SEL AND THE STUDENT WITH LEARNING DISABILTIIES

Social Emotional Learning for Students with Learning Disabilities

Katharine Ng

Concordia College

EDU 600

Dr. McNamara

Author Note

No funding was received for the writing of this paper

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SEL AND THE STUDENT WITH LEARNING DISABILTIIES

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to define social emotional learning (SEL), to discuss the

importance of SEL in the development of the whole child, and to investigate how SEL interventions

help students with disabilities self-regulate their own behavior. This paper utilized research to

define SEL and support SEL as evidence-based interventions. This paper included SEL

interventions like RULER, the Mood meter and mindful breathing. Research was also used to

discuss SEL effects with students with disabilities. Data was collected to see how SEL

interventions affect the behavior of students with disabilities.

Keywords: Social Emotional Learning (SEL), RULER, Mood Meter, students with

disabilities, mindful breathing, and self-regulation.

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SEL AND THE STUDENT WITH LEARNING DISABILTIIES

Introduction

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children understand and

manage emotions. This process helps children feel and show empathy for others, establish and

maintain positive relationships, and achieve positive goals. SEL helps students become self-

aware of their emotions. More importantly, SEL helps students self-regulate their emotions. They

learn to not only identify their emotions but also use interventions to help themselves move away

from emotions that can harm themselves or others. Research has supported that a child’s social

emotional development leads to critical skills such as the ability to communicate, connect with

others, resolve conflict as well as self-regulate, display kindness, as well as empathize and cope

with challenges (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). Although SEL

research mostly supported typical students, SEL could also help students with disabilities. On

the surface, using SEL to help students with disabilities does not seem beneficial. Most students

with disabilities have deficits in communication, behavior, and self-awareness. With these deficits,

the challenge becomes how to develop social emotional skills in students with disabilities.

Applying simple SEL evidence-based strategies such as the mood meter and mindful breathing,

students with disabilities could improve their behavior and complete their classwork.

The purpose of this action research paper was to understand the importance of social

emotional learning and support SEL evidence-based interventions, such as RULER, in a special

education classroom by implementing the Mood Meter and mindful breathing for students with

disabilities. The rationale behind this paper was to justify that by identifying emotions using the

mood meter and utilizing a simple SEL intervention, like mindful breathing, students with

disabilities could self-regulate their behavior to do classwork.

Literature Review

Teaching the whole child was becoming a priority in school districts across the United

States for highly effective teachers. The need for educators to get their students “college and

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career” ready with social emotional skills such as collaborating with others, monitoring their own

behavior and making responsible decisions had been scaffold from K-12 grades. The question

arose for policymakers, researchers, and educators to determine what type of uniformed

framework would best be adopted in schools throughout all the states. Researchers believed that

social emotional learning led to higher academic success. They also believed that students’

behavioral and emotional well-being was essential to effective learning. However, when the

researchers examined SEL standards at the federal and state level, they found most SEL

standards were imbedded in physical education, health and/or counseling disciplines (Eklund,

Kilpatrick, Kilgus, & Haider, 2018). These researchers defined SEL as evidence-based programs

and practices that were designed to teach students the necessary skills to cope with everyday

stressors and to problem solve. The researchers found that the research provided by CASEL

(Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning), was the most thorough and

effective for social emotional learning.

According to CASEL social emotional learning (SEL) was the process where children

acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions. This

process also helped students set and achieve positive goals. While learning how to feel and show

empathy for others, children established and maintained positive relationships through SEL.

Eventually in the upper elementary grades and beyond, social emotional learning led to children’s

ability to be responsible decision makers. CASEL grouped these skills into five core

competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and

responsible decision making. These five competencies of CASEL became the basis for a

systematic review that examined SEL standards for schools from pre-k to high school across all

50 states and Washington DC.

