Guidance curriculum of the American School Counselor Association school counseling standards implementing the forty developmental assets under the nine standards

Abstract

The forty developmental assets incorporate many different angles of child development. By implementing these assets into a guidance curriculum, opportunity has been created for youth and community to interact with each other with the hope of establishing more positive relationships and more successful youth. The 40 developmental assets deal with developing a child’s sense of purpose and self-worth that goes beyond the American School Counselor Association’s (ASCA) school counseling standards. This work has combined the current ASCA school counseling standards with the 40 developmental assets, which has resulted in the creation of a more comprehensive curriculum that focuses on most areas of child development. The academic, career, and social/personal areas of development are focused on with the additional focus on positive experiences from families, schools, and communities that research has shown to build youth into positive and constructive adults. This curriculum is practical, yet innovative in its goal to improve the all around development of children and adolescents during their school years. The curriculum focuses on students in kindergarten through grade 8 and was developed using pre-existing curricula, which meet the ASCA standards, and was enhanced with activities and strategies which pertain to the 40 developmental assets. The mission of this work was to achieve and original curriculum to better promote and improve the academic, career, and personal/social development of students.