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       While doing research I was surprised to find out that today, as many as 20% of children have mental health problems (Caldarella, Christensen, Kramer & Chronicler 2009). Unfortunately, there is a huge percent of children who are not receiving treatment; surprisingly, “75-80% of these children are not receiving treatment. Of those treated 70-80% receive service in school (Caldarella, Christensen, Kramer & Kronmiller 2009). Many children need services to help them with mental health, but in order to receive them it is up to schools to “expand their focus by including social-emotional instruction [that] integrate social-emotional competencies” (Caldarella, Christensen, Kramer & Kronmiller 2009).

      Currently, schools within British Columbia are recognizing the need for these competencies and are beginning to foster them. Along with schools, teachers like myself are finding new ways to teach through educating themselves about social-emotional learning and implementing it within their classrooms.  One reason for this is because  "today there is a constant change driven through technology. The way people interact with each other personally and socially is drastically changing” (Province of British Columbia 2017). 

      Moreover, "evidence based social-emotional learning [programs acknowledge] the diverse needs of learners [and] facilitate emotional and behavioural functioning (Gubi 2015).  Research suggests that “children learn best when they  [learn to] effectively modulate their moods and behaviours to successfully interact with teachers, peers, parents and others to transcend”(Gubi 2015) adversity.  Likewise,  social-emotional learning programs have been successful in helping students with their academic achievement and help students be prosperous within different areas in their life.

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