Second Step: A Violence Prevention Curriculum (Committee for Children, 1989, 2003; 1997, 2003) is designed to promote social competence and reduce social-emotional problems by teaching children skills in the core areas of empathy, emotion management (impulse control, emotion regulation, anger management), and social problem solving. It is a universal prevention program, which means that it is taught to every child in a classroom rather than to selected children. It has four levels: Preschool/Kindergarten, Grades 1-3, Grades 4-5 and Middle School.
Guiding Theory
The
Second Step program emphasizes understanding and dealing with emotions, expressing emotions in socially acceptable ways, thinking about social situations in accurate and constructive ways, and learning prosocial behaviors through practice. The program assumes that feelings, thoughts, and behavior affect one another.
The Second Step units follow from the long-standing traditions in intervention research on empathy (Feshbach, 1975), social problem solving (Spivack and Shure, 1974), and anger management (Novaco, 1975).
The State Support Team Region 15 was able to purchase 75 Second Step kits for all early childhood programs needing kits, our region withone time carry over money.
We were able to bring a national trainer form Washington State to Pike County and provided hands on training for 122 early childhood personnel!
Head Start programs have used the program for years and report that teachers who use the program consistently and with fidelity have 50% fewer behavior problems in their classrooms.
THESE PHOTOGRAPHS CELEBRATE THAT EFFORT!