“Feelings of friendship:” Social-emotional curriculum for preschoolers’ psychosocial needs

What comes to mind when you think of a psychosocial fieldwork placement? An inpatient psychiatric unit? A homeless shelter? A community center for adults with serious mental illness? Surely not a preschool classroom! Yet that is exactly what Kean University’s Department of Occupational Therapy chose to do—design a novel psychosocial Level I fieldwork experience in response to the needs expressed by a valued community partner, the Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Central New Jersey.

Although many occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs) view psychosocial practice as reserved for adults, when looking at the functional definition of psychosocial, it is clear that OTPs can play a vital role in addressing the psychosocial needs of young children.

The Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process (OTPF-4; American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2020) defines the term psychosocial as “general mental functions, as they develop over the life span, required to understand and constructively integrate the mental functions that lead to the formation of the personal and interpersonal skills needed to establish reciprocal social interactions” (p. 52). This definition sounds very much like another term that is commonly used with the pediatric population: social and emotional learning (SEL). Social and emotional learning is an educational method aimed at teaching young children certain core concepts to support healthy development of self and interpersonal relationships. The five distinct areas of SEL are self-awareness, self-management or emotional regulation, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making (Weissberg et al., 2015).

The social and emotional competency of preschoolers is a predictor of academic and social success in elementary school (Nakamichi et al., 2019). Sadly, many preschool children are lacking these skills, and COVID-19 has negatively impacted social-emotional functioning (Hernandez & Jabbari, 2021). Teachers may feel unequipped to meet these needs (Ferreira et al., 2021), and OTPs are able to provide hands-on intervention and teacher education (AOTA, n.d.). As a result, Kean University’s Department of OT used this fieldwork opportunity to implement a 6-week SEL curriculum, called “Feelings of Friendship,” to promote key psychosocial skills needed for healthy development in and out of school. The following are the key components of the curriculum.