Brief introduction on social emotional learning for 7 year olds

7 year olds are in a similar place in their social-emotional learning {or SEL} journey, just a year in advance! Like 6 year olds, they are working on their self image: now that they’re beginning to notice how they differ from their peers, they might begin to push boundaries with their parents, learn what it’s like to feel embarrassed or even begin tackling feelings about death. Seven year olds are more established in their world, and are naturally curious about all things art, science and more. This is an important age for parental figures to support kids in nurturing their interests and talents.

What is social learning for 7 year olds?

While 6 year olds are just beginning to form ideas about themselves, at age 7 kids are moving past their own scope of experience and comparing it to that of their peers. Around age 7, kids start to experience embarrassment, the fear of not fitting in, guilt, or even shame. Children at age 7 are working on putting themselves in other people’s shoes while they continue exploring feelings of empathy!

What is emotional learning for 7 year olds?

7 years old is a time of strong emotional reactions. Emotional learning at 7 years old revolves around learning how to manage these big feelings while children get familiar with new feelings like embarrassment. Because this is typically an era of cultivating specific interests, seven years marks the time when kids seek out alone time. It’s crucial that parent figures help kids develop confidence in the things they like while acknowledging that the ways in which they differ from their peers make them unique and special.

Why SEL is important for 7 year olds:

SEL is important for seven year olds because they are just learning to accept that their experience and interests differ from their peers, which is wonderful and to be expected! With newfound feelings like embarrassment or guilt, seven year olds are vulnerable to shrinking down their sense of individuality. Social-emotional learning is crucial at this time because seven years is when kids are starting to create their future based on what they like and dislike. We want to make sure that the seven year old who loves reading has all the support they need to grow up and make a career as a writer, for example.

Pros and Cons of social emotional learning for 7 year olds

Pros of promoting social emotional learning

Pros of promoting social-emotional learning for seven year olds include assuring kids that their differences are actually a good thing! Maintaining a sense of security in social or emotional situations will help seven year old kids feel comfortable pursuing what they love so that they grow to become successful and fulfilled adults.

Cons of promoting social emotional learning

Documented issues regarding SEL promotion generally stem from the lack of formal guidelines when it comes to SEL programs. SEL programs can be “ill-defined” while lacking a clear path as to what attitudes a given program is promoting regarding social-emotional learning. Underqualified psychoanalysis of children is an ongoing concern of SEL programs.

Social emotional learning examples for 7 year olds

Brief introduction on social emotional learning examples

While they are exploring their individuality and their interests, seven year old children become vulnerable to comparing themselves to their classmates, teammates and friends. Social learning development at this age can be tricky as kids of seven years want to fit in with those their age. These new feelings of self-conciousness can lead them to seek out time to themselves in order to process emotions in their own way.

Social learning examples for 7 year olds

Social learning examples for 7 year olds include learning to put themselves in their peers’ shoes, understanding that losing or not getting their way is a normal part of life as well as navigating feelings of wanting to fit in or be accepted by their classmates, teammates and friends.

Emotional learning examples for 7 year olds

Seven year olds learning about their emotions tend to seek independence in order to explore the things they find interesting. While parent figures may be concerned that kids are isolating themselves, this sought after sense of independence is natural at age seven. Emotional learning developments at seven year olds include coping better with last minute change than when they were six, and working on overcoming fears like the dark or the doctor.

Social emotional learning activities for 7 year olds

Brief Introduction on social emotional learning activities

Seven year olds are ready to branch out from their parent figures and care takers just a little. Their social learning development at this wonderful age involves the friends and activities they choose. Emotional development at seven years is heavily aided by respected time spent alone as well as designated safe spaces to process their feelings.

Social learning activities for 7 year olds

There are a multitude of fun and easy social learning activities that promote skills like empathy, reading emotions and establishing positive bonds with other kids their age. Examples of the social learning activities are games like:

• staring contest
• charades
• improvisational story telling

Seven year olds want to relate better to their peers and to share their interests. These activities continue aiding them in reading and understanding the emotions of others, but with a little bit of the creative wiggle room they crave. At seven years old, kids may begin making up their own games with their chosen group of friends: this helps them to share their identity in a fun, creative way with people they trust to support them.

Emotional learning activities for 7 year olds

Seven can be a vulnerable age for children while they begin noticing what makes them different than the kids around them: because of this, it’s important to create a support plan in case they need help getting through tough emotions. This could look like:

• breathwork
• rating their emotions on a scale to relay to trusted adults the extent of their distress
• establishing safe spaces in classrooms or homes.

Social emotional learning tools for 7 year olds

Brief intro on Moxie:

Meet Moxie, a gender neutral robot companion aiding in your child’s healthy social emotional learning development.

Moxie for social learning for 7 year olds

One of Moxie’s many useful features is Moxie’s ability to engage in creative play: at seven years old, children are craving structured play activities with a little bit of room to do their own thing. Moxie helps children develop “social currency”: set activities like imaginative play or drawing that prompt social interactions with peers. Moxie also provides social interaction prompts in the form of meaningful conversation starters.

Moxie for emotional learning for 7 year olds

When it comes to emotional learning development, Moxie is an expert friend. Created to share emotional regulation tools like mindfulness exercises, one of Moxie’s key features is storytelling designed to spark organic conversation around challenging feelings a seven year old might be working through.

Final Thoughts: Social emotional learning for 7 year olds

Conclusion

Seven year olds are just beginning to build the person they want to be when they grow up. While this relies heavily on introspection and cultivation of interest, comparing experience to that of their peers plays a huge role in their understanding of self. Tools, activities and coping strategies that help seven year olds cope with challenging feelings like shame or embarrassment are crucial to a healthy development of social-emotional learning.