The methodology of this study was to examine existing free-standing SEL standards that

were not associated with other disciplines such as physical education and counseling, as it guides

prevention, intervention, and assessment efforts. The researchers (Eklund et all, 2018) defined

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standards as written descriptions of what students were expected to know or do at specific stages

of their education. The initial search examined freestanding standards that clearly describe what

students should be able to know and do in terms of social emotional development. The second

search examined SEL standards as they applied to physical education, health and/or school

counseling. The researchers used online electronic searches to compile the information about

SEL standards at the state level. When electronic searches were not able to find freestanding

standards, the researchers contacted state department of education to identify any existing

documents or standards.

The findings from this study showed that all 50 states and the District of Columbia had

SEL standards for preschool. As for aligning SEL standards against CASEL competencies, only

34 states and the District of Columbia aligned completely with the five competencies. The rest of

the states had various degrees of alignment with CASEL. However, only 11 states (22%) had

freestanding SEL standards for all grades or some combination of grade levels. From these

findings, 78% of the U.S. did not have freestanding K-12 SEL standards. The implications of this

study supported the need for SEL freestanding standards on the state level to be aligned with a

framework for educators to promote the learning of the whole child. Having statewide SEL

standards aligned to a framework legitimized social emotional learning. It elevated the importance

of social emotional learning to the same playing field as academic learning. While elevating SEL

standards, developmental benchmarks needed to be created so that realistic expectations for

SEL development within and across the grades.

While policymakers at the federal and state level debate about SEL freestanding

standards for schools K-12, some schools had already adopted evidence-based programs to

support SEL. As these schools were faced with the challenge of equipping students with skills

necessary to succeed in life outside the classroom, school leadership was taking the initiative and

supporting the implementation of SEL. Under the umbrella of SEL, schools focused on character

development, building relationships, and enhancing school climate and culture. Researchers

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believed that focusing on this type of growth in students led to an increase in students’ potential

for success in life and to a positive impact on the school culture (Haymovitz, Houseal-Allport,

Scott Lee & Svistova, 2018).

To explore the perceived benefits of SEL, this study researched the effects of a SEL

approach called Social Harmony. The researchers conducted this study in a small private secular

school with 32 subjects, faculty, and parents of the subjects. The methodology used was a

concept mapping evaluation approach. Concept mapping was a mixed-methods research

technique in which key stakeholders generated ideas anonymously on the internet in response to

a one-sentence prompt and sorted them into themes with a virtual card sort task. Once the data

had been collected, the researchers applied a rigorous multivariate statistical method including

multidimensional scaling. The findings resulted in a positive school climate and culture where

faculty felt supported in handling social-emotional issues. They had a heightened awareness of

what difficulties students in the school had. They also had a uniform way to deal with discipline

within the school. The students perceived the school as being a more inclusive place when

compared to the past. The students had strategies for conflict resolution among peers. As for

the individual student, approaching teachers for support in social situation was more comfortable

for students which resulted in student growth and retention. The downside of the implementation

of Social Harmony was that it lacked consistency in training between the new staff and the old

staff.

Even though the sample size of the study was small, the conclusions from the study still

supported the implementation of a SEL approach. Social Harmony showed promise in the

developing of skills, values, and rewarding positive behaviors that all appeared to improve

students’ academic performance. Interventions designed to influence all members of the school

community tend to decrease disciplinary referrals and classroom misbehavior.

Decreasing disciplinary referrals and classroom misbehavior were goals not only for

educators but also administration. SEL interventions supported these goals. From an educator’s

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perspective, classroom misbehavior was negatively correlated to student performance whereas:

if classroom misbehavior decreases, then student performance increases. Researchers had

identified patterns of social cognitive differences among children as young as preschoolers that

were related to risk of stable aggressive behavior with peers (Denham, Caerly, Schmidt, Blair

Demulder & Caal, 2002). They hypothesized that children who exhibit disruptive behavior

problems in kindergarten potentially may have difficulties in their later years. In this study the

researchers examined the emergence of aggression across the three years prior to school entry.

