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Social-Emotional Development

School counselors support students’ social and emotional needs by fostering a positive school environment. Through direct services (classroom lessons, group, and individual counseling) and indirect services (collaboration with staff, families, and the community), counselors promote positive mindsets and behaviors that support students’ social and emotional development.

The School Counselor's Role

School counselors play a critical role in supporting social/emotional development as they:

  • Collaborate with classroom teachers to provide the school counseling curriculum to all students through direct instruction, team-teaching, or providing lesson plans for learning activities or units in classrooms aimed at social/ emotional development (ASCA, 2019)
  • Understand the nature and range of human characteristics specific to child and adolescent development
  • Identify and employ appropriate appraisal methods for individual and group interventions that support K-12 students' social/emotional development
  • Know and utilize counseling theories to inform both direct and indirect services, providing support to K-12 students' social/emotional development
  • Use assessment in the context of appropriate statistics and research methodology, follow-up assessment, and measurement methods to implement appropriate program planning for social/emotional development
  • Select and implement technology in a school counseling program to facilitate K-12 students' social/emotional development
  • Serve as a referral source for students when social/emotional issues become too great to be dealt with solely by the school counselor, including crisis interventions

Resources

Curriculum Guides