Emotional skills begin with the Emotional ABCs
By ROSS BRODIE
Overview
Emotional ABCs is a local, Venice, California, startup that has been “starting up” for more than 10 years. (It was previously a “kit” with booklets, stickers, magnets, playing cards, and a CD/DVD bundle.) But then 3 years ago, the program adapted to life as an online interactive program and in this short time, the Common Sense “Top Pick for Learning” has become America’s most used evidence-based Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum for children ages 4-11. Emotional ABCs has only been free to educators worldwide for less than 6 months but it has already been taken up by teachers and school counselors in more than 90 countries. These new educators have joined a community at more than 65,000 schools across the USA and teachers in more than 30,000 special education classrooms. And it feels like we’re only getting started. Our plans include a full “basic tools” curriculum of School to Home SEL Education materials so families can also benefit from these new skills, more language options, and a whole lot more. But, it still comes down to the basics outlined by our name: Emotional ABCs teaches children how to figure out what they’re feeling, why they’re experiencing that emotion, and how to make better choices for lifetime emotional resilience. Just like with learning your ABCs, getting your emotional ABCs right is a huge step forward. Learn more about us at EmotionalABCs.com
Expected Impact
We are, of course, evidence-based from a study done at schools across the country, https://www.emotionalabcs.com/abc-scientific-study/ but even more meaningful has been the feedback from parents and teachers who see real changes in their students as they begin to use their new skills in the classroom and on the playground: www.facebook.com/EmotionalABCs/reviews
Adopt & Adapt
Our program only needs a regular browser (Google Chrome, Firefox, or Safari) to work perfectly on most devices and it is free to teachers and school counselors employed full time by brick-and-mortar public and private schools worldwide.
The program is aligned with CASEL’s Social Emotional Learning standards (we are on their SEL Providers Council) and is specifically designed to be done with no teacher training needed. Although we do provide training and explanations for educators, we feel that teachers are already overwhelmed and decided that it was best to design a program that was “ready to go” so teachers can jump right in. In fact, Stanford Research International (SRI) has applied to the Federal Department of Education for a four-year, $3.3 million grant using the Emotional ABCs Classroom and Emotional ABCs was chosen for the study in large part because of its ease-of-use for schools—i.e. that for schools with limited resources, having no teaching training program be needed was a huge help.
Our program is currently used by teachers and school counselors in 4 out of 5 elementary schools across the USA.