They believed that aggression was an important impediment to succeeding at the preschool

period’s key social developmental tasks of positive engagement and self-regulation during peer

interaction. The researchers were most interested in the difficulties of children’s interpersonal

connectedness. To evaluate these difficulties, the researchers utilized information from teacher

questionnaires, parent questionnaires, and observations from evaluators associated with the

study. The researchers were particularly interested in anger and antisocial reactions to other

emotions from the students. They believed that students who have an inability to understand the

peer’s emotion or its target or to be able to empathize could lead to a cascading pursuit of

destructive goals.

The setting for this research was in daycares and preschools of a large metropolitan area.

The subjects were 127 three and four-year-old students. The methodology of this study was that

researchers created questionnaires for the parents and teachers to complete. Evaluators were

also allowed to observe the students during center time, free-play, choice-time, and other child-

directed activities. The evaluators documented the student’s emotional competence of enduring

emotional expressiveness and responsiveness towards peers during emotional episodes. These

actions were coded and recorded on a laptop. The students’ emotional understanding was

collected by an interviewer who was familiar with the students. These students were then tracked

in kindergarten to see if they continued their aggressive behavior.

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The findings of this study showed that aggression and anger levels were relatively low for

kindergarteners. For preschool and younger those aggression and anger levels were higher. The

researchers also concluded that boys with lower levels of emotion knowledge evidenced higher

levels of anger/aggression at age 4. Whereas girls with greater emotion knowledge had lower

levels of anger/aggression.

These results helped support the need for social emotional learning. Since this study

centered on trajectories of aggression during preschool for the participants, the emotion-based

nature of early social cognitive deficits predicted anger and aggression in social setting. In the

first year of the study, the researchers were able to isolate a group of children who were

moderately or highly aggressive. The study was able to prove that during preschool, students

who gain emotion knowledge can gradually remiss from aggression. This study gave merit to the

need for social emotional learning for not only preschool children but continuing throughout the

school years. It also supported the reason why SEL freestanding standards exist at the preschool

level for all states.

Thus far, the literature review had supported SEL interventions and approaches to

promote student performance. As mentioned before, Social Harmony, a SEL intervention, was

implemented in a small private secular school to improve student performance and reduce

classroom misbehaviors. However, for public schools and school districts across the United

States, RULER and the Mood Meter had been used for SEL. Dr. Marc Brackett was the lead

developer of RULER, a systemic, evidence-based approach for SEL. He was the founding

director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. He was also a professor in the Child Study

Center, Yale School of Medicine at Yale University. Dr. Brackett believed in the development of

the whole child through emotional intelligence. The development of emotional intelligence (EI)

should be taught alongside with academic curriculum. A framework of Social Emotional Learning

(SEL) needed to be adopted by schools to systematically develop students’ social and emotional

competencies. SEL helped students self-regulate their emotions, improve their emotional

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intelligence vocabulary and improve academic success. When students could self-regulate their

emotions, they were able to achieve higher academic performance. For educators, SEL promoted

awareness in self-regulation and helped identify students who were experiencing high emotions.

RULER was an evidence-based approach to teaching SEL which encompassed a set of

practices. RULER was an acronym that stands for five skills: recognizing emotion in the self

and others; understanding the causes and consequences of emotions, labeling emotions with

appropriate vocabulary, expressing emotions across context and regulating emotions

effectively. Educators who received training in this approach created a school charter to establish

support and productive learning environments. Members of the school identified how they wanted

to feel (labeling), which behaviors fostered those feelings (understanding), and how to handle

times when they were living up to the charter. Educators received step by step training to learn

how to extend the time between an emotional trigger and one’s response to it. This process was

called the Meta-Moment or envisioning your best self. The Mood Meter was the signature tool

that supported EI skill building and enhanced academic learning. The Mood Meter can be

implemented on students’ desk or as a classroom anchor chart. Students were taught to self-

regulate their emotions and build vocabulary to express their feelings with the Mood meter. The

final tool, the Blueprint helps students and educators resolve and manage conflict more effectively

through the analyzation of the causes and consequences of emotion and behaviors.

