The Power of Storytelling in Elementary Counseling: Helping Kids Learn Life Skills That Stick

little girl reading a book

Why Young Children Learn Best Through Stories Elementary school counselors are always looking for effective, developmentally appropriate ways to teach social-emotional skills. Research and classroom experience consistently show that young children learn best through stories. Storytelling captures attention, builds emotional connection, and helps students internalize social-emotional learning (SEL) skills in ways lectures and worksheets simply…

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3 Ways Technology Has Changed Kids’ Lives

Young girls playing or working on a computer

Three Ways Technology has Changed Everything for Kids (and what to do about it) I often hear experienced teachers complain about how students have changed over the years.  Children who will spend hours locked into a video game can hardly pay attention for ten minutes to a classroom lesson.  It seems that children of the…

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Girls and Emotional Literacy

Very upset girl

Girls and Emotional Literacy It’s not just boys who have trouble with emotional literacy. While boys may have trouble recognizing emotions and expressing them in appropriate ways, girls are more likely to recognize and name emotions, but stuff negative feelings. Girls express positive emotions in an effort to please others but  save expression of negative…

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Helping Boys Develop an Emotional Vocabulary

unhappy boy

Helping Boys Develop an Emotional Vocabulary I’ve written a lot of posts on kids and emotions.  There are several reasons for this.   In many ways, emotions rule our thoughts and our actions, yet very little is taught about how to manage emotions in a positive way. Most of us simply learn that we need to…

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