Aksoy, P., & Gresham, F. M. (2020). Theoretical bases of “social-emotional learning intervention programs” for preschool children. International Online Journal of Education and Teaching (IOJET), 7(4). 1517- 1531. http://iojet.org/index.php/IOJET/article/view/1010. Received: 19.11.2019 Received in revised form: 10.07.2020 Accepted: 18.08.2020 THEORETICAL BASES OF “SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING INTERVENTION PROGRAMS” FOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN Review study Pınar Aksoy (Corresponding Author) Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University aksoypnr@gmail.com Frank M. Gresham Louisiana State University frankmgresham@gmail.com Pınar Aksoy is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Preschool Education at Gaziosmanpasa University, Turkey. Upon winning a post-doc research scholarship from The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), she was at Louisiana State University, Department of Psychology as a visiting scholar from 2017 to 2018. Her research interests include preschool education, child development and education, social skills, social-emotional learning, play and drama. Frank M. Gresham is currently a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Louisiana State University, United States. His research and more than 260 publications address topics including social skills assessment and intervention, response to intervention, emotional and behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, mental retardation and consultation. Copyright by Informascope. Material published and so copyrighted may not be published elsewhere without the written permission of IOJET. mailto:aksoypnr@gmail.com mailto:frankmgresham@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6107-3877 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5615-0716 International Online Journal of Education and Teaching (IOJET) 2020, 7(4), 1517-1531. 1517 THEORETICAL BASES OF “SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING INTERVENTION PROGRAMS” FOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN Pınar Aksoy Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University aksoypnr@gmail.com Frank M. Gresham Louisiana State University frankmgresham@gmail.com Abstract From the point of view that every child is unique and valuable, the need for developing their skills and abilities, and their need for learning and development, in the context of their learning styles/developmental characteristics, must be supported. Because of social-emotional learning skills are comprehensive and very important skills, teaching of these skills requires specific methods and strategies. Social-emotional learning intervention programs can be developed on the basis of various theories. The aim of this review is to evaluate the theoretical bases of social-emotional learning intervention programs for preschool children. The available five social-emotional learning intervention programs used for preschool age children are explained by basic theories. These programs are; “You Can Do It! Education”, “The Tools of the Mind”, “Conscious Discipline: Building Resilient Classrooms”, “INSIGHTS” and “Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs”. Results of the current review showed that “You Can Do It! Education” stands on cognitive-behavioral theory, while “The Tools of the Mind” is based on cultural-historical theory as well as “Conscious Discipline: Building Resilient Classrooms” stands on brain-theory. Meanwhile, “INSIGHTS” is based on temperament theory, and “Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs” is based on multisensory theory. It was underlined that these intervention programs are highly important for developing social-emotional learning in preschool children. It should be considered whether the theories of these intervention programs are usable for the target skills. Effects of social-emotional learning intervention programs based on different theories can be comparatively examined in future studies. Keywords: Theory of development and learning, SEL programs, You Can Do It!, The Tools of the Mind, Conscious Discipline, INSIGHTS, Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs. 1. Introduction All development areas of developmental characteristics, including cognitive, social, language, emotional, and physical areas, interweave simultaneously. The ability of the children to establish relations with other people is dependent on a series of developmental skills and understanding. For example, following the rules in the setting, waiting to take a turn are the skills related to children’s social development, while having confidence to approach their peers, expressing empathy to their peers are the skills related to children’s emotional development. Furthermore, remembering names of other children, developing alternating strategies for how to resolve any conflict occurring during a game are the skills based on cognitive development. Using words to explain how to play a game, answering with proper opinions to the questions mailto:aksoypnr@gmail.com mailto:frankmgresham@gmail.com Aksoy & Gresham 1518 from a likely peer are the skills based on language development, while having the necessary motor skills to play a game are skills that refers to physical development (Kostelnik, Whiren, Soderman, & Gregory, 2009). Several social-emotional problems can also appear to be in consequence of disturbance in other areas. Social interactions are affected when children have problems in communication skills. Poor motor performance and communication, and language disorders can also hinder the ability for interactive play, in cases where some children withdraw while others may become aggressive (Gold, 1992). As such, children need to develop their skills and behaviors based on different developmental areas for life success. Social-emotional learning skills are comprehensive skills that have an important role on various points. Children need the basic skills of social-emotional learning especially