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2026-2027_Public Facing _ASPIRE Communities of Practice  .pdf

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Using Function-Informed Support to Address Challenging Behavior within Routines

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Using Function-Informed Support to Address Challenging Behavior within Routines

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National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations

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Video: Play-Based Learning in Placer County

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Video: Play-Based Learning in Placer County

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Play-Based Learning for our Youngest Students

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CA UPK Curriculum Evaluation and Implementation Toolkit

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CA UPK Curriculum Evaluation and Implementation Toolkit

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California Early Childhood Special Education Network

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Article: Three SEL Practices to Use Every Day 

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Article: Three SEL Practices to Use Every Day 

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early childhood education

These simple social and emotional learning activities can make a big difference for the youngest students.

Providing our young learners with a strong foundation can set them up for success for many years to come. Relationship skills, social awareness, and self-management are essential social and emotional learning (SEL) tools to add to our learners' tool kit to help them navigate all their new experiences in life and in learning.

Below are three SEL signature practices from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. Within each of these practices, we share methods specifically designed for early childhood. Consider your scenario as well as the needs and size of your group when deciding which activities are most appropriate for your learning community.

1. Welcoming Inclusion Activity

We often hear the phrase " Maslow before Bloom," which means we must be mindful that in order for learners to truly be creative and solve problems, they must feel safe and valued. With that in mind, how we enter into the learning environment is an opportunity to establish the mood and tone as well as create a sense of belonging.

Morning check-ins: There are a variety of ways that learners can enter our classrooms, and we know that they are coming with different experiences before they enter the space. Consider using an attendance routine with a photo of learners' faces (or an avatar) where learners can independently check themselves in and know they are part of the environment (self-management, social awareness).

Class meetings: Class meetings are a powerful way to build and maintain community (social awareness, relationship skills). Gathering learners in a circle, we can explicitly talk about emotions and ways to regulate ("Name it to tame it"). Using a tool like the mood meter during circle time, we can develop self-awareness and self-management learning from each other.

Singing: When we see learners in the kitchen area pretending to be one of their family members, phone in hand chatting about making dinner, they're learning through mimicking what they see around them. The call-and-response nature of songs helps gift learners with new language through copying what they see their peers and teachers doing, learning through shared experience (social awareness).

2. Engaging Strategies

One of the many joys of teaching preschool and early-elementary children is the signals our little ones give us when it's time to shift gears. Those who teach older kids may wonder when they do or don't have their learners' full attention, but we know. It might start with mouth bubbles, extra fidgeting, a rise in the noise level, or all of the above, but we sense the energy shifting and adjust accordingly. In fact, we are constantly anticipating and responding and, when necessary, restoring.

Anticipating: We know that it's unreasonable to ask very young learners to sit for extended periods of time, so we are careful to plan accordingly. Play-based exploration is a great way that we can set up provocations to scaffold learning experiences and then follow how the learners respond to the activity.

Social stories and role-play allow learners to explore different scenarios using their prior knowledge and imagination for learner-guided experiences as well as teacher-guided opportunities, modeling vocabulary and transfer of new ideas (relationship skills).

Responding: We can't always anticipate when we will need to shift the energy and/or break up the time, so it's a good idea to have brain breaks ready to go. For example, bookmark some of your favorite GoNoodle videos for energizing. When you need to calm the room, try palming (self-management).

Restoring: Even with all the anticipating and responding, sometimes things escalate and require more than simple coaching and redirection. Restorative practice circles provide kids (and adults) a safe space to practice listening, speaking, and taking responsibility for our actions. We can start with a breathing practice to reset and then move into a discussion giving students an opportunity to express their perspective and emotions (self-management, self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision-making).

Do a "One-Word Whip Around" responding to a prompt like "Share one word that describes how you feel about your learning for today" (self-awareness, self-management).

Ask kids to finish this sentence, "I am curious about..." or "I want to learn more about..." (responsible decision-making, self-awareness, social awareness).

Practicing gratitude has been proven to improve relationships, well-being, and academic performance. Ask students to name someone or something that brought them joy today (self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills).

3. Optimistic Closure

We can build confidence and promote communication skills in our youngest learners when we collectively and individually celebrate what we have accomplished.

Involving Families as Partners

The more we bring families in as partners, the more effective we are in nurturing the whole child. Using learning journals/portfolios and communication tools allows families to fully appreciate the hard work and accomplishments of their child. We even have digital tools such as Seesaw and Flipgrid that give families a window into the classroom. This is especially helpful for those who don't drop off or pick up their child.

