The Origin And Success of Living Skills and Social Emotional Learning Materials

The success of the Living Skills and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) materials throughout the years has been due to many factors, including, but not limited to, the fact that they were created in response to the condition and needs of a well-defined marketing niche.

Success Due to the Nature and Needs of Parents

The success of Living Skills and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) materials is due in part to the to the nature and needs of parents which includes:

1. Parental Fears: the materials help alleviate parental fears by making the survival and well-being of their children attainable goals.

2. Parent Guilt: the materials assuage parental guilt by supplementing the limited amount of time and effort parents have to give with materials that can help fulfill the child-rearing duties related to raising responsible kids.

3. Parental Burden: the materials remove the burden of responsibility parents feel for their children’s happiness and success by holding children, rather than their parents, responsible for their own lives.

4. Parental Aspirations: the materials help fulfill parents’ hopes and dreams regarding their children’s accomplishments by giving children the information and skills they need to achieve their full potential.

5. Parental Expectations: The materials help children fulfill their parents’ expectations by giving children the information and skills they need to do what is asked of them.

6. Parent/Child Relationships: The materials help eliminate negative parent/child exchanges by providing materials that do the “lecturing” usually relegated to parents.

Success Due to the Nature and Needs of Children

The success of Living Skills and SEL materials is due in part to the to the nature and needs of children which includes:

1. Childhood Resistance: the materials help overcome a child’s normal resistance to information their parents want them to know because in their struggle for independence, children tend to respond better to information and guidance that comes from sources other than their parents.

2. Childhood Needs to Survive and Grow: the materials provide vital information that is essential to every child’s survival and growth.

3. Childhood Desire for Control: since the amount of control a person attains is proportionate to the amount of responsibility he or she assumes, the materials help children gain the control they want to have over their own lives by helping them to become responsible.

4. Childhood Desire to Please: the materials give children the information and skills they need to gain the approval they desire by fulfilling reasonable expectations.

5. Childhood Development: the materials coincide with the developmental stages of children who are progressing at a normal rate in a normal way toward maturity and self-actualization.

6. The Universality of Childhood Experiences: the materials address the universal issues that all children experience at one time or another during childhood.

Success Due to the Nature and Needs of the Adults Who Surround Children

The success of Livings Skill and SEL materials is due in part to the nature and needs of adults who surround children (i.e., teachers, counselors, librarians, etc.) which includes:

1. Adult Effectiveness: the materials help adults overcome the obstacles that often inhibit the effectiveness of their work with children. Many times, the problems that keep children from learning and performing adequately are eliminated with the acquisition of Living Skills. Also, the negative social interactions that can distract children from learning and performing adequately can be more easily resolved when children have the Living Skills to do so.

2. Adult/Child Communications: the materials enhance adult/child communications by providing adults with the vocabulary and dialogue that can help them explain, simply and clearly, complex subjects to children. These simple clear explanations make it more possible for children to integrate vital information into their thinking and daily lives.

Success Due to the Nature of the Materials

The success of Living Skills and SEL materials is due in part to the to the nature of the materials which includes:

1. Universal Quality: the materials are universal in that they deal with subjects that are relevant to every child.

2. Evergreen Quality: the materials are evergreen in that they never go out of style because the subject matter never goes out of style.

3. Relevant Subjects: the materials deal with subjects of most concern to parents and their children. These subjects include the child’s survival, health and well-being, self-esteem, social skills, happiness, and success.

4. Renewable Constituency: the constituency that uses the materials is renewable in that new end-users are being born every day. This condition will continue for as long as the human population exists.

5. Effectiveness of the Materials: Whenever the materials are used appropriately, they can modify a child’s attitudes and behavior in a positive and permanent way.

6. Originality of the Materials: The materials are the only comprehensive, birth through adolescent collection of Living Skills and SEL materials in existence. As such, they have no equal nor do they have any real competition.

Success Due to the Nature of the Juvenile Publishing Industry

The success of Living Skill and SEL materials is due in part to the nature of the Juvenile Publishing Industry that includes:

1. Juvenile Publishing Industry: the Juvenile Publishing Industry is one of the strongest growth segments of the publishing industry.

2. Juvenile Educational Products: juvenile products sell consistently well. In addition, there is only a minimal negative impact on sales due to economic periods of inflation and/or recession because juvenile books (especially self-help books) are considered to be childhood essentials.