Researchers believed that RULER enhanced academic performance and social emotional

competence with RULER feeling words curriculum (Brackett, Rivers, Reyes, Salovey, 2012).

RULER was grounded in emotional intelligence theory. This theory suggested the ability to

process emotional information led to an enhance cognitive activity like thinking or decision making.

It also could promote well-being and facilitate social functioning. The RULER word curriculum

was designed to help students, K through grade 8, become emotionally literate. It was linked to

CASEL guidelines. Students gained a deep understanding of feeling words. Feeling words were

defined as words that ran the gamut of human experience such as excitement, shame and

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alienation. It was taught in tandem with English Language Arts (ELA) and Social Studies.

Basically, RULER leveraged existing curricula and provided lessons to enhance outcomes related

to both academic and social emotional competence.

The purpose of this study was to use a quasi-experimental design with a pre- and post-

test to evaluate the extent to which integrating RULER into existing curricula increased academic

performance. The researchers collected data on the pretest six weeks into the implementation of

the curriculum (Brackett et al. 2012). They also collected data six weeks prior to the end of the

academic year along with the students report cards. The teachers provided behavior

assessments on the students. The setting and subjects of this study took place in three

elementary schools on Long Island, New York. The fifth and sixth grade classrooms had been

volunteered to participate in the experiment. A coin toss was used to decided which schools

would use the RULER curriculum for either their fifth or sixth grade classroom. Two classrooms

were selected to teach the curriculum and the other two classes which were not selected became

the comparison group. The findings from the pretest and post-test showed that when compared

to students without RULER, students who participated in RULER showed significant increase in

adaptive skills. With respect to ELA year end grades, students with RULER increase their grade

as compared to the students who were not taught RULER. Teacher ratings indicated that at post-

test, students in RULER classrooms had higher adaptability scores, which reflected rating of

behaviors related to positive relationships, leadership, and studying, and lower scores on school

problems. Since the RULER curriculum was writing intensive, it is logical to have data support

an increase in ELA.

In another study that supported the creation of emotionally intelligent schools with RULER,

researchers gathered data to support this approach (Nathanson, Rivers, Flynn, Brackett, 2016).

The setting for the study occurred in three different settings. The first setting was in an urban low-

economic preschool early childhood center. Three classrooms were selected for the experiment.

Two classrooms were taught the Mood Meter. One classroom was not given the Mood Meter.

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The statistical findings from this experiment showed that children who were exposed to the Mood

Meter had greater knowledge of emotions and ability to use the Mood Meters when compared to

the classroom who did not have the Mood Meter. The second setting was a group of 5th and 6th

graders. Classes were randomly selected to implement RULER. The statistical findings from

these classrooms were that students who were taught RULER had higher grades in language

arts and work habits/social development when compared to students who did not have RULER.

The third experiment took place in 62 schools over a period of 2 years. Like the second

experiment, the subjects were fifth and sixth graders. The findings showed that over the 2-year

period, students benefitted from RULER and teachers reported more emotion-focused

interactions between teachers and students in the second year.

The findings from this study concluded that for RULER to be successfully implemented

with its components of the Charter, Mood meter, and Meta-Moment required teacher training.

The more training and opportunities to teach with RULER, the better student outcomes and

student emotional intelligence. This study supported RULER as a SEL approach to help typical

students achieve higher emotional intelligence. The study does not address whether the same

student outcomes could be extrapolated to students with disabilities.

