Connecting with Others: Lessons for Teaching Social and Emotional Competence

Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS)

Category: Social/Emotional/Behavioural Grade Level: K to 6

1. What is the purpose of the PATHS curriculum?  Ideally PATHS lessons would The objective of PATHS is to help take place for 20-30 minutes children develop social competence and approximately 3 days a week understanding by the methodical teaching of emotion processing as part of  Teachers should ensure that the general curriculum. The PATHS children generalize (i.e., apply program teaches children how to change their skills to new contexts) and behaviour and attitudes that contribute to use the PATHS skills throughout violence, how to express and control the school day and in other their emotions and how to solve social contexts. Generalization problems. The acquisition of these skills activities and strategies are helps students to articulate their provided both for teachers and emotions, recognize emotions in others, for parents. to better think and plan, improve self control, and resolve conflicts without the 4. What teaching procedures should use of violence. be used with PATHS?

2. With whom can PATHS be used?  Each unit provides the teacher While the PATHS curriculum was with a script that involves direct originally designed to teach emotion instruction on how to perform processing skills to children who are each of the specific social deaf, it has since been introduced to both skills/feelings. typical and atypical populations. Recently it has also been applied to  Each unit is integrated and builds populations characterized by violent on the preceding units. The tendencies, such as Conduct Disorder materials can be used multiple times. 3. What is the format of the PATHS curriculum?  Learning is promoted in a PATHS has its theoretical underpinning multifaceted structure, using in Gardner’s theory of multiple verbal, visual and kinesthetic intelligences, which purports the cues. existence of an emotional intelligence.  Lessons increase in  The PATHS curriculum is developmental difficulty and comprised of six volumes that include dialoguing, role playing, cover four conceptual units (Self- storytelling and modeling by Control, Feelings, Problem teachers and peers. Solving & supplementary lessons).  The benefit of PATHS is that the disorder to match the social skills of classroom teacher can tailor the typically developing children. lessons to the developmental age of their classroom and continue 7. What does it cost to implement each unit until a satisfactory level PATHS? of understanding and It costs approximately $3000 to train 30 performance is achieved. teachers in the curriculum. Additional costs include transportation, hotel and a The steps of PATHS sample lesson is per diem for the course instructor. It described in the table below. should be noted that this training phase is optional. Actual costs of PATHS, in 5. In what type of setting can PATHS U.S. dollars, are: be used?  Complete kit- $699 PATHS is a curriculum based strategy  Basic kit (grades 1-6)- $609 that is most effectively implemented by  Turtle Unit (kindergarten)- $179 teachers. While not necessary for typically developing children, PATHS PATHS can be ordered from: has been shown to improve overall Channing Bete Company classroom cohesiveness. This is One Community Place especially important as education is South Deerfield MA 01373-0200 moving towards a more inclusive model. The program lessons should be Website: integrated into the school schedule. www.channing-bete/education/social- Social workers, school psychologists, or emotional-learning.html guidance counselors, can help teachers implement the program. While parents References are encouraged to assist in the process it 1. Kam, CM., Greenberg, M., & Walls is not a necessary component of PATHS C. (2003). Examining the role of implementation quality in school- 6. To what extent has research shown based prevention using the PATHS PATHS to be useful? curriculum. Prevention Science 4(1), PATHS has been found to improve 55-63. social skills and emotion processing in 2. Kam, CM., Greenberg, M., & children who are typically developing as Kusche, CA. (2004). Sustained well as children with behavioural and effects of the PATHS curriculum on cognitive disabilities. Pre- and post- the social and psychological intervention studies have proven PATHS adjustment of children in special effective in reducing Internalizing and education. Journal of Emotional and Externalzing symptoms in children with Behavioural Disorders, 12 (2), 66- special needs, although it has not been 78. proven effective at improving social 3. Kelly, B., Longbottom, J., Potts, F., cognition in these populations. In a & Williamson, J. (2004). Applying large scale clinical-control comparison emotional intelligence: exploring the study, PATHS has also been shown to Promoting Alternative Thinking improve the social skills and peer- Strategies curriculum. Educational relations of children with conduct Psychology in Practice, 20 (3), 221- 240. Reviewed by: Kelly Nash

The steps of a PATHS sample lesson (Wu, YS. (1997) Guidelines for instructional sequencing in emotional literacy learning-using PATHS curriculum as an example. U.S. Department of Education.)

1. Presenting a given emotion with a simple definition 2. Showing pictures of the emotional expression

3. Providing examples of situations that typically elicit the feeling 4. Having children talk about the times when they have experienced that emotion 5. Modeling and labeling the feeling as a group 6. Having the children make “feeling faces” 7. Providing the children with an activity through which the emotion can be experienced on a more personal level.