Growing Socially and Emotionally

Growing Socially and Emotionally is a guide for parents, teachers, and counselors to use with the intermediate grade level child to stimulate discussion.  It is based on the author’s extensive reading in psychology along with her experience as an elementary classroom teacher for twenty-nine years.  It aims to enhance self-esteem by teaching children about self-encouragement and how to handle criticism.  It explains how to become an excellent student by valuing learning and nurturing good work habits like perserverance, taking responsibility, and breaking long assignments into parts.  It opens up a discussion with children about abusive and caring behavior.  It helps children learn how to get along with others by accepting differences and learning how to resolve conflicts.  The guide stimulates discussion about feelings.  It helps children learn what is behind anger and how to deal with it.  It helps children understand fear and how to cope with it.  It talks about sadness and how to deal with it.  It goes into ways of coping with problems by getting more information, using humor, helping others, and accepting what can’t be changed.  It stimulates discussion about growing up, coping with change, getting privacy, and understanding the difference between good touches and bad touches.  It addresses the issue of acceptance and nonacceptance of handicaps.  It explains how our thoughts affect our feelings and how thinking better thoughts helps us to feel better.  It defines values and opens up a discussion of where we learn values and the importance of choosing them.  The discussion guide ends with a discussion of creativity and the creative process.