The author, Maurice Elias, believed that on the surface, students with learning disabilities

had difficulties with social emotional learning (Elias, 2004). They had difficulties with social

relationships. Discerning their peers’ facial expression was difficult when disabilities stood in the

way. There was a clear link between social emotional and literacy-related learning disabilities. If

students had difficulties understanding social relationships, they would have a difficult time

analyzing literature that used descriptive words to express emotion. They were at a disadvantage

when they were expected to write about literacy concepts like imagery and metaphor. Students

with disabilities had low emotional intelligence which resulted in poor academic performance.

Typical students could understand the three principles of social emotional learning. The first

principle of social emotional learning was that caring relationships were the foundation of all

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lasting learning. The second principle centered around how emotions affect the “how” and “what”

students learn. The third principle made goal setting and problem solving provide focus, direction,

and energy for learning. To help students with disabilities achieve higher emotional intelligence

and better academic performance, interventions revolved around the three principles of SEL.

This article was published before RULER studies were published. The intervention that

was mention in the article, the anger thermometer, focused on regulating anger. The article did

not mention an alignment to CASEL’s five principles of social emotional learning. The anger

thermometer intervention resembled an early stage of the mood meter, where students were

asked to focus on their emotions. The difference between this intervention and the Mood meter

was that the Mood meter focused on emotions based on four colors of emotions instead of just

one. They both helped the students become self-aware. When the author referred to his subjects,

he was referring to the subjects from the research of his evidence-based literature. To write this

article, the author used evidence-based research literature to support his assertions about SEL

and students with LD (learning disabilities). He referred to the data from these articles to support

his connection between students with disabilities and SEL. The author did not gather actual data

to support the interventions that he recommended to help students with LD. The author did

compile research to support the connection between students with LD and the principles with SEL.

He also offered examples of interventions that will help students with LD with their behavior. This

article used the data from other research literature to support the author’s connection between

SEL and students with LD. The conclusion from this research suggested that students with LD

would benefit from SEL.

Besides RULER, another intervention that could be beneficial was mindful breathing.

Student engagement was positively correlated to academic achievement. For students with

disabilities who have off-task and disruptive behaviors, the lack of student engagement reduced

academic achievement. Mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) could have provided an efficient

tool for increasing academic engagement in students by promoting self-management skills. The

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researchers defined mindfulness as having the awareness that emerges through paying attention

on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment

by moment (Minkos, Chafouleas, Bray, Lasalle 2017). Self-management skills included one or

more of the following:

1. Personal goal setting

2. Self-monitoring

3. Self-evaluation and recording

4. Self-reinforcement

5. Self-charting

Mindful breathing, a self-monitoring skill, allowed students to recognize when the mind

wanders, take note and redirect to reengage. Repetition of mindful breathing helped students

think clearly and become less reactive to emotional stimuli. The purpose of this study was to

engage in daily mindful breathing intervention to decrease disruptive behavior.

The setting of this study was a nonresidential alternative educational program in northeast

United States. The subjects were 38 students with emotional behavior disorder. Out of the 38

students, 7 were identified as potential subjects for the study. Two students qualified to enter the

intervention baseline phase.

The methodology of this study was to utilize a 5-minute scripted breathing activity that was

created for the 2 students. A baseline observation phase was used to determine behavior during

academic activity. The teacher would engage in instruction without mindfulness activity. The

researcher modeled the intervention for the teacher and then provided feedback to ensure

mastery. The intervention was implemented once a day. The teacher could instruct the students

to use the intervention as many times as the teacher saw fit. The teacher was to complete a

checklist.

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The results from student 1 showed that mindful breathing intervention did not increase

academic engagement. In student 2 mindful breathing intervention showed immediate and overall

academic engagement. For disruptive behavior, both students reduced their disruptive behavior

in class after mindful breathing intervention was introduced. The researchers found that mindful

breathing intervention could be an effective strategy for children and adolescent with emotional

disturbance (Minkos et al. 2017). Although the researchers felt that 6 weeks was not enough time

to see improvement consistently, due to absences from the teacher and student. Individual

implementation of mindful breathing may not be as effective as a class wide intervention.

