Developing an Integrated Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Understanding and Regulation Intervention

The major aim of this project is to develop a program to improve children's social, emotional and cognitive regulation that can be combined with a strong literacy intervention proven to enhance academic achievement in school-age children. Specifically, the project seeks to combine the Success for All (SFA) Elementary reading program for Kindergarten through Grade 3 with a new set of curricular interventions designed to develop students’ social, emotional, and cognitive understanding and regulation (SECURe) skills. The SECURe (Social, Emotional, Cognitive Understanding and Regulation) intervention is a school-wide program that teaches students strategies to focus their thinking, manage their behavior, build positive social relationships, and understand and deal with their feelings. SECURe helps students learn how to apply these strategies both in and outside of the classroom in ways that support school learning and life success. The research involved in this project centers on the role played by emerging executive function (EF) and self-regulation (SR) skills in children’s school readiness and early academic growth. The research is designed to examine the developmental course of these skills as well as linkages between these skills and academic and social-emotional/behavioral success in school. This project is aligned with related efforts focused on the development of children from birth through late elementary school