in order to be capable of benefiting from their social legacy and biological equipment. Social-emotional learning competence means that a person can understand, express, and manage the emotional and social sides of his/her life in such manners that allow managing the tasks of the life successfully, such as starting relationships, learning, adapting to complex demands arising from development and growth, and solving everyday problems. Social-emotional learning education helps children develop attitudes and behaviors to become socially, emotionally and academically competence. Social-emotional learning education also aims at teaching children to be good citizens having positive values (Elias et. al., 1997). In other words, social-emotional learning is the capacity to establish relationships with other individuals appropriately, solve problems effectively, handle challenging situations capably, and express negative emotions intelligently. It is possible to state that the target of social-emotional learning is a combination of emotions, cognitions, and behaviors. As stated by Epstein (2009), in the first five years of life, in which the type of the grown-up person a child will become is shaped, one of the major developmental tasks is acquisition of social-emotional skills. Children's learning occurs in diverse ways based on different theoretical orientations. While social-emotional learning intervention programs are necessary in the process, the theories upon which these programs are based determine the contents of the social-emotional learning intervention. Kostelnik, Soderman, & Whiren (2004) emphasized that teaching strategies are important to consider when planning activities. It is also possible that various strategies are encountered through intervention programs based on different theories. In the literature, there are limited number of studies (e.g., Bierman & Motamedi, 2015; Clarke, Morreale, Field, Hussein, & Barry, 2015; Powell & Dunlap, 2009) that investigated the purpose, population, contents and effects of several social-emotional learning intervention programs. It is prominently seen that theories of all social-emotional learning intervention programs either were not handled or were summarized briefly. Another importance of this study is that it is focused on preschool years that are critically important for developing social-emotional learning skills. In this framework, the starting point of present review is to provide information related to social-emotional learning intervention for professionals, practitioners/teachers, researchers, and even families with the context of the ways of the intervention, useful strategies and examples of different theories. 1. 1. Purpose of Current Review The main purpose of this review is to evaluate the theoretical bases of social-emotional learning (SEL) intervention programs for preschool children. In accordance with this purpose, the available five social-emotional learning intervention programs for preschool children were explained with their based theories. These are as follows: (1)“You Can Do It! Education”, International Online Journal of Education and Teaching (IOJET) 2020, 7(4), 1517-1531. 1519 (2)“The Tools of the Mind”, (3)“Conscious Discipline: Building Resilient Classrooms”, (4)“INSIGHTS” and (5)“Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs”. 2. Review Procedures This study, conducted as a literature review, was based on intervention programs, which were specified for developing social-emotional learning for children in preschool period. Based on the purpose of this study, field resources including books, refereed journal articles, and conference proceedings were reviewed. Accordingly, literature research were carried out by keyword-based searches such as “social-emotional learning”, “social-emotional programs”, “intervention programs for social-emotional learning”, “intervention programs for preschool children” and “SEL programs for preschool”. In this scope, the social-emotional learning programs that are not called intervention programs (“Al’s Pals:Kids Making Healthy Choices”- Wingspan, 1999; “DARE to be You”-Miller-Heyl, MacPhee, & Fritz, 1998; “The Second Step”-Committee for Children, 1989, 2002 etc.) and not intended for preschool children (e.g, “Positive Attitude”-Coelho, & Figueira, 2011; “Strong Teens”-Merrell et. al., 2007) were eliminated from the review process. The available social-emotional learning intervention programs, called intervention programs for preschool children, were examined in detail and the information obtained is presented in an order. 3. Findings on Theoretical Bases of Social-Emotional Learning Intervention Programs for Preschool Children The theoretical bases of five social-emotional learning intervention programs for preschool children were examined in this study. Table 1 summarizes the information about examined five SEL intervention programs. Table 1. Information about theoretical foundations of social-emotional learning intervention programs for preschool children examined in the study The name of the SEL intervention programs Developer of the SEL intervention programs Theoretical basis of the SEL intervention programs You Can Do It! Education Ashdown, & Bernard (2012) Cognitive-behavioral theory The Tools of the Mind Bodrova, & Leong (1996, 2007) Cultural-historical theory Conscious Discipline: Building Resilient Classrooms Bailey (2001) Brain-theory INSIGHTS McClowry, Snow, Tamis- LeMonda, & Rodriguez (2010) Temperament theory Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs Serna, L., Nielsen, E., & Forness, S. (2007) Multisensory theory *Information on the source of the program with the developer can be seen in the references in detail. As seen in the Table 1, the reviews showed that social-emotional learning intervention programs for preschool children can have different theoretical basis, and can be developed through disparate perspectives. The information within the scope of the findings, obtained depending the purpose of the study, were presented