This literature review had identified and defined the need for social emotional learning in

public schools to promote academic performance. It suggested that students with disabilities

were unable to learn about SEL approaches due to their inabilities to recognize emotions of others.

However, this action research paper planned to extrapolate from the literature review for typical

students and apply SEL approaches for students with disabilities by focusing on the RULER

approach and mindful breathing as SEL interventions for students with disabilities.

Setting/Subjects

The setting for this research was a special education self-contained 12:1 class. The

students in the class were 4 first grade students and 5 kindergarten students. There were 3

alternative placement bilingual paraprofessionals, 2 crisis behavior paraprofessionals and one

special education teacher in the classroom. The subject who had been identified to participate in

the RULER/mindful breathing SEL intervention was a Chinese 5-year-old boy with an IEP and a

classification of Autism. For this research, this child is to be referred to as Student 1. His behavior

interfered with his ability to do classwork. Whenever Student 1 had to ELA or Math classwork, he

would ask to go to the bathroom. He would demand to draw. He would tell the adult that he was

thirsty. Often, he would resort to screaming loudly to refuse classwork.

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Methodology

RULER’s classroom charter had been completed and the Mood Meter had been

introduced to the class. A copy of the Mood Meter was taped to each student’s desk. A large

Mood Meter was also displayed on the wall. The students in the class were introduced to the

mood meter’s vocabulary and colors. If students were feeling happy and calm, they would be

considered in the green. If students felt excited, they would be in the yellow. If students felt sad,

they would say that they were blue. If students felt angry, they would be in the red. Every day, I

asked the students to check-in and monitor their emotions in the morning before beginning

morning routines. The data that I collected showed that for the most part students came to school

happy and content. Most students came to school happy and excited. This data was not dynamic

nor effective to support the evidence-based literature review.

While I was collecting this data, I noticed that Student 1 would avoid doing his classwork

whenever he was not in the green or yellow. Student 1 could benefit more from the Mood Meter,

if another intervention was given to him to help him move his emotions toward the green or yellow

colors of the Mood Meter. Thus, another intervention, mindful breathing, was added to help him

self-regulate his emotions so that he may prepare himself to do classwork. If Student 1 indicated

that he was green or yellow on the Mood Meter, he could begin his classwork. If he felt red or

blue on the Mood Meter, he was asked do some simple mindful breathing exercises, by taking 1-

3 deep breaths. Student 1 was asked again to check-in his emotions after mindful breathing. If

he checked-in as green or yellow on the Mood Meter, he could proceed to do his classwork. If he

was still in the red or blue, he would repeat the mindful breathing until his emotions eventually

changed to green or yellow on the Mood Meter where he could proceed to do his classwork. A

pre-assessment task survey was given to the paraprofessional to give a baseline awareness of

the behaviors of Student 1. The survey also gave more details about the task avoidance of

Student 1. A progress interview was given to the paraprofessional after two weeks of data

collecting. A post-assessment task analysis was given after week 4 of data collection.

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Findings

The pre-assessment task analysis survey was given to the paraprofessional prior to the

mindful breathing intervention. The results of the survey showed that Student 1 avoids doing

classwork. A timer had been used to help him stay on task. Student 1 understood the Mood

Meter concept. When asked what percentage of the time Student 1 stays on task when asked to

do classwork, the paraprofessional wrote 10%. The paraprofessional also wrote that Student 1

spends 15% of the time avoiding classwork. This information seems to contradict the data

collected since Student 1 spends between 33% to 57% of the time red on the Mood Meter before

doing classwork. The data was collected every day. It was then organized on a weekly basis.

The following pie charts show the results of each Mood Meter check-ins. In Week 1, the

pie chart showed that Student 1 felt red 40 % of the time before he was asked to do class work.

