Who We Are | Housman Institute

Moving Beyond Behavior Management to Support Learning & Emotional Intelligence

Kids can’t learn when they’re dysregulated.

Teachers can’t teach when they’re burnt out.

When we address educator well-being, teachers can teach children the skills for emotional intelligence, and in turn–classrooms run more smoothly and kids can learn.

Housman Institute provides proven, research-tested training, tools and curricula to promote emotional intelligence in kids from birth to age 8, by supporting students AND their educators and caregivers.

Our proprietary solutions include training programs and professional development courses for early childhood educators, as well as curricula, tools, and books to set up our youngest learners with the building blocks of emotional intelligence from birth.

Play the video below to hear our founder, clinical psychologist and educator Dr. Donna Housman, speak about Housman Institute.

Our training, curriculum, and tools are based on our signature begin to ECSEL® (Emotional, Cognitive, and Social Early Learning) approach. For nearly 40 years, begin to ECSEL has impacted thousands of young children and teachers through our understanding of brain development, informed by research in neuroscience, child development and education.

Built on research, proven to work

Built on a foundation of research in neuroscience and early childhood development, we have evaluated the ECSEL program and proven that our students significantly outperform national cohorts in emotional competence, self-regulation, empathy, and more. These are the critical foundational skills that help classrooms run more smoothly and unlock lifetime achievement. Developed and tested in our own school over several decades, we are finally bringing our solutions to schools, learning centers and daycares across the country.

What Makes Us Different?

With so many teacher training, curriculum, and tools on the market, it can be hard to tell claims from proof. Here’s what sets ECSEL apart:

A Focus on Prevention

👶 Starting with infants, our training, curriculum, and tools focus on providing solutions in promoting the educators emotionality and children’s mental health and learning rooted in the understanding it is far easier to prevent than repair - by preventing emotional problems and behavioral issues, rather than just repairing damage after it is done.

➕ We focus on Causal Talk in the Emotional Experience, so children can learn about emotions within and outside of a heated moment, for meaningful learning and more joyful classrooms.

👨 Because children learn within the context of relationships, we provide training for educators and caregivers’ emotional well-being that has been described as “transformative” and “life-changing”.

Not Only Social and Emotional But Cognitive

Cognition–our ability to problem-solve, think, and focus–is one of the most important factors in learning. Children cannot learn if they are overwhelmed by emotions. Children who participated in the begin to ECSEL approach also showed significant ability to outperform their peers in their cognitive ability, and thus their ability to learn and succeed in school.

Standards Aligned, Nationally Recognized, and Accredited Solutions

✅ Our products are aligned with CASEL's core competencies, CDA, Head Start performance standards, and NAEYC standards, as well as all applicable state standards.

✅ Educators can receive IACET CEUs by taking our courses, and we are approved providers in certain non-IACET states. Find out more