below in detail. Aksoy & Gresham 1520 3.1. An Overview of the SEL Intervention Program Entitled “You Can Do It! Education” “You Can Do It! Education” is a program based on several cognitive-behavioral, educational, and social learning theories, including the theories by Vygotsky, Ellis, Bandura, and Seligman (Ashdown, & Bernard, 2012) that collectively emphasize the position of self- talk and thinking exhibited by children on their behaviors and emotions. However, You Can Do It! Education program specifically bases on cognitive-behavioral theory to teach social- emotional skills and competencies. Cognitive development theories focus on intellectual growth and emphasize attainment of increasingly more effective thought structures from birth to old ages. This theory considers seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting, analyzing, synthesizing and receiving feedback from the environment (Peters, Neisworth, & Yawkey, 1985). Behavioral theories focus on objective, observable principles that influence human behavior (Catron & Allen, 1993). Accordingly, cognitive-behavioral theory aims at addressing the interactions between how children think, feel and behave. There is generally a time limitation in the theory (e.g., 10-20 sessions) and it concentrates on current problems and respects a structured style of intervention. As stated by this theory, emotional experiences are influenced by children’s thoughts and behaviors. This approach asserts that mental health problems arise when children exhibit maladaptive and extreme patterns of thinking and behavior (Julian, & Querée, 2007). Cognitive behavioral theory mediates determination of a behavior exhibited by a person against any environmental event (Gresham, 2018). In other words, cognitive-behavioral theory is a structured approach to assist children in resolving their problem behaviors and maladaptive emotions by supporting their thinking forms or cognitions. The intervention programs based on cognitive-behavioral theory is likely to involve the cognitive, emotional, or behavioral processes. As emphasized by Gresham (2018), social-emotional learning intervention based on cognitive behavioral theory presents children with social situations that have various internal and external special cues. Cognitive-behavioral social-emotional learning interventions include strategies such as self-evaluations, social problem solving, self-instruction and self-monitoring. Bernard (2008) stated that the You Can Do It! cognitive-behavioral emotional intervention is eligible to teach children how to identify and challenge their irrational thinking and change it into a more rational self-talk. A curriculum-based program “You Can Do It! Education” was developed by Bernard (2004a). The theoretical framework of You Can Do It! incorporates three distinct types of social-emotional areas: (a) learning dispositions, (b) social skills, and (c) emotional resilience. The overarching perspective of this program is that children can acquire positive social- emotional, behavioral and achievement outcomes by focusing on five key social-emotional competencies: emotional resilience, persistence, getting along, organization, and confidence. These competencies are supported by teaching the 12 specific ways of thinking (called “habits of the mind”). These so-called positive “habits of the mind” help develop children’s confidence (being independent, taking risks, accepting myself, I can do it), persistence (giving effort, I can do it, working tough), organization (planning my time, setting goals), getting along (thinking first, playing by the rules, being tolerant of others, and being socially responsible) and emotional resilience (I can do it, I can stand it, being tolerant of others, accepting myself, it’s not the end of the world, being independent, working tough, taking risks) competences taught in You Can Do It! (Bernard, 2012). A curriculum-based “You Can Do It! Early Childhood Education Program” was created for the use of teachers towards children at the ages of four - seven (Bernard, 2004a) for the purpose of providing young children with skills and competencies emphasized by “You Can Do It!”. International Online Journal of Education and Teaching (IOJET) 2020, 7(4), 1517-1531. 1521 “You Can Do It! Early Childhood Education Program” includes a great amount of structured and explicit lessons to teach young children the five foundational skills and the twelve positive “habits of the mind”. Activities are incorporated in the program that assists teacher in encouraging social-emotional skills of children in a number of ways. There are role- play activities in majority of the lessons, and most of the lessons require a high involvement of teachers in utilizing five puppets (named Ricky Resilience, Oscar Organization, Pete Persistence, Connie Confidence, and Gabby Get Along) for transmitting crucial messages. Moreover, the program provides teachers with a structured presentation format in order to introduce the essentials of the You Can Do It! Program to parents, including the five foundational skills in a 15-20-minute introductory session. Additionally, the program includes three sessions for informing parents, where teachers may give recommendation to parents on what they can practice at home for supporting the subjects instructed in the You Can Do It! Program (Bernard, 2004b; Bernard, 2004c; Bernard, 2012). It was highlighted as a result of the research conducted by Ashdown, & Bernard (2012) that there was a statistically significant positive impact of the “You Can Do It! Early Childhood Education Program” on the levels of social-emotional competence and well-being for the preparatory and first-grade children, as well as a decrease in problem behaviors including the problems of externalizing, internalizing, and hyperactivity in the first-grade children. 