Social and Emotional Well-being

We believe meaningful learning is dependent on the development of learning dispositions. Our aim is to create an environment where children will become deeply engaged in their activities. But a child with poor emotional well-being is not able to become deeply engaged.

Our brain is, in Antonio Damasio's words, “body-minded”. There are clear connections between emotion and learning: there is an emotional component in decision-making. Relevant, nuanced emotions have a major role in high-level thinking.

Children learn through responsive and reciprocal relationships. We see social development as an intrinsic part of cognitive development: through shared activity, communication, cooperation and even conflict, children co-construct their knowledge of the world. The space in Kaleide International School is designed to facilitate encounters and interactions between the children, although there are also spaces which allow for seclusion and concentration.

When a child does not feel well on an emotional level, it is difficult for him or her to fully participate and get involved in school activities. Today we know that there are multiple connections between emotions and learning, and that decision making is mediated by our emotions.

Children, as social beings, learn through their relationships with other people. Social development is a key piece of cognitive development: shared activities, communication, cooperation and even conflicts allow creatures to co-construct their knowledge of the world.

The environment that we want to provide to participants resembles that of an extended family, in which all the members know each other and take care of each other.

Caring relationships prepare children for an initial receptivity to new experiences and learning. We foster children's emotional intelligence by promoting empathy, a caring attitude towards others, non-punitive conflict resolution, and communication skills. We avoid using punishment and rewards as tools for managing children's behaviour. When behaviour problems arise, facilitators do not isolate or reprimand the child, and instead encourage him or her to discuss the problem with an adult or a mediator, and to solve it through empathy.

Photo by Jordan Whitt on Unsplash

We see children's behaviour as a visible projection of their emotional well-being and strive to address the roots of behavioural problems by working closely with the parents. In cases related to a recurrent issue, strategies to better support the child may be put in place in a transparent and consensual manner. Facilitators will resort to a specific range of interventions (based on the work of Ferre Laevers at the Centre for Experiential Education) in order to improve the level of well-being in individual children and start off “release processes”.

Children are encouraged to express all of their feelings including their anger -all emotions are valuable and contribute to our well-being. During times of extreme emotion, people sometimes express feelings in hurtful ways, such as kicking, hitting, biting, pinching, spitting, throwing sand at others, and more. They are encouraged to work out their feelings in any of the following ways, which help the healing process:

• hitting pillows

• pillow fights

• throwing balls at targets or drawings of angry faces

• biting on safe, clean chosen objects (soft plastic toy, clean towel)

• stomping on aluminum cans

• dictating or writing a letter or note about why we’re mad

• tearing, crushing, crinkling or punching newspaper

• tearing newspaper an adult pretends to read

• pounding clay with mallet or fists

• pushing against a pillow held by an adult

• punching hanging punching bags

• throwing water balloons at target

• teasing a parent or teacher (role play, pretend, name calling)

• playing with mud, clay, play-dough, cornstarch goop

• wrestling

• kicking cardboard box towers

• throwing body against mattress wall

• screaming and yelling

• making faces

• banging on something safe

• using “soft swords” made of newspaper on hanging plastic bottles or cardboard boxes

• running

• popping plastic bubble wrap

• stomping feet

• angry drawing

Adults may find these activities useful as well, but grown-up feelings can be overwhelming for young people. Please maintain awareness of who is present and gauge your outlet appropriately.