Week 1 Mood Meter Check-Ins

Green Yellow Red Blue

20%

40%

40%

The rest of the Mood Meter check-ins during week 1 were either yellow or green. Student 1 did

not feel blue before doing his classwork during week 1. This information is important because it

showed the paraprofessional that Student 1 needed an intervention, like mindful breathing to help

him move to the green or yellow so that he can do his classwork.

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During Week 2, the Mood Meter Check-Ins showed that Student 1 felt red 33.3% of the time

before doing his classwork. This is a decrease of 7% from Week 1. Student 1 did not feel green

or blue before doing his classwork.

Week 2 Mood Meter Check-Ins

Green Yellow Red Blue

33%

67%

During Week 3, Student 1 had check-ins in all four quadrants of the Mood Meter. The combined

percentages of red and blue showed that Student 1 needed mindful breathing 63% of the time

before he was ready to do his classwork.

Week 3 Mood Meter Check-Ins

Green Yellow Red Blue

12%
25%

25%

38%

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During Week 4, Student 1 had more blue than red check-ins on the Mood Meter. The percentage

Week 4 Mood Meter Check-Ins

Green Yellow Red Blue

12%

38%

25%

25%

combined of blue and red remained the same as Week 3 at 63%. Regardless of whether Student

1 was either red or blue, Student 1 still needed mindful breathing intervention to help him get to

green or yellow before he could do his work. In four weeks, Student 1 had reduced his Mood

Meter red check-ins from 40% to 25%. He was feeling less anger when initially asked to do his

classwork.

According to the Mood Meter Check-ins, Student 1 spent between one third to one half of

the time feeling either blue or red on a weekly basis. These emotions prevented Student 1 from

starting his classwork. Implementing mindful breathing helped Student 1 self-regulate his

emotions. According to the graph, Mood Meter Check-In with Mindful Breathing, once Student 1

had identified his mood as either red or blue, he was immediately guided to do mindful breathing

by the paraprofessional. After he finished mindful breathing, he was to check-in on the Mood

Meter. If he did not feel green or yellow, he would repeat mindful breathing. The graph below

showed how many times Student 1 needed to practice mindful breathing before he was able to

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check-in his emotions at green or yellow on the Mood Meter. From the graph, over a four-week

Mood Meter Check-In with Mindful Breathing

6

Mindful Breathing
3 4 4

3 3
Mood Meter
2 2 2 2

1 1 1 1 1 1 1

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Week Week Week Week
1 2 3 4

period of time, Student 1 had learned how to use mindful breathing to help regulate his emotions

to prepare himself to do his classwork. In Week 1, Student 1 checked in red on the Mood Meter

twice before doing his classwork. In one instance, Student 1 practiced mindful breathing one time

before he felt green and was ready to do his classwork. The other time, Student 1 checked in as

red on the Mood Meter. He needed to practice mindful breathing five times before he was ready

to do classwork. Although the number of red and blue check-ins on the Mood Meter increased,

the number of times Student 1 needed to practice mindful breathing reduced. This graph showed

that Student 1 was becoming more aware of his emotions and was learning that mindful breathing

is an intervention that can help him self-regulate his emotions to do his classwork.

A post-assessment task analysis was given to the paraprofessional after four weeks of

data collection. The results of the survey showed that the paraprofessional was able to guide

Student 1 to stay on task by using the Mood Meter and mindful breathing intervention. She

recalled that Student 1 was able to start his classwork once he check-in as green or yellow on the

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Mood Meter. She also reported that once Student 1 started his classwork, he was able to stay

on task and complete his classwork.

Discussions/Implication.

From the literature review to the implementation of the Mood Meter with an intervention

of mindful breathing, students with disabilities can improve their behavior to do classwork. At the

beginning of my research, social emotional learning seemed to be an approach that helped typical

students improve their emotional intelligence and become better students. The Mood Meter is

used in our Prekindergarten classes. The students have been taught to check in their emotions in

the morning as part of morning routines. When all students have checked in, the educators can

quickly scan the Mood Meter to look for students who are feeling in the red or blue. They have a

quick SEL approach to monitor children’s emotions and help those students who are feeling angry

or sad.

