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Social Emotional Learning Part Two: Teaching Acceptance to Inspire Change

by | Jun 10, 2020 | Resources | 0 comments

Please find below our daily SolBe Family update letter containing helpful resources and exciting projects to explore while we all do our part to stay home during this pandemic. Subscribe here to receive updates.

June 10, 2020

SolBe Families,

In Part Two of this Social Emotional Learning Series we are focusing on the principle of Acceptance. 

Our kids are not born blind to race. In fact, research suggests that children ages 0-1 are able to differentiate and track faces that match the race of their caretaker (Kelly et al, 2005). By age 2, innate racial bias exists (Hirshfield, 2008) and by ages 3-5 these bias’s begin to influence behavior (Aboud, 2008).

Knowing and understanding how children develop can help inform our interactions. The goal is to facilitate meaningful conversations where differences are not only acknowledged, but also explained and celebrated. If our goal is to promote accepting behaviors within our little ones, we must avoid silencing our children because we are uncomfortable with their innate observations. How do we explain or help our kids to understand differences and, more importantly, to understand why and how differences make our world wonderful. Remember: Your kids are listening. They are observing and modeling based on your interactions.

When you approach the world and others with tenderness, empathy and acceptance, your children will too.  

How do we introduce Acceptance in Social Emotional Learning?

So much of the skill of acceptance is grounded in a practice of awareness and inviting differences! How can you expose and introduce your kids to other cultures? The resource by Thomas Moore below, has a wonderful idea to stock your child’s pretend play kitchen with goods from other countries or cultures. Incorporating big, important, and sometimes-scary (for parents) concepts into pretend or imaginative play can transform this content into digestible and meaningful ideas for children under five. You can use this approach as a starting point to introduce SEL concepts at home.

Books to Learn More:
Helpful Resources:

More resources to follow in the coming days. Feedback and more ideas welcome!

Above all, be well and stay healthy!

The SolBe Team

Citations: 

Aboud, F. E. (2008). A social-cognitive developmental theory of prejudice. In S. M. Quintana & C. McKown (Eds.), Handbook of race, racism, and the developing child (p. 55–71). John Wiley & Sons Inc

Hirschfeld, L. A. (2008). Children’s developing conceptions of race. In S. M. Quintana & C. McKown (Eds.), Handbook of race, racism, and the developing child (p. 37–54). John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Kelly DJ, Quinn PC, Slater AM, Lee K, Gibson A, Smith M, et al. (2005). Three-month-olds, but not newborns, prefer own-race faces. (p. 31–36). Developmental Science.


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We’ve felt the uncertainty that occurs when our children are in the care of someone else. At SolBe, we know you will always be your child’s first teacher; we’re here as a knowledgeable partner in your child’s education.

From our experience, children rise to the intellectual life of those around them, so we are committed to growing as individuals and as a team. You can count on us to provide a warm and engaging learning experience for your little one.

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We’ve spent thousands of hours in classrooms that either overstimulate, underwhelm, or actively prevent educators from delivering the highest-quality education and care. At SolBe, you’ll go beyond the traditional four-walled classroom.

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We’ve seen what’s lost when things are done the way they’ve always been done before. SolBe is an adaptive Spanish exposure program that refuses to accept the status quo.

Our inventive practices grow from the shoulders of giants, with roots in the Reggio Emilia approach, the Montessori method, and well-researched cognitive disciplines that attend to the whole child. We create opportunities to develop character attributes that your child will benefit from for a lifetime. Collaboration. Communication. Independence. Healthy risk-taking. Critical thinking. Emotional awareness. Resilience. Intellectual curiosity. Creative innovation. An authentic love of life and learning.

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