In support of Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, NBC News launched a Social & Emotional section on its award-winning Parent Toolkit website – a one-stop online resource available in English and Spanish – for parents navigating their children’s development in the classroom and beyond. Produced by NBC News’ Education Nation and sponsored by Pearson, the new section contains tips on how to improve emotional competency, relationship-building and social skills. Based on research about emotional intelligence – a concept popularized in 1995 by Daniel Goldman, author and co-founder of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) – the new section features guides, broken down by grade level, to help parents with their child’s social and emotional development. Concepts highlighted in the section are based on CASEL’s five interrelated sets of competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making. The new section also features insights and advice from teachers, academic and parenting experts including Jennifer Miller of Confident Parents, Confident Kids and renowned research centers, including the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and The Rutgers Social-Emotional Learning Lab. The Social & Emotional section is available for Android devices on the Parent Toolkit App, and will launch on iOs devices later this month.

The Parent Toolkit team has created a new Facebook page in conjunction with the launch of this new section. The hope is to build on the success of the site to further engage parents in a conversation about steps that they can take to best support their children. They would love for you to add your voice to the conversation. In addition to their new Facebook page, they are continuing to host monthly #ToolkitTalks on Twitter. Since October is National Bullying Prevention Month, they will spend this month’s talk discussing bullying. Please join us on Tuesday, October 28 at 7 pm EST for another powerful conversation. And watch for the announcement for November’s Twitter Chat for which Jennifer Miller will help lead a discussion on “Raising Thankful Children.”

Using the Toolkit, parents can also access academic benchmarks and tips focused on math, English language arts, and health and wellness for pre-k through high school. Plans to enhance the website and app include original video content, which will be included next year.