve the experience of disabled young peoples transition to adulthood. www.transitioninfonetwork.org.uk

Palliative care

The International Childrens Palliative Care Network advocates for and raises awareness of the needs of life-limited children and their families. www.icpcn.org.uk

A study has found the low-tech communication tool Talking Mats effective as a way of helping people at different stages of dementia to express their views, compared to their usual communication methods. It also reduced repetitive behaviour and helped to keep participants engaged in conversation. Download the report free at www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/ eBooks/2128-talking-mats-dementia.pdf Thanks to Contact a Family (www.cafamily.org.uk), the source for several of these resources.

SPEECH & LANGUAGE THERAPY IN PRACTICE Winter 2007