Using developmentally appropriate practices as part of a systemic SEL approach allows us to help our littlest learners develop the social and emotional skills that will serve their academic success and help them thrive throughout their lives.

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3 SEL Practices That Early Childhood Educators Can Use Every Day

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early childhood education These simple social and emotional learning activities can make a big difference for the youngest students. Providing our young learners with a strong foundation can set them up for success for many years to come.

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Article: Using Restorative Practices in Preschool

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Article: Using Restorative Practices in Preschool

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Using Restorative Practices in Preschool

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Rather than rely on external rewards or punishment, these classroom management strategies focus on building community.

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Our vision is for every student to be educated in an environment that is intentionally designed, equitable and inclusive. SIP hosts and organizes several statewide events each year with the goal of supporting LEA/District to progress on the path of creating inclusive organizations. The events range from in-person training/workshops to webinars designed to ensure access […]

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Promising Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) Practices Video Series.

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(Video) Inclusion in Action - Marysville Child Development Program

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(Video) Inclusion in Action - Marysville Child Development Program

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SIP Demonstration Site

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(Video) Innovative, Inclusive Practices: Special Education Best Practices

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(Video) Innovative, Inclusive Practices: Special Education Best Practices

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CalECSE

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Innovative & Inclusive Practices: Special Education Best Practices for Transitioning to Preschool

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California Early Childhood Special Education Network (CalECSE) | Parent Videos

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(Video) Early Inclusion in Action - Paso Robles USD

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(Video) Early Inclusion in Action - Paso Robles USD

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Marie Bauer Early Education Center

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CalECSE Spotlight on Excellence: Marie Bauer Early Education Center

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Use Universal Design for Learning to create a lesson that honors variability and prioritizes supports for all!

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Inclusive Early Childhood Lesson Planning Template

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SIP Early Childhood Collaborative Planning Agenda

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SIP Early Childhood Collaborative Planning Agenda

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Video Playlist: SIP Inclusive Preschool Interview Series (2022)

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Video Playlist: SIP Inclusive Preschool Interview Series (2022)

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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Supporting Innovative Practices - Archived Virtual Events

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High Quality Early Learning Environments

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High Quality Early Learning Environments

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Seeds of Partnership

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What we have learned from recent brain research, specifically how experiences shape the architecture of the brain, strongly suggests that a High Quality Early Learning Environment can provide the requisite foundational opportunities for young children to strengthen self-regulation through consistent routines and positive relationships. Early childhood professionals provide a unique foundational context for learning that begins by supporting healthy social-emotional development. As increasing attention is now being given to the damaging impact of stress and trauma in the lives of young children, a High Quality Early Learning Environment can promote resilience and well-being, affirm capabilities and competencies and insure a sense of belonging and community for children and teachers alike.

When teachers engage in inquiry and reflection they can increase opportunities to meet the needs of their individual learners. Classroom practices that are inclusive and culturally sensitive best accounts for special learning needs within the Least Restrictive Environment continuum. Considerations must be taken into account for a high-quality workforce, positive relationships, Universal Design, children with IEPs and dual language learners. Careful attention to the content and arrangement of the physical learning environment can support children's decision-making and extend children's engagement with materials, providing teachers with focused time to observe and document children's interests and align the daily curricular offerings with associated learning standards. The specific focus of this tool is to examine key classroom elements that include daily routines, spatial design, furnishings and materials and the documentation of learning processes and outcomes through the physical environment.

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What we have learned from recent brain research, specifically how experiences shape the architecture of the brain, strongly suggests that a High Quality Early Learning Environment can provide the requisite foundational opportunities for young children to strengthen self-regulation through consistent routines and positive relationships.

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Preschool RULER: The Mood Meter in Early Childhood Classrooms

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Inclusive Preschool As a Smart Investment

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Inclusive Preschool As a Smart Investment

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Anjanette Pelletier, SIP Virtual Conference 2026

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Inclusive Preschool as a Smart Investment_SIP.pdf

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Inclusive Preschool as a Smart Investment - Homebase Document

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Inclusive Preschool as a Smart Investment - Homebase Document

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Resources associated with the May 28th, 2026 Webinar with Anjanette Pelletier

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EXTERNAL Inclusive Finance Webinar (with Anjannette) Homebase 2026

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Desired Results For Children And Families

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The Desired Results Developmental Profile (2025) [DRDP (2025)]: An Early Childhood Developmental Continuum is a formative assessment instrument developed by the California Department of Social Services and the California Department of Education for young children and their families, used to inform instruction and program development.

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Este artículo está disponible en español. Léelo en español.

At first glance, the preschool classroom in Paso Robles looks like any other: young students sing "Wheels on the Bus," listen to stories and learn colors and shapes through play.