3.2. An Overview of the SEL Intervention Program Entitled “The Tools of the Mind” “The Tools of the Mind” is another social-emotional learning intervention program based on the cultural-historical theory of development. Cultural-historical theory, called the Lev Vygotsky’s theory, is related to a consideration of social development. In addition to this, Vygotsky’s theory focuses primarily on the role of nurture, and particularly on the ways where the development of a child is fostered by the social and cultural environments of that child (McDevitt, & Ormrod, 2004). Vygotsky’s theory emphasizes humans’ psychological functioning with mental tools (such as spoken and written language, number systems, and models). The psychological connection of humans to the world is particularly influenced by the intervention of these mental tools (Hedegaard, 2004). Vygotsky emphasized that more experienced peers and adults have a role in accessing the information on culture, and on the expectations and social skills. Within the context of this theory, which underlines their importance on socialization of children into a larger society, the role of the teachers is especially significant (Essa, 2003). Vygotsky’s theory of development and learning forms a basis for many practices such as mentoring, collaboration, coaching, cooperative learning, joint problem solving, and other forms of assisted learning. In addition to this, Vygotsky states that social interactions that occur by means of play is essentially required for development of children. Vygotsky asserted that social interactions with others ensure children to learn social skills such as collaboration and cooperation, which enhance and nurture their cognitive skills. (Morrison, 2006). The program called The Tools of the Mind is a comprehensive early childhood curriculum for kindergarten and preschool age children, designed by Bodrova, & Leong (1996, 2007). This program focuses on building introduction skills in social-emotional competence, literacy, and mathematics by using specific activities that promote self-regulation. This curriculum is based on Vygotskian activities that extend the behavior repertoire of children and produce new opportunities for children to utilize existing social-emotional behaviors. The Tools of the Mind curriculum states that every child can develop their cognitive, social and emotional skills that are required for them to achieve the highest potential they can do, as long as the necessary Aksoy & Gresham 1522 conditions are provided. Tools of the Mind includes many activities, especially focusing on self-regulation such as make-believe play sessions, productive activities, the freeze game, buddy reading, learning plans, the numerals game, games with rules, story discussions, and scaffold writing. In Tools, the role of the teacher is to support children in using tools and learning how to use tools so as to facilitate their learning, rather than only to teach them skills. The theoretical basis of this program indicates that there are three elements: teacher regulates children in classroom, children regulate the other children, and children learn to self-regulate (Bodrova & Leong, 1996, 2007; Bodrova & Leong, 2009). Barnett et. al. (2008) investigated the influence of the Tools of the Mind curriculum on improving the education of children who were three-four years old. It was concluded in the study that the aim of the Tools of the Mind program is to assist children’s development and learning in order to enhance their social and academic achievements. A study conducted recently by Blair, McKinnon, & Daneri (2018) evaluated the impact of the Tools of the Mind program on social-emotional competence of kindergarten and first grade children. The results indicated that the Tools of the Mind program was effective in increasing kindergarten childrens self-regulation, social-emotional competence and positive relationships with teachers, as well as in decreasing aggression, conduct problems, and emotional symptoms. Similarly, Solomon et. al. (2018) found that preschool children who received the Tools of Mind program made greater gains on self-regulation. 3.3. An Overview of the SEL Intervention Program Entitled “Conscious Discipline: Building Resilient Classrooms” The “Conscious Discipline: Building Resilient Classrooms” is a social-emotional learning program based on the brain-based research theory. The field of neuroscience has contributed to brain researches. The research based on brain-based approach is especially important in the early childhood education. Brain research gives a great deal of importance on stimulation and development of specific areas in brain. For instance, brain research revealed that the areas of brain associated with spatial reasoning and mathematics are stimulated by listening to music and learning to play musical instruments at young ages. It is also emphasized by the brain research that daily schedule of a child should include physical education and gross motor activities (Morrison, 2006). The result of the study by Duman (2010) indicated that brain-based learning approach was more effective in increasing achievement of students, compared to the traditional approach. It is critically important that brain-based programs give opportunities to children to get involved in activities, which are developed the different development areas. It should be known that social-emotional learning activities through Conscious Discipline do not include rewards and punishment. However, Conscious Discipline supports intrinsic motivation, altruism and prosocial behavior by way of mindfulness (Zastrow & Simonis, 2005). The early childhood program titled as Conscious Discipline combines classroom management and social-emotional learning, and addresses both adults and children. Conscious Discipline strives to develop social-emotional learning skills of preschool children by first developing the internal states and skill sets of adults, and then subsequently encouraging the adult to teach such skills to children and model them with children. Conscious Discipline means supporting inner motivation, prosocial behavior and altruism by raising awareness (Bailey, 2001, 2015). International Online Journal of Education and Teaching (IOJET) 2020, 7(4), 1517-1531. 