(Describer) A playground.

(narrator) A child's future ability to succeed in the workplace, become a leader, and achieve long-term happiness will depend in no small part on their ability to build positive relationships. Students who learn to communicate clearly, cooperate with others, and constructively negotiate conflict are well on their way to future success.

(Describer) Coworkers in an office. A title: Social-Emotional Learning: Relationship Skills. Jessica Davies.

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We've talked about self-awareness which is understanding yourself and then social awareness-- understanding others. So getting into relationships skills is really then, okay, now you're interacting. I'm not just standing over here thinking. I wonder what you're feeling. I wonder what you're thinking. I'm actually using that information to engage.

(Describer) Melissa Schlinger .

In the classroom, there are lots of opportunities for kids to work together in pairs, to work in small groups, to work in large groups so that they can actually practice this. So we can intentionally teach them explicitly how do you disagree, how do you agree, how do you be respectful in giving your opinion, how do you take on an active role on a group project. So sometimes, before you actually engage kids with a group, you talk a little bit about what are you going to do if one person is doing more than their share of work. How are you going to respond when one person doesn't seem to be contributing? What are the different roles that we have as a part of this group? Who's gonna be taking notes? Who's gonna be making sure we stay on task? Who's gonna be keeping time? Who's going to make sure that the conversation keeps moving? So we can actually teach kids how to be productive members of a group and give them lots of opportunities in every class to work in groups.

(Describer) Jessica Davies.

You've probably heard quite often the idea of project-based learning or problem-based learning. And so that's not just your typical project-- we're gonna build something together. It's actually thinking about, okay, let's take our learning and apply it to a real-world problem. And then as a group, we're gonna solve that. And it's a wonderful way because kids are learning content, they're learning standards, but they're also learning relationship skills. How do we work together? How do we decide who does what role? How do we figure out when we're successful? What if we make a mistake? What if we don't agree with someone? How do we navigate that?

(Describer) Maya Dorsey.

It's important to build relationships skills with your children because it does foster trust. When kids feel that they can come to you and they can talk to you about anything, you know, they're less likely to go to their peers and get the wrong answer sometimes. But it's important to play games with your children. I think sometimes as parents we get so focused on the day to day tasks that we forget to have fun. For example, it can be reading a book or watching certain TV programs or going to the movies or going bowling-- things that will bring you together and bring you out of your comfort zone. I think sometimes it's easy to just kind of fall into a routine in a system, and just think, "Hey, we're together and that's okay." But it's important to spend time and be very specific about how you spend time so that that time allows for communication.

(Schlinger) We want to have healthy relationships with our partners, with our children, with our friends. We know that a social network and positive relationships helps us mitigate against stress, against illness. It increases our longevity. Positive relationship skills are critically important.

(Describer) Logos appear, including casel (C-A-S-E-L) .org ; Montgomery County Educational Service Center; and the Ohio Department of Education. Copyright 2019. Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

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Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education.