But unlike most preschool classrooms, children with disabilities in this Marie Bauer Early Education Center classroom are learning alongside their peers who do not require special education services. This is unusual in California, where only 1 in 3 students with disabilities receive their preschool education in a classroom with their peers, according to an EdSource analysis of 2024-25 federal education data.

Parents, educators and researchers say this inclusive model improves outcomes for students with disabilities and reduces the need for more intensive - and costly - special education services in older grades.

"Kids with special needs, who have an IEP, need to be in programs with other, typically developing kids," said Diana Makowetski, a special education teacher at Marie Bauer Early Education Center, referring to the Individualized Education Program. "They need good language models. They need good social models."

Supporters of inclusive early education argue that it can address one of the fastest-growing costs facing school districts: rising numbers of students who qualify for special education. In the upcoming state budget, school districts may see as much as a 43% bump in special education over the last year to address rising costs.

This new funding could be a golden opportunity not just to cover rising special education costs but to stop them from ballooning, according to Anjanette Pelletier, a special education finance expert and director of management consulting for School Services of California. In a recent report, she called for districts to invest in inclusive preschool settings, "one of the strongest opportunities for both educational and fiscal return."

"Early education is not cheap," said Heather Wahlberg, director of early childhood education at Paso Robles Joint Unified School District.

But Wahlberg said that the district's investment in early education has paid dividends. The number of students placed in special day classes with high staffing requirements has been cut in half, and 12% of students no longer require special education services in kindergarten at all.

Why don't more districts offer inclusive preschools?

Researchers say that preschool is a great time for inclusion, because any gaps between students with disabilities and those without them is at its narrowest point. But the youngest children with disabilities are largely educated separately from their peers - in different classrooms, with different teachers - and sometimes even with different recess and lunch schedules.

That approach runs counter to the spirit of inclusion, which is enshrined in federal and state laws requiring students with disabilities to be educated in the least restrictive environment possible alongside their peers. The stakes are high in these early years.

"Once a child is not included, they're almost never included after that," said Karin Garver, an early childhood education policy specialist at the National Institute for Early Education Research. "So if we're putting children in self-contained settings as preschoolers, we've kind of determined their fate as school children beyond that."

Only 33% of California preschoolers with disabilities learn alongside their peers, compared with 45% nationally, according to federal data.

Moving to an inclusive model takes time, coordination and up-front investment, Pelletier said.

Teachers and staff need professional development. Districts may need to modify classrooms and playgrounds to make them accessible for students with disabilities. Funding an inclusive preschool classroom requires districts to navigate a patchwork system of funds that may have complex staffing and licensing requirements, such as the California State Preschool Program.

Preschool funding isn't like K-12 funding. This patchwork system means that where a child attends preschool, in practice, often depends on how much income their family earns or whether they have a disability - even within the same district.

"We, as a district, used to have a state preschool, a [general education] preschool, and our special [education] preschools all operating in separate silos," said Wahlberg. "We finally came together as a district and said, 'Those are all future Bearcats" - the mascot of the Paso Robles High School - "being educated in separate buildings by separate departments and by separate teachers.'"

Rather than maintaining separate programs, Paso Robles Joint Unified chose to bring all students together in inclusive classrooms. Depending on the child, Marie Bauer Early Education Center may receive state preschool funding, district funds for special education students or parent tuition payments.

The California Early Childhood Special Education Network is tasked by the California Department of Education with assisting school districts working to make the transition to inclusive classrooms. The state also provides grants for planning and implementation.

"That really helped begin the conversation and alleviate some of that startup fears that many districts have about the funding," said Wahlberg. "Having a grant like that and having that conversation happening at the state level was really supportive and powerful."

Pelletier argues that the state should go even further. If inclusive early education can reduce the need for more intensive and costly services later, she said, districts should be required to invest more of their special education money in these early years.

Photo by Emma Gallegos/EdSource

'Leaps and bounds'

For families, the benefits of inclusive early education are often visible long before students reach kindergarten.

Michelle Robinson said her 4-year-old grandson, Everest - "like the mountain, but he's little" - was born prematurely and experienced delays in speech and motor development. He began attending Marie Bauer Early Education Center two years ago. Robinson said it's made a world of difference.

"I have just seen this little guy grow by leaps and bounds," she said. "Because it's been such a positive experience, he's super excited next year to go into TK."

Her older grandson likely would have benefited from this program, Robinson said. But because of pandemic disruptions and a lack of awareness about available services, he never attended preschool.

"When he got to kindergarten, it was a challenge for him," she said.