1523 Conscious Discipline, a trauma-informed and evidence-based program, combines all learning domains, such as social-emotional, cultural, and physical domains, as well as cognitive domain. The program includes seven skills that are required change everyday discipline issues into moments of teaching. These are: (1) composure, (2) encouragement, (3) assertiveness, (4) choices, (5) empathy, (6) positive intent and (7) consequences. In addition, the program includes seven powers that empower adults in becoming self-regulating and conscious, responsive and adapted to the needs of themselves and children. It is possible to list the seven powers included in the program as; (1) power of perception (to take responsibility of upset situation), (2) power of unity (to perceive and offer compassion), (3) power of attention (to create images of expected behavior in children’s brain), (4) power of free will (to learn to change), (5) power of acceptance (to learn to respond), (6) power of love (to see the best) and (7) power of intention (Bailey, 2001). Chavez (2014) evaluated the effects of the Conscious Discipline program that are observed on social-emotional learning processes of three to four years old children. The results of the said research revealed that the Conscious Discipline program was effective in increasing social- emotional learning behaviors, increasing enjoyment in teaching, providing a more positive classroom climate, and reducing aggressive behaviors. Another study by Sorell (2013) examined the practice of the Conscious Discipline program for teachers from kindergarten to third grade. According to the findings reported by teachers, it was revealed that the Conscious Discipline program was effective on various management skills and strategies of children positively, as well as it supported their emotional development. Additionally, as a result of the study, it was emphasized that Conscious Discipline improved teacher’s perceptions of management skills and decreased time and frequency of children misbehaviors. 3.4. An Overview of the SEL Intervention Program Entitled “INSIGHTS” Another social-emotional learning program called “INSIGHTS” is based on temperament theory. The definition of temperament is the constant style of reaction exhibited by an individual across a number of settings, especially against stress or change. Temperament indicates the fundamental aspects of personality, which are based on biology and which do not explain discrete differences in the universal dynamics, but does it in the developmental process. In other words, temperament acts as an instrument to explain how individuals contribute to their own development in a certain environmental context. According to the temperament theory, an agreement between persons and their environment is possible by means of bidirectional interaction among temperamental, inborn attributes and external circumstances, supports, and demands. The main purpose of this theory is to arise an understanding for how and why children behave differently in their responses to school (McClowry, 2014; Teglasi, 1995). Social-emotional learning intervention based on temperament theory contributes to enhancing the correlation between the environment and temperament of children. Intervention does not target temperament, but environment is changed to respond to the temperament of the child properly. It is emphasized that the strategies of responsive teaching and parenting are practiced to support children in order to satisfy the environmental expectations (McCormick, O’Connor, Cappella & McClowry, 2015a).The key point of the temperament theory is that it gives an appropriate matching opportunity between the temperament of children and the opportunities, expectations, demands, and demands of the environment. INSIGHTS is a comprehensive social and behavioral intervention program that was developed by McClowry, Snow, Tamis-LeMonda, & Rodriguez (2010). The INSIGHTS intervention program emphasizes a temperament frame of reference for parents and teachers to Aksoy & Gresham 1524 facilitate the individual social-emotional development of children. This program also assists teachers and parents in recognizing temperament of a child and responding with discipline strategies that contribute to social-emotional development. The curriculum contains several sessions for teacher and parent programs. Two-hour facilitated sessions are organized to last 10 week and all of the parents and teachers are invited to attend these sessions, which are based on a structured curriculum. All of the students participating in classrooms are delivered a classroom program in lessons lasting 45 minutes throughout this period of 10 weeks. The curriculum includes materials such as puppets, videotaped vignettes, flash cards, and workbooks (O’Connor, Cappella, McCormick, & McClowry, 2014). As a principle of the program; children, parents, and teachers participate in every session of the INSIGHTS program separately. In addition, the curriculum has three parts for teacher and parent programs. In Part I, “The 3 Rs of Child Management: Recognize, Reframe, and Respond” is instructed to participants in order to apprehend some qualities exhibited by children as an expression of their temperament. Participants apprehend that most of the responds to the specific conditions are associated with the temperament of a child, which results in a decrease in the idea that misbehaviors are exhibited by the child consciously. Participants are suggested the understanding that there are challenges and strengths in every temperament, encouraging them to reshape their perceptions. Participants are taught also that even though temperament is not appropriate for change, responses of teacher and parent may change children’s behaviors. In Part II, “Gaining Compliance,” the strategies named as temperament-based management strategies are practiced to enhance behaviors of children. Assistance is given to teachers and parents