2. Aboriginal Perspective on Social Emotional Competence in Early Childhood
This journal gave me great insight on understanding of how to best support the development of Indigenous children and how important it is to promote positive social, emotional, educational and health outcomes. What is great about this study is that they looked at all Indigenous groups living in Canada: First Nations, Metis, and Inuit children. They addressed the issues of socio-cultural adversities related to colonization and loss of language and culture, that has contributed to long lasting struggles with social and emotional wellbeing and with positive identity development. Tremblay et al. wrote this study to help us identify the most important elements of healthy development for Aboriginal children, with a particular focus on social-emotional development. Social and emotional learning is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. Social-emotional competencies have been defined to include: behavioural and emotional regulation, understanding emotions, showing self and social awareness, social problem solving, as well as relationship skills.
3. The Social and Emotional Wellbeing of Indigenous Youth
The aim of this project was to obtain a deeper and broader understanding of the health and wellbeing of Indigenous youth ages 12-24 living in Australia. This document provides insight on some programs and projects that have assisted Indigenous young people to succeed in life by overcoming adversity and building strength and resilience. Young people have so much to offer and contribute to society. Often it is youth who are most responsive to changing circumstances and best able to deal with dilemmas presented – to achieve a balance between change and continuity. So, investing in our youth will in turn provide them with opportunities and skills that will help them achieve success. One thing that isn’t presented in this pdf document is lesson plans of the programs that they designed. This would’ve been helpful for my project, as my group and I were going to create a few Social Emotional Learning (SEL) lesson plans, using the Circle of Courage framework. Nonetheless, it was a long, but informational resource that helped me formulate objectives that my group’s paper focuses on regarding the mental and emotional wellbeing of Indigenous youth.