That's become a common story, according to Wahlberg. Kindergarten teachers in Paso Robles Joint Unified have told her they can often tell which students attended the preschool. They are better at regulating themselves and have better language, social skills and fine motor skills.

The most common challenge in young children is delayed speech and language development. Speech-language pathologist Ashley Tsudama said children may struggle with communication because of developmental delays or autism. Children who were isolated during the pandemic or who spend a lot of time on screens also have limited opportunities to develop language skills.

Paso Robles Joint Unified is beginning to see signs of that impact. According to Wahlberg, behavioral issues among students who attended preschool have declined. For 2022-23, 14 preschool students were placed in either transitional kindergarten or kindergarten special day classes - a number that dropped to six for the upcoming school year. These classes are costly because they require heavier staffing than general education classrooms: one teacher plus aides for every 10 students.

When children struggle to communicate or regulate their emotions, those challenges can spill into the classroom and become more serious as academic expectations grow.

"We always say when we're building our students' ability to maintain regulation during disappointment and frustration, we're building future mathematicians and problem solvers and readers," Wahlberg said.

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Could early education bring down rising costs to serve California students with disabilities?

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Parents, educators and researchers say that inclusive early education improves outcomes for students with disabilities and reduces the need for more intensive - and costly - special education services in older grades.

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Source: Julie Nicholson

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Building ECE into Your LCAP_Last updated 5.26.26

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Impacts of Early Inclusion on Kindergarten Placement - Article

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Impacts of Early Inclusion on Kindergarten Placement - Article

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Article - Early intervention may improve academic outcomes by third grade for children with developmental disabilities

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Article - Early intervention may improve academic outcomes by third grade for children with developmental disabilities

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Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health

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Early intervention may improve academic outcomes by third grade for children with developmental disabilities

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Children who received Early Intervention (EI) services before age 3 were more likely to meet third-grade academic standards in math and English language arts (ELA), according to a study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the New York City Health Department. The findings are published in JAMA Network Open.

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SIP Co-Teaching Reference Guide 09-02-2025-FINAL508 (1)

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Supporting Early Intervention in Natural Environments - Administrators

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Supporting Early Intervention in Natural Environments - Administrators

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DEC Recommended Practices

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Supporting Early Intervention in Natural Environments

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Seeds of Partnership One-Pagers

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Seeds of Partnership - SPP/APR Overview and Feedback

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The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) monitor states’ implementation of IDEA. Each state is required to develop and submit a State Performance Plan (SPP). The State Performance Plan is a six-year plan that includes measures referred to as indicators. The indicators are determined by OSEP and are related to either IDEA compliance or student performance. Within the SPP, the state must set rigorous and measurable annual targets for each of the indicators. States must report their progress in relation to these targets in an annual update referred to as the Annual Performance Report (APR). The SPP is the overall six-year plan. The APR provides annual progress data aligned with the SPP.

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CDE Family and Community Partnerships Toolkit

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CDE Family and Community Partnerships Toolkit

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California Great Start Transitions to Elementary School Toolkit (FINAL)

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CDE Developmentally Appropriate Practices Toileting Practices Toolkit

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CDE Developmentally Appropriate Practices Toileting Practices Toolkit

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CDE P-3 Guide to Supporting Multilingual Learners

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CDE P-3 Guide to Supporting Multilingual Learners

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FINAL - P-3 Guide to Supporting MLLs, A Preschool Through 3rd Grade Toolkit, 2.19.26

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Transition Skills - Preschool to Adulthood

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Transition Skills - Preschool to Adulthood

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What is the Behavior Escalation Cycle?

The behavior escalation cycle seeks to explain how student behavior escalates and operates from beginning to end. Understanding the behavior escalation cycle assists educators to employ techniques for use at each stage for students with histories of dangerous, destructive, potentially harmful behaviors toward self and/or others.

Some students have difficulty recognizing the events that trigger their challenging behavior and therefore have a limited ability to prevent their behavior from escalating. Others may be able to recognize the escalation cycle but still choose to engage in challenging behavior.

How educators intervene is different at each of these phases and school staff need to understand the behavior escalation cycle and develop skills for dealing with volatile situations proactively.

Additionally, students do not always progress through the phases "cleanly", meaning students may de-escalate then, re-escalate to a higher intensity phase if the situation was not handled appropriately. Below is the behavior escalation diagram depicting where each phase is depicted in relation to time of the crisis and intensity of behavior.

1. Calm Phase:

Every student with a history of dangerous and/or severe, high intensity behavior goes from calm to not calm. The calm phase is characterized by appropriate, cooperative behavior and responsiveness to staff directions. Maintaining this phase for students with this behavioral profile is a high priority and it provides an opportunity for teaching strategies that will promote and maintain desired student behavior and a longer calm phase.