to replace negative interaction patterns with child management strategies. In addition, Part III concentrates on strategies that encourage children to become more socially competent, especially when they encounter challenging cases (McCormick, Cappella, O’Connor, & McClowry, 2015b). Within this framework, the INSIGHTS intervention program promotes academic development of children, empowering their social-emotional learning behaviors. As such, INSIGHTS can be viewed as a preventive school-based intervention program. A study (McCormick et. al., 2015b) by using the INSIGHTS program on kindergarten and first-grade children showed that it improved reading and math achievement of low-income children. O’Connor et. al. (2014) conducted another study that showed a positive effect of the INSIGHTS program on reading and mathematics achievement of low-income children, as well as on their attention skills, while indicating reductions in disruptive behaviors exhibited by these children. 3.5. An Overview of the SEL Intervention Program Entitled “Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs” “Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs” is a social-emotional learning intervention program based on the comprehensive multisensory theory. Further, another explanation of the multisensory approach can be indicated as visual-auditory-kinesthetic-tactile (VAKT) learning styles. This approach asserts that once information is presented in different methods, children learn better (Mercer, & Mercer, 1993). In other words, multiple sensory learning is a learning process that is achieved using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (even olfactory and/or taste) methods. The literature supports the use of multisensory teaching techniques especially from kindergarten through elementary grade (Rains, Kelly, & Durham, 2008). As stated by Serna, Nielsen, & Forness (2007), social-emotional learning program based on multisensory approach gives children the advantage of learning social-emotional learning by different ways. Pictures, stories, and songs offer both well-known chances to involve development of social and emotional competence and an opportunity to integrate all of these approaches for a common International Online Journal of Education and Teaching (IOJET) 2020, 7(4), 1517-1531. 1525 purpose. It is emphasized that some children may learn more easily when they see concepts delivered in pictures, while other children may learn more effectively when they listen to a story, and others may learn better by reading. Additionally, it is noted that some children may better learn these concepts when hearing them musically or singing along. Social Skills in Pictures, Stories and Songs, an evidence-based program, was developed for the purpose of supporting young children to learn the social-emotional skills required for being ready for success at school. It was developed to support social-emotional development of preschool and early elementary grades children. This comprehensive multisensory program’s theory claims that social-emotional skills might in fact be more effective when these skills are possible to integrate into children’s daily routines at home or school. The program is built around four original stories featuring animal characters and four songs each for story. Each story involves a different animal character (a roadrunner, a prairie dog, a raccoon, and a porcupine) and introduces how the relevant animal learns how to use a particular skill. These stories and their corresponding mnemonics can be listed under 4 items: (1) Rosie the Roadrunner Learns to Follow Directions (BEST), (2) Prairie Dog Pete Learns to Share (PALS), (3) Roscoe the Raccoon Learns to Manage His Behavior (TEAM) and (4) Prickles the Porcupine Learns to Solve Problems (WORK). In these stories, children are introduced to the main character, the problem faced by the main character is defined, and thanks to learning and using the skill, the main character solves the problem (owing to the help of friends). The skill of following directions (BEST) acts as a basis for the other skills (Serna, Nielsen, & Forness, 2007). The TEAM and WORK skills necessitate that children develop not only cognitive skills, but also main social skills. Each of the four stories also contain 10 distinct coloring books. The program also includes opportunities to use puppets of the story characters, role-playing practices, visual aids (such as posters), to make clay sculptures, as well as to use stories and songs. In addition, one of the animal characters is involved in and a skill is handled in each song along with its related mnemonic. In the program, the process of review involves using flash cards and playing bingo. Additionally, four-six lessons are dedicated to each skill. The sequences of lessons are as follows: First, children prepare for the learning skills by listening to the characters of the story, which address the skills. Second, a small group or whole-class is directed to explore the situations where the skills may be useful and how they can be useable. Third, children listen to and sing songs related to the skill in order to present to the other specific skill steps. Forth, teacher makes a modelling for the steps of the skill, asks children for feedback and teacher gives the opportunity to role-play the skill (Serna, Nielsen, & Forness, 2007). Although there are no relevant experimental studies on the effectiveness of this program in the literature, it is emphasized that this program is a social-emotional learning intervention program for children. 