The Power of Environment
and Social-Emotional Learning
Did you know that the word “encourage” means to speak courage into someone’s life?
When you were a child, was there someone in your life who spoke courage into your childhood, affirming you in your strengths? When someone celebrates and recognizes all the amazing things that make you unique, it can feel incredibly empowering and encouraging, and we want that moment to occur in every child's life.
Intentionally creating moments of encouragement and growth in children’s lives so they feel empowered can feel overwhelming, and often, parents and educators find themselves asking questions such as these:
How can we create safe spaces?
How can we encourage children in their uniqueness and strengths? How can we reapproach learning in fun, engaging ways?
At MILLU, we design light bulb moments where intentional experiences come together to answer these questions. Learning to navigate all these questions can feel daunting, but it doesn't have to be, and we have core skills we can use to answer these questions.
Social-emotional learning (SEL) may be a new term, but the social and emotional skills it cultivates are tools we utilize regularly to thrive as people. SEL provides us with a framework to teach these vital life skills, such as managing and identifying our emotions, maintaining and building relationships, achieving our set goals, creating a healthy decision-making process, and connecting with others through emotions such as empathy.
Social-emotional learning (SEL) may be a new term, but the social and emotional skills it cultivates are tools we utilize regularly to thrive as people.
We want children to thrive in their self-confidence, be equipped with interpersonal skills, and learn critical thinking to prototype their way forward in life—all of which are part of SEL. MILLU marries these tenants with concepts from play therapy, neuroplasticity, and character formation to help children and families have tools as they navigate through life.
- Self-awareness: Self-awareness helps children learn about themselves and who they areas people. That encompasses learning to identify our emotions and understanding how they drive our behavior. Emotions are part of being human and deserve to be noticed, as they often are the driving force behind many of our behaviors. Not only that, but part of being self-aware means knowing our strengths and weaknesses and our dreams and aspirations. Practicing self-awareness means taking the time to get to know yourself and paying attention to your emotions.
- Social awareness: Learning how our actions impact others is critical to navigating life as we grow up and is one of the key interpersonal skills we need to ensure we treat everyone around us with respect and kindness. When we notice others around us and take the time to learn about them and their perspectives, we can form more profound and impactful relationships. Empathy and teamwork are ways to actively practice this sense of social awareness. Teamwork is critical for career success, and knowing how to collaborate and communicate with others allows us to succeed in professional environments and our personal relationships.
- Responsible Decision-Making: Don’t worry; the learning doesn’t stop there! Making responsible decisions that are best for you while being considerate of others is not always easy. However, SEL teaches children how to navigate this decision-making process and provides a framework for making responsible decisions that can be used in future situations.
- Self-Management: The first part of the puzzle is self-awareness of our thoughts, behaviors, and emotions, but the second piece is knowing how to manage them. Learning how to recognize what is going on inside of us and then responding to that in healthy and sustainable ways is such a critical skill! Self-management also entails putting in the effort to work towards our goals and aspirations and building the future we want for ourselves.
Why is it so essential that children learn these social-emotional skills?
Childhood is one of the most formative points in our lives; therefore, teaching these skills can greatly improve children's success in their personal lives and careers further down the road. So, let’s get geeky and dive into the science behind how one’s “milieu “ social environment impacts you.
The power of your environment - your ‘milieu’ in learning
Often, we cannot completely control the environment around us or how people act toward us, and many things may seem beyond our control. Yet, we can equip ourselves with tools to navigate the unpredictability of life and various challenges that might arise. These tools can help us cope with situations and react to them in positive and sustainable ways. Our brains and mindsets are powerful!
So, unsurprisingly, we are not just robots replicating the behavior modeled around us - thank goodness! Instead, complex cognitive processes impact our decisions, and we learn through experience; this is called the Social Cognitive Theory, and consequently, as psychologists refer to it, we are active information processors. As people, we constantly observe [consciously or unconsciously] the environment around us. Many factors can influence how we choose to act, and that is where the power of brain processes such as growth mindset [your willingness to learn]and motivation comes in. How we behave in certain situations is often impacted by what we think we are capable of [our self-efficacy] and sense of self.
As children, we are exposed to the actions of others and the consequences of their choices, which can impact which behaviors we adopt; this is called observational learning. During this stage, children build ‘behavior models,’ which are stored in their brains and act as reference points for navigating how to behave in various situations. Individuals around us act as models, and we use them as a reference points when deciding how to act, along with the cognitive processes in play. Consider these models as tools and guidelines that children adopt to help them feel confident in whatever phase of life they are in.
Why MILLU Works
Children are impressionable and watch those around them for reference on how to act! By teaching social and emotional skills, we provide a toolkit to help children process whatever craziness life may throw at them, and we hope to provide positive behavioral models of how to grow as people. We know teaching children all these skills can feel overwhelming, but that is where MILLU comes to the rescue because we have already created a curriculum that will help children flourish by exploring these skills through play in supportive, engaging, and fun ways.
At MILLU, our mission is to help children grow through playful and intentional experiences. We strongly believe everyone deserves the chance to become the best version of themselves because we believe that when people first feel safe, seen, and loved, that’s where the growth magic happens.
So, are you ready to learn and thrive with MILLU?