During this stage there are several practices that can be implemented to prevent the occurrence of an episode that could result in a crisis incident at school. The aim is to teach, pre-correct, motivate, and enhance self-regulation. During this phase, adult behaviors may include:

Teaching replacement behaviors and emotion regulation skills (relaxation, distraction, positive self-talk, mindfulness, and self-soothing).

Precorrection (i.e., errorless learning) to remind the student of potential triggers, replacement behaviors, and emotional regulation skills that can be used. There are several commercially developed emotion regulation programs, such as the "Zones of Regulation" and "The Incredible 5-point Scale" that can be used as a precorrection tool for emotion regulation.

Sampling the reinforcer: this involves energizing the student's motivation to manage themselves in the face of triggers to gain later reinforcement. Sampling the reinforcer has been shown to increase self-regulation and increase the probability the student will not become agitated in the face of the trigger(s).

Relationship strategies that focus on establishing, maintaining, or restoring relationships .

Identify with the student what situations they find stressful and use that information to assess when the student may be able to confront the trigger and when it may be unsuccessful or unsuccessful without supports.

Within the PROMPT Strategy, use PROXIMITY Control-Move around the room but be sure to spend a few seconds in a friendly manner near the student.

2. Trigger Phase:

Triggers are antecedent events representing certain situations, people, interactions, and/or directives/requests that provoke the agitation and potentially lead to more high intensity behavior if certain practices are not implemented.

Some common triggers students experience at school include difficult/non-preferred task, confusion about class assignment, negative interaction with teacher/adult, argument with peer, or a change in routine or schedule. Pathway charting is particularly useful to inform the strategies at this phase and identify replacement behaviors to teach in the previous phase and prompt in this phase. During this phase, adult behaviors may include:

Remove or reduce contact with triggers.

Prompt student to implement coping strategy, self-soothe or avoid contact with the trigger.

Prompt the student to use the replacement behaviors that have been taught, modeled, and rehearsed during the calm stage.

Reinforce the student for exhibiting the replacement behaviors.

3. Agitation:

The agitation phase is characterized by a series of behaviors that indicate the student has disengaged from instruction. Some students demonstrate agitation by increasing behaviors such as darting their eyes or tapping their hands, moving in and out of groups, and starting and stopping activities. In contrast, other students decrease movement by disengaging from groups, staring off into space, or lowering their involvement in instructional activities. The agitation stage marks the point at which the student has escalated, and the previous strategies are insufficient to avoid potential further escalation. The aim here is not to set firm limits and enforce them as the student will likely escalate to a point that is highly disruptive, dangerous, and/or destructive.

During this phase, adult behaviors may include:

Stimulus Change: Briefly removing the student from the source may help maintain compliance and avoid further escalation. This can be accomplished by changing the adult working with them, their location, or the instructional activity.

For students with more developed reasoning abilities, adults may work early in the agitation phase with the student to collaboratively identify the source of the problem and generate mutually agreed upon solutions so the student does not feel the need to escalate.

Note: Any attempt to problem solve with the student during the agitation phase should be made at the beginning of this phase. Otherwise, these strategies might actually cause the behaviors to escalate toward the acceleration phase.

4. Acceleration:

Students in this phase continue to escalate their behavior and are unwilling/unable to communicate with the adult who may be attempting to support. They question, argue, and engage in confrontational interactions; they are defiant of teacher communication. The aim here is to set-up places where the student can go in order to engage in calming activities and potentially use emotion regulation strategies.

During this phase, adult behaviors may include:

Use non-verbal empathy messages, and do not engage in verbal explanations (i.e., reasoning), cajoling, or other interactions that will further escalate.

Avoid power struggles. Provide choices in which complying with directions is more advantageous than not.

Wait. Step away. Do not do or say something that may make the situation even worse by explaining, demanding, warning, and other corrective procedures.

Consider gesturing student toward a personalized spot in the room to calm down in an inviting, non-demanding manner.

5. Peak

At this point, the student has reached full escalation and there is potential for highly disruptive, dangerous, or destructive behavior. Students may physically assault others, hurt themselves, cry hysterically, or destroy property-any of which poses great risk to safety of the student, staff, and others if the situation is not addressed appropriately. It is imperative that staff have a protocol like the Personalized Prevention & De-escalation Planning (DOCX) document in place.

During this phase, adult behaviors may include:

It is imperative that the adults regulate their own behavior by using calm voice tone, decreasing the amount of words spoken, leaving spaces between words, and decreasing voice volume. Making sure the student does not feel they are being overwhelmed by the adults and forced to do something. Focus on controlling staff behavior, demonstrating compassion and tolerance to the student.