However, when evidence based SEL approaches like the Mood Meter and interventions

like mindful breathing are applied to students with disabilities, I was skeptical that SEL

interventions could help them completed classwork. For four weeks, I had the paraprofessional

gather data on Student 1. The results of checking in on the Mood Meter helped students with

disabilities establish a SEL routine. The color-coded Mood Meter helped students with disabilities

discern their emotions without using facial features to explain their feelings. An intervention like

mindful breathing helped dampen students’ irritable or aggressive emotions. It diffuses and lessens

high emotions. Student 1 was able to use mindful breathing to help himself self-regulate emotions

from anger and sadness toward happiness and calm.

According to the paraprofessional, she was able to have Student 1 complete his classwork

once he checked in as green or yellow. The paraprofessional was a substitute paraprofessional

who had never worked with students with disabilities. She felt that using the Mood Meter and

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mindful breathing reduced the struggles she previously had with Student 1 to do his classwork. In

fact, she was grateful for the intervention because she became more effective in getting Student 1

to complete his classwork. She also noticed that Student 1 generalized his learning of the Mood

Meter and mindful breathing to his art class to help him do his art assignment. Student 1 had also

drawn the Mood Meter on his classwork to show his emotions. He also asked the adults in the

room how they were feeling on the Mood Meter. Student 1’s success with the Mood Meter and

mindful breathing supports the evidence-based approach of RULER.

The implications of this research made me realize that this can be a planned support for

paraprofessional to implement for all students in my special education classroom. It establishes

SEL routines that help students with disabilities get themselves ready to do classwork. Mindful

breathing lessens the struggle between student and paraprofessional who work closely with

students with disabilities. Mindful breathing calms students and helps them focus on the task at

hand. For paraprofessionals who do not have experience with students with disabilities, Mood

Meter check-ins and mindful breathing will help them understand their assigned students’ state of

mind for doing classwork. It provides paraprofessionals an easy intervention to implement for

verbal and non-verbal students with disabilities.

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References

Brackett M.A., Rivers S.E., Reyes, M.R., Salovey P. (2012). Enhancing academic performance

and social and emotional competence with the RULER feeling words curriculum.

Learning and Individual Differences, 22(2), 218-224. doi:10.1016/j.lindif.2010.10.002

Denham, S. A., Caverly, S., Schmidt, M., Blair, K., Demulder, E., Caal, S., Mason, T. (2002).

Preschool understanding of emotions: Contributions to classroom anger and

aggression. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43(7), 901-916.

Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D. & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The

impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-

based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1), 405–432.

Elias, M. J. (2004). The connection between social-emotional learning and learning disabilities:

Implications for intervention. Learning Disability Quarterly, 27(1), 53-63.

Eklund K., Kilpatrick K.D., Kilgus, S.P., Haider A. (2018). Children, research, and public policy a

systematic review of state-level social-emotional learning standards: Implications for

practice and research. School Psychology Review, 47(3), 316-326.

Haymovitz E., Houseal-Allport P., Scott Lee R., Svistova J. (2018). Exploring the perceived

benefits and limitations of a school-based social-emotional program: A concept map

evaluation. Children & Schools, 40(1), 45-53.

Minkos, M. L., Chafouleas, S. M., Bray, M. A., & Lasalle, T. P. (2017). Brief report: A preliminary

investigation of a mindful breathing intervention to increase academic engagement in an

alternative educational setting. Behavioral Disorders,43(4), 436-443.

Nathanson, L., Rivers, S.E., Flynn, L.M., Brackett, M.A. (2016). Creating emotionally intelligent

schools with RULER. Emotion Review, 8(4), 1-6

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