THURS-041 - Linking a Social Emotional Reading Program to Health Education Standards
Thursday, April 17, 2025
11:45 AM – 12:45 PM PST
Location: Pacific I/II, 2nd Floor
Area of Responsibility: Area III: Implementation Subcompetencies: 4.3 Manage the collection and analysis of evaluation and/or research data using appropriate technology., 5.2 Engage coalitions and stakeholders in addressing the health issue and planning advocacy efforts. Research or Practice: Practice
Senior Associate Dean & Professor University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Brownsville, Texas, United States
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Participants will be able to describe the process of training, implementing and evaluating an animal empathy reading program for elementary school aged children.
Participants will be able to assess the impact of the animal empathy reading program on elementary school aged children.
Participants will be able to align social emotional learning program outcomes to national and state learning objectives.
Brief Abstract Summary: Linking Social Emotional Health, literacy and health education is not only imperative in today’s society and school, but required in many states. This presentation will provide the attendee with the process, impact and outcomes of the implementing of a Social emotional reading program in both the school and community settings.
Detailed abstract description: Child Mental Health is a topic that is gaining national attention and one is addressed by employing a variety of techniques to prevent, assess and treat mental health issues. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of an age specific health education reading program on the knowledge and skills related to the development of social-emotional learning and empathy towards animals among elementary school aged children thereby aiding them in developing behaviors that transcend to human empathy. This IRB approved project involved a multistep approach to: 1. Train college aged students and high school aged students to administer the reading program curriculum. 2. Conduct a pre-assessment of knowledge and skills about empathy. 3. Implement the reading program with elementary school aged children. 4. Conduct a post-assessment of knowledge and skills about empathy. Both college and high school career and technical education atudents (serving in teams) implemented the program with 9 elementary schools and four community sites with children (aged 6-12) over a 5-week period as part of school, afterschool and community based programs The education consisted of a pre-assessment, 5 guided reading sessions using approved stories with appropriate questioning and a post assessment. Review of the data collected from the pre and post assessments indicates a post assessment increase in knowledge and skills related to animal empathy among child participants. This improvement suggests the program had a direct impact on children’s knowledge and skills related to empathy towards animals and previous research suggests this will transcend into empathy skills towards each other.