When necessary, intrusive short-term interventions, such as removing either the student who is acting out or the other students from the classroom; crisis intervention and prevention techniques, calling the student's parents, contacting the school crisis and security team, etc., may occur.

Remember that restraint can only be used in emergency situations when the behavior poses a clear and present danger of serious physical harm to the pupil or others that cannot be immediately prevented by a response that is less restrictive, and if other specified conditions are met. Please see Restraint and Seclusion for further guidance.

6. De-escalation:

Following the peak phase, students in the de-escalation phase demonstrate a decrease in frequency and intensity of behaviors displayed in the peak phase. They may appear confused, disoriented, and far less agitated. Once the behavior has left the Peak stage and calm is gradually returning to the student, use of techniques to restore relationships and assure the student that escalation is nearing an end can be used.

During this phase, adult behaviors may include:

In general, do not add too much conversation yet. "Pretty soon you will be calm again and we can fix the problem Kai. Can I get you a drink of water?" "Would you like to cool down further in our Coping Corner for a few minutes, etc.?"

Maintain brief interactions with the student.

Avoid talking about the challenging behavior.

Adult may model coping/relaxation strategies to assist student in de-escalation into next phase.

7. Recovery:

At the recovery stage, the student is often more compliant than in the initial calm stage. Here is where restoring relationship is critical, and debriefing strategies and problem-solving dialogues may be helpful for both staff and student to understand why the explosion continued.

During this phase, adult behaviors may include:

Debriefing: Forms such as "Thinking About My Inappropriate Behavior" (DOCX) can be used to debrief and restore relationships prior to reentry into tasks and performance requirements. Additionally, social narratives and social autopsies are evidence-based interventions that also provide opportunities for the student to debrief with the adult and identify errors in social situations and facilitate a problem-solving dialogue.

This is staff's opportunity to remind student of classroom expectations and rules. It is also a time to review what strategies can be utilized when the student encounters similar situations in the future.

For students with limited language, and/or reasoning skills, staff may model, practice, rehearse, or role play coping strategies, and or replacement behaviors and skills.

Resources and References:
Personalized Prevention & De-escalation Planning (DOCX) Content on Behavior Escalation Cycle was originally presented by Clayton R. Cook and Diana Browning Wright, and has been summarized here to ensure accessibility.

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The behavior escalation cycle seeks to explain how student behavior escalates and operates from beginning to end. Understanding the behavior escalation cycle assists educators to employ techniques for use at each stage for students with histories of dangerous, destructive, potentially harmful behaviors toward self and/or others.

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Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Kindergarten - Observation Guide

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Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Kindergarten - Observation Guide

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Early Childhood UDL Alignment Resources - (Padlet)

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Early Childhood UDL Alignment Resources - (Padlet)

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 Interactive Early Childhood UDL Crosswalk

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 Interactive Early Childhood UDL Crosswalk

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View the interactive image by Fred Cochran

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California UDL and Early Childhood Educator Crosswalk - 2025

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Download the California UDL & Early Childhood Educator Crosswalk

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Dear Colleague Letter on Inclusive Educational Practices

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Dear Colleague Letter on Inclusive Educational Practices

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Creating a 'Yes' Environment in Early Childhood Classrooms - Article

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Creating a 'Yes' Environment in Early Childhood Classrooms - Article

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Creating a Yes Environment in Early Childhood Classrooms

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Constantly saying no to young students trying to access things around the classroom? It may be time to rethink how your room is designed.

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Advancing Social and Emotional Learning - CASEL

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CASEL is helping make evidence-based social and emotional learning an integral part of education, preschool through high school.

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The Teaching Pyramid approach provides a systematic framework that promotes social and emotional development, provides support for children”s appropriate behavior, prevents challenging behavior, and addresses problematic behavior. The WestEd Center for Child and Family Studies offers comprehensive professional development packages for infant/toddler, preschool, and early elementary educators. WestEd”s Teaching Pyramid is based on evidence-based practice originally developed by the Center on the Social Emotional Foundations in Early Learning (CSEFEL), authorized by California Department of Education (CDE), and aligned with California”s Early Learning and Development System.

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CSEFEL: Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning - Website

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CSEFEL: Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning - Website

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The Pyramid Model for Supporting Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children. We have developed extensive, user-friendly training materials, videos, and print resources which are available directly from this website to help early care, health and education providers implement this model.

State Partnerships

Visit our states page to find more information about any of our state partners or new resources and information for all states.

