All SEL should be trauma-informed

Abstract

Critics and supporters have expressed concern that social-emotional learning (SEL) has not been adapted to children suffering from trauma. While SEL has been identified as a mechanism through which trauma-informed schools can be created, this does not make SEL implementation, in and of itself, trauma-informed. Erica Pawlo, Ava Lorenzo, Brian Eichert, and Maurice J. Elias explain why calls for trauma-informed SEL are, in fact, calls for all SEL to be trauma-informed. They discuss how a trauma-informed approach to SEL is related to SEL’s emphasis on school climate, the need to build infrastructure for SEL learning, and the role of emotions in SEL instruction.