How Schools Are Using Diversity Toys to Support Social-Emotional Learning

SEL in Schools: The Gap Between Policy and Practice

Most states now require social-emotional learning in early childhood curricula. The policy exists. What's harder to find is the classroom-level tool that makes it real for a two-year-old on a Tuesday afternoon.

For children 18 months to 6 years, hands-on materials are the primary medium of learning. The toy shelf is the curriculum. What's on it matters more than most purchasing decisions acknowledge.

What Research-Backed SEL Implementation Looks Like

The Environment Rating Scales — ECERS for preschool classrooms, ITERS for infant and toddler settings — are the quality assessment tools most US early childhood programs use for accreditation. Both include a specific subcategory for diversity materials: do the toys and books in this room show different kinds of people in a positive way? CASEL-evaluated programs treat this as a standard component of the learning environment, not a diversity initiative layered on top of everything else.

My Family Builders is one of the few toy products formally evaluated within that framework. Not positioned as ECERS-aligned. Actually evaluated.

Real Schools, Real Use

Bright Horizons — over 1,000 early learning centers across the US — uses My Family Builders in its classrooms. Primrose Schools, Goddard Schools, and YMCA early learning programs do the same.

On the research side, Erikson Institute in Chicago, Penn State's Child Development Lab, Northeastern University, and Old Dominion University have all used the sets in studies. In my experience, when a material shows up in both large childcare networks and university research programs, that's usually a reliable signal that it holds up under actual use — not just in a catalog description.

Practical Implementation for School Purchasers

One 48-piece set per learning station or small-group area is the standard deployment. The set includes activity cards for structured SEL exercises, though most teachers find the blocks generate their own conversations. Children start asking questions about the families they're building before anyone prompts them.

For children with autism spectrum disorder, speech delay, or other developmental differences, the magnetic connection offers tactile feedback that standard wooden figures don't provide. Several programs specifically choose it for that reason, separate from the diversity angle entirely.

Compliance and Curriculum Alignment

Certified to ASTM F963, CPSIA, and EN71. Non-toxic, washable, built for the frequency of institutional use. For programs documenting ECERS compliance in the Diversity of Materials subcategory, it is one of the most direct choices available — the alignment is specific, not general.

Ordering for Schools and Districts

Available at myfamilybuilders.com. For multiple classrooms or district-level orders, contact us directly.