State Partners: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

Stay Connected to CSEFEL: sign up for our electronic updates

Pyramid Model

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CSEFEL: Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning

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The National Center for Effective Mental Health Consultation (CEMHC) addresses the needs of Early Head Start/Head Start (E/HS) staff and families for practical guidance on effective ways to promote young childrenís social and emotional development and reduce challenging behaviors.

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CA MAP to Inclusion and Belonging Social Emotional and Behavior Resources

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CA MAP to Inclusion and Belonging Social Emotional and Behavior Resources

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In the News!

Archived In the News!

Complaining About Students is Toxic: 4 Ways to Stop Jun 2019

A child's bad behavior isn't 'attention-seeking.' She's seeking a relationship Jun 2019

Want Safe Schools? Start With Research-Based School Discipline Policies May 2019

I'm a Neuroscientist. Here's How Teachers Change Kids' Brains Feb 2019

How to Take SEL to the Next Level at Your School Feb 2019

Tips to Help Kids with Back to School Anxiety Sept 2018

Why Teachers Must Fight Their Own Implicit Bias Sept 2018

Seven Ways You are unknowingly Shaming Your Child July 2018

Corporal Punishment and Preschoolers: What New Federal Data Show May 2018

One Ohio School's Quest to Rethink Bad Behavior May 2018 Rather than enforcing a top-down mandate, the school trains teachers in the science behind trauma and leaves the rest up to them.

Study finds engaging young children in conversation is more important for brain development than "dumping words" on them Feb 2018

10 Routines That will Strengthen a Parent Child Relationship Feb 2018

A New Lens for Understanding Behavior Problems Feb 2018

How Ending Behavior Rewards Helped One School Focus on Student Motivation and Behavior Oct 2017

Mind/Shift: What Do We Mean When We Say 'Social and Emotional Skills'? Sept 2017

A Positive Start: How to Manage Misbehavior (and reduce teacher stress) by Building the Strong Relationships Preschoolers Need Sept 2017

Adults Perceive Black Girsl as 'Less Innocent' than White Girls: Gerogetown Study Sept 2017 The study finds substantial bias toward Back girls beginning at age five.

Preschoolers and Praise: What Kinds of Messages Help Kids Grow? June 2017

Be Worried about Boys, Especially baby boys June 2017

Nonacademic Skills Are the Necessary Foundation for Learning June 2017

How to Change the Story About Students of Color June 2017 Dena Simmons explores how educators can inadvertently harm students of color-and what we can do to bring out their best.

What Happens to a Woman's Brain When She Becomes a Mother June 2017

The One Thing Parents Can Do to Make Mornings Smoother, According to Science June 2017

Pre-K: Decades Worth of Studies, One Strong Message June 2017

Hold those babies: Study show early touch has lasting effects on babies June 2017

What If Everything You Knew About Disciplining Kids Was Wrong? April 2017 Negative consequences, timeouts, and punishment just make bad behavior worse. But a new approach really works.

Should Emotions be Taught in Schools? April 2017 Our unresolved, unacknowledged feelings can lead us into anxiety, arguments and worse. Some educators believe it's time to give our kids emotional instruction along with their ABCs.

Time's Up for 'Timeout' April 2017 A progressive group of neurology researchers (Tina Bryson and Dan Siegal) wants to redefine "discipline." Decisions about parenting affect not only children's minds, but those of adults as well.

Risks of Harm from Spanking Confirmed by Analysis of Five Decades of Research April 2017

37 Techniques to Calm an Anxious Child April 2017

Study Proves that Cuddling Babies early and often Has Huge Benefits April 2017

Researchers studied kindergarteners' behavior and followed up 19 years later. Here are the findings Every parent wants to see their kid get good grades in school. Bu now we know social success is just as important.

Playground Where Babies Learn to Talk Published: Dec 2016 | Oakland, CA A campaign (Too Small to Fail: Talk, Read, Sing) to encourage brain development is using parks to deliver its message to children and their caregivers.

Bullying rates remain higher for children with disabilities, even as they mature November 2016

Study identifies a key to preventing disruptive behavior in preschool classrooms January 2017 | Audrey Breen

Improving child-teacher interactions can reduce preschoolers' stress levels December 2016 | Orgeon State University A school-based intervention that promotes warm and caring interactions between a teacher and child can reduce the child's stress in the classroom, a new study has found.

Oppositional Defiance or Faulty Neuroception? September 2016 | Mona Delahooke Ph.d"I view oppositional defiance as a child's response to stress. Viewing children's challenging behaviors on a continuum of stress and stress recovery reveals a whole new way to think about this stigmatizing disorder, as well as a new way to support children, informed by neuroscience"

Teaching Your Child Emotional Agility October 2016 | New York Times Research shows that when teachershelp preschoolers learn to manage their feelings in the classroom, those children become better problem solvers when faced with an emotional situation, and are better able to engage in learning tasks.

