Importance of SEL in Special Needs Education

At this stage, for educators, it is natural to worry about how to help SEN students improve their school performance. However, this year we also need to think about how having a learning challenge and COVID crisis have affected vulnerable children emotionally.

Not all children with learning difficulties become frustrated, sad, or anxious, but it is common for our vulnerable students to go through at least some period of emotional struggle. It is not easy for children when they see themselves falling behind their peers at school. Even if they pretend that they do not notice or care, struggling in school can be a demoralizing experience. Lowered self-esteem, increased anxiety, particularly in academic situations, Increased sadness, or irritability, acting out, physical symptoms like headaches or stomach aches, reduced motivation are common amongst SEN students.

Under our current circumstances strengthening emotional skills and finding strategies that play to our student's strengths is essential. The best way to help special education students is to integrate a strong emphasis on social-emotional learning school-wide.

Students with the lowest levels of social-emotional competence make the most significant gains when exposed to a school-wide approach. Effective school-wide social-emotional learning enhances the functioning of typically developing students and provides the context to increase the intensity, duration, and generalization of social-emotional skills for students with special needs.