DBT-Based SEL Curriculum Offered for Schools
A national training for the DBT STEPS-E curriculum is scheduled for March. The program is designed to empower elementary school teachers to implement evidence-based skills for emotional regulation, coping, and decision-making directly into their classrooms as part of social-emotional learning frameworks.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was originally developed in the late 1980s by psychologist Marsha M. Linehan to treat chronically suicidal individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. - The school-based curriculum is an adaptation of clinical DBT and is built around four core skill modules: Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, and Interpersonal Effectiveness. - DBT STEPS-E is a universal, Tier 1 curriculum designed for implementation by general education teachers for all students, though the manual also provides guidance for more intensive Tier II and Tier III support. - The program is divided into two distinct curricula to be developmentally appropriate: one for grades K-2 consisting of 12 lessons and another for grades 3-5 with 16 lessons. - This curriculum is an extension of a program for adolescents, DBT STEPS-A (Skills Training for Emotional Problem Solving for Adolescents), which has shown effectiveness in reducing emotional symptoms and internalizing problems in students. - The curriculum's framework aligns with the five core competencies identified by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL): self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. - The "dialectical" component of the therapy's name refers to its core principle of integrating opposites, primarily balancing the strategies of acceptance and change.