After Expulsions of Preschoolers, Discipline Study in Nashville Finds Success with Positive Approach September 2016 | Nashville Public Radio

Bias Isn't Just a Police Problem, It's a Preschool Problem NPR September 28, 2016 September 2016 | National Public Radio

Mind/Shift: The Benefits of Helping Preschoolers Understand and Discuss Their Emotions July 2016

Mind/Shift: Strategies to Ensure that Introverted Students Feel Valued at School

Mind/Shift: 20 Tips to Help De-Escalate Interactions with Anxious or Defiant Students

Notre Dame News: Parent touch, play and support in childhood vital to well-being as an adult
Did you receive affection, play freely and feel supported in childhood? Childhood experiences like these appear to have a lot to do with well-being and moral capacities in adulthood.

Wired for Kindness: Science shows we prefer compassion, and our capacity grows with practice

Strong Evidence Against Spanking

Added: Sep 2016 | Updated: Mar 2021

11 Ways to Encourage Friendship Skills and Social Play
Brookes Publishing | September 4, 2018
Friendship and social play skills are key capabilities for young kids to develop in the early years of school-they form the foundation of long-term success in school and in the community. In your inclusive classroom, you'll probably have students who need some extra support to develop and strengthen these skills. Today's post gives you some tips and activity ideas you can use to promote friendships and encourage social play among children with and without disabilities.

3 Brain Break Ideas to Help Students Reset and Refocus

October 2021 Many educators use brain breaks as a powerful classroom management tool. Research shows that brain breaks allow young minds to reset and recharge. They replenish the attention, motivation, and energy levels needed to keep learning. Students also learn better when lessons are broken up into smaller segments. This is especially true for younger children, whose attention spans are still developing. Here are three brain-break ideas from leading SEL organizations that you can use in your classroom to help your students refocus and be ready to learn.

A 4 part System for Getting to Know Your Students

Relationship building is key to good teaching. This system will help you quickly get to know students and benefit from those connections all year. From the Cult of Pedagogy website

ACES Too High

ACES Too High is a news site that reports on research about adverse childhood experiences, including developments in epidemiology, neurobiology, and the biomedical and epigenetic consequences of toxic stress. We also cover how people, organizations, agencies and communities are implementing practices based on the research. This includes developments in education, juvenile justice, criminal justice, public health, medicine, mental health, social services, and cities, counties and states.

Additional ACES Too High Resources

The Secret to Fixing School Discipline? Change the Behavior of Teachers Two kindergarteners at Cherokee Point Elementary School in San Diego's City Heights neighborhood get into a fight on the playground. Their teacher sends them to the principal's office. Instead of suspending or expelling the six-year-olds, as happens in many schools, Principal Godwin Higa ushers them to his side of the desk. He sits down so that he can talk with them eye-to-eye and quietly asks: "What happened?" He points to one of the boys. "You go first."

Five Minute Video Primer about the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (Video)Published: April 2016 | 5 minutes Many people have been asking for a short video that explains the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, the groundbreaking epidemiological research that revealed the link between childhood trauma and the adult onset of chronic disease, mental illness, violence and being a victim of violence.

England and Wales produce new animation about ACEs & resilience (Video)Published: May 2017 | 5:43 minutes Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are those that directly harm a child; such as physical, verbal and sexual abuse or physical or emotional neglect - as well as those that affect the environment where they grow up; including parental separation, domestic violence, mental illness, alcohol abuse, drug use or incarceration.

Added: Sep 2016 | Updated: Jul 2019

Aha Parenting!

Dr. Laura Markham is a clinical psychologist turned parenting coach and author who promotes a relationship-based model of parenting. Dr. Laura's book Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting supports parents to manage their own emotions, both to deal mindfully with a distressed child and to teach the child successful emotional regulation by modeling. She takes the controversial position that parents need to move "beyond discipline" because punishment erodes the parent child bond, instead setting limits with empathy, focusing on connecting with the child, and coaching for emotional intelligence, all of which help children want to cooperate. She frequently quotes the Dalai Lama: "Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." The Aha Parenting! web site based on the work of Dr. Laura Markham provides easy to read information on the "ages and stages" of child development beginning with pregnancy and birth, tips on parenting and an archive of her radio shows on parenting. Here's a link to the latest entry of her parenting blog:

American Academy of Pediatrics: Addressing Early Childhood Emotional and Behavioral Problems

December 