3 Amazing Books for Social Emotional Learning in Young Students

Books can be used to teach so many different skills, but especially social and emotional skills. There are many great books out there, but today I wanted to share three of my favorites that I reach for over and over. Even if you aren't specifically address social goals with your students, these are still awesome books to use in your therapy.

As SLPs, we often work with the same students year after year, giving us the unique opportunity to create relationships with students that other educators do not have. When it comes to their social and emotional development, we can play an important role in helping them to grow along with their communication skills. Many of our students may struggle with feeling different from others, being picked on, anxiety, or have trouble interacting with their peers. This can mean that our speech therapy rooms are safe places to have conversations about some of these tough topics, address social communication skills, and problem solving.

The Bad Seed, The Good Egg, and The Cool Bean are all by the same author, Jory John and illustrator, Pete Oswald. The characters are based on the figurative language people sometimes make about others, which you can incorporate into your pre-reading activity by discussing what they mean. All of the stories offer a clear beginning, middle, and end, so you can use them to incorporate any language or literacy goal.

The Bad Seed

He has a bad temper, bad manners, and a bad attitude. He’s been bad since he can remember! This seed cuts in line every time, stares at everybody and never listens. But what happens when one mischievous little seed changes his mind about himself, and decides that he wants to be—happy?

The Bad Seed does a lot of ‘bad' things, but the story really explains why he acts the way he does, which is because he misses his family after being separated from them. It also shows how other people talk about him without befriending him. Then it shows that when the seed was tired of being bad, the makes the choice to do better. You can use this opportunity to discuss:

• Manners
• Why examples in the story are considered good or bad
• Making choices
• Emotions like loneliness, sadness, and happiness

The Good Egg

He’s a verrrrrry good egg indeed. But trying to be so good is hard when everyone else is plain ol’ rotten. As the other eggs in the dozen behave badly, the good egg starts to crack from all the pressure of feeling like he has to be perfect. So, he decides enough is enough! It’s time for him to make a change…

The Good Egg is always worried about how the other eggs are behaving in the carton and tries to make sure they are being good… don't we all know kids like that? Well his anxiety and worrying gets the best of him and his shell starts to crack. He decides he needs to leave and do some self care! He heals himself and decides that he doesn't need to worry so much about the other eggs and lets a little bit of his control go. This book would be good to discuss:

• Things we do to relax
• What we can control vs. what we cannot
• Anxiety and worrying
• Boundaries with friends

The Cool Bean

Always on the sidelines, one bean unsuccessfully tries everything he can to fit in with the crowd—until one day the cool beans show him how it’s done.

The Cool Bean is from a pod of 4 beans, but 3 have become so cool that the one feels very left out and uncool. He tries to wear cool clothes and stuff, but then the ‘cool' beans show him kindness when he gets himself in unfortunate situations and they become friends again. I think this one is perfect for Back to School! You can use this one to talk about:

• Kindness
• Being Cool
• Friendship

Need some materials for these awesome books? I got you covered! Visit here to save time with materials for your caseload!

Please note, some of these topics can be sensitive for some children, so it's important that you know take those feelings into consideration. Some things may come up that are out of your area of expertise and it's important to be able to use your school resources, such as a counselor or psychologist, if necessary.