4. Conclusions and Future Directions This paper reviewed available social-emotional learning intervention programs based on different theoretical orientations. Five intervention programs were reviewed in this study: “You Can Do It! Education”, “The Tools of the Mind”, “Conscious Discipline: Building Resilient Classrooms”, “INSIGHTS” and “Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs”. In this context, it was concluded based on the result of this review that social-emotional learning intervention program titled You Can Do It! is based on cognitive-behavioral theory, and The Tools of the Mind is based on cultural-historical theory, whereas Conscious Discipline: Building Resilient Classrooms is based on brain-theory. Social-emotional learning intervention program entitled Aksoy & Gresham 1526 INSIGHTS is based on temperament theory and Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs is based on multisensory theory. The review process indicated that these intervention programs are extremely important for developing social-emotional learning in preschool children. An important point to remark is that distinct social-emotional learning intervention programs may differentially emphasize different activities and thereby produce differential effects. There are some similarities and differences between social-emotional learning intervention programs that were handled in the scope of this study. Overall, all programs which are entitled You Can Do It! Education, The Tools of the Mind, Conscious Discipline: Building Resilient Classrooms, INSIGHTS and Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Song bear the purpose of developing social-emotional learning skills of children. These programs assert that social- emotional learning skills are highly essential for lifetime. In the meanwhile, all these programs agree that social emotional learning skills should be developed at early ages. Studies based on these programs emphasize that preschool years are important for developing social-emotional learning skills. Although each one of these programs is based on specific theories, they also include various practices and activities. Apart from Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs program, there are some available experimental researches based on effectiveness of other social-emotional learning programs in the literature. Results of these studies indicated that You Can Do It! Education (Ashdown, & Bernard, 2012), The Tools of the Mind (Blair, McKinnon, & Daneri, 2018; Solomon et. al., 2018), Conscious Discipline (Chavez, 2014; Sorell, 2013), INSIGHTS (McCormick et. al., 2015b; O’Connor et. al., 2014) were effective in improving social-emotional learning skills of children. Generally, You Can Do It! Education had a positive effect on well-being and reducing problem behaviors, including the problems of externalizing, internalizing and hyperactivity. Tools of the Mind was effective in increasing social-emotional competence, positive relationships, and self-regulation, as well as in decreasing aggression, conduct problems, and emotional symptoms. In addition, Conscious Discipline program was effective on management skills and strategies, and emotional development. This program improved teacher’s perceptions of management skills and decreased time and frequency of children’s misbehaviors. Similarly, the program contributed to providing a more positive classroom climate and reducing aggressive behaviors. The INSIGHTS program also improved children’s reading and math achievement, as well as attention skills, and it yielded reductions in disruptive behaviors by empowering their social-emotional learning behaviors. Although there is no evidence-based study result related to Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs program, it was stated (Serna, Nielsen & Forness, 2007) that this program was developed with the object of help children learn the essential social-emotional skills for being ready and successful at school. Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs based on multisensory approach is achieved using visual, auditory, kinesthetic methods. For example, children are involved in listening to stories and songs, playing bingo, using flash cards, role-playing, and making clay sculptures. The Tools of the Mind based on the cultural-historical theory includes coaching, collaboration, mentoring, joint problem solving, and cooperative learning practices. In other words, make- believe play sessions, productive activities, the freeze game, buddy reading, learning plans, the numerals game, games with rules, story discussions, and scaffold writing are included in this program. The You Can Do It! program based on cognitive-behavioral theory supports competencies of children by explicitly teaching specific ways of thinking (habits of the mind). Based on this, the You Can Do It! Early Childhood Education Program includes role-playing and teacher involvement activities with five different puppets. Additionally, INSIGHTS based on temperament theory contains activities including puppets, videotaped vignettes, flash cards, International Online Journal of Education and Teaching (IOJET) 2020, 7(4), 1517-1531. 1527 and workbooks. Whereas, Conscious Discipline: Building Resilient Classrooms based on the brain-based research theory includes activities related to mindfulness and different development areas. Noticeably, this program does contain neither rewards, nor punishment. It is widely seen that social-emotional learning programs for preschools use materials/methods including puppets, flash cards, role-playing, and other play based activities. These may be due to the fact that, rather than the principles of the theories, they are the appropriate approaches for preschool children. Otherwise, social-emotional learning intervention program Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs based on the comprehensive multisensory theory especially differs from others in terms of presentation format of the skills. In this program, specific skills are presented to children through animal characters (including a roadrunner, a prairie dog, a raccoon, and a porcupine) and their songs. It was stated that there are certain sessions (such as 45-minute lessons during 10 weeks) in the study related to the INSIGHTS program. Nevertheless, You Can Do It! Education based on the cognitive-behavioral theory is usually called a time-limited theory. Another point is that Tools of the Mind is not only a social-emotional learning program, but also it is an approach to early childhood education. As such, Tools of the Mind can be used as an early childhood education program. Accordingly, this program focuses on building literacy and mathematics, besides social-emotional learning skills. Tools of the Mind is described as a comprehensive program just as INSIGHTS and Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs. In addition, the Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs approach especially claims that children learn better, when information is presented in different methods. Contrary to this, social-emotional learning intervention program based on cognitive behavioral theory called You Can Do It! Education teaches social-emotional learning with social situations. In other words, it is an approach to help children develop social-emotional learning skills by supporting their thinking forms or cognitions. As such, You Can Do It! Early Childhood Education Program includes a great many of explicit and structured lessons focused on foundational skills and the habits of the mind. Whereas, in Tools of the Mind based on cultural-historical theory, which is known as Lev Vygotsky’s theory, the focus is given on the role of environmental conditions that affect development. It is suggested by the Tools of the Mind program that the role of adults and peers in transmitting information about both cultural and social expectations is important. In this context, Tools of the Mind program focuses on Vygotskian activities to use existing social-emotional behaviors. Moreover, INSIGHTS based on temperament theory contributes to enhancing the fit between the environment and temperament of children. The theory in this program focuses on providing an appropriate matching opportunity between the wishes-expectations-opportunities and the temperaments of children. In this context, this social-emotional learning intervention program contains responsive teaching and parenting strategies. Conversely, Conscious Discipline is focused on brain-based development and it is believed that brain-based development will contribute to development and learning of adults and children. As such, the program includes seven powers (power of perception, power of unity, power of attention, power of free will, power of acceptance, power of love, and power of intention) in order to create images of expected behaviors in adult’s and children’s brains. In other words, this program includes different domains of learning such as social-emotional, cognitive, cultural, and physical domains. Conscious Discipline tends to develop social-emotional learning skills in preschool children by first developing adult's skills and internal states and then subsequently strengthening the adult to teach such skills to children and model them with children. Thus, this program consists of practices for discipline issues including empathy, assertiveness, encouragement, composure, Aksoy & Gresham 1528 positive intent, choices, and consequences. Furthermore, The INSIGHTS intervention program contains several sessions for the parent and teacher programs. All teachers and parents are sent invitations to participate in facilitated sessions and during the same time (10 weeks), children participate in classroom activities. In the meantime, You Can Do It! Education includes three parent information sessions as well as activities for children. It is also seen important that these three intervention programs encourage family involvement and parent education. All the information and findings indicated that social-emotional learning programs based on different theories entitled “You Can Do It! Education”, “The Tools of the Mind” and “Conscious Discipline: Building Resilient Classrooms” as well as “INSIGHTS” and “Social Skills in Pictures, Stories, and Songs” can be used to develop various skills and behaviors of preschool children. It is recommended that results of such studies should be reviewed to support social-emotional learning skills in children by an effective way. It should also be known that the content of the theories should be examined together with the scope of the programs. 5. Conflict of Interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest. 6. Ethics Committee Approval The authors confirm that the study does not need ethics committee approval according to the research integrity rules in their country. 7. Acknowledgements This study was formed a part of the first author's Post-Doc Project and supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) International Postdoctoral Research Scholarship Programme (with 1059B191600621 project number to the first author Pinar Aksoy). The corresponding author Dr. Pinar Aksoy would like to sincerely thank The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey for financial supports during this process. 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The ability of the children to establish relations with other people is dependent on a series of d... Children need the basic skills of social-emotional learning especially in order to be capable of benefiting from their social legacy and biological equipment. Social-emotional learning competence means that a person can understand, express, and manage... 4. Conclusions and Future Directions This paper reviewed available social-emotional learning intervention programs based on different theoretical orientations. Five intervention programs were reviewed in this study: “You Can Do It! Education”, “The Tools of the Mind”, “Conscious Discipl... There are some similarities and differences between social-emotional learning intervention programs that were handled in the scope of this study. Overall, all programs which are entitled You Can Do It! Education, The Tools of the Mind, Conscious Disc... It was stated that there are certain sessions (such as 45-minute lessons during 10 weeks) in the study related to the INSIGHTS program. Nevertheless, You Can Do It! Education based on the cognitive-behavioral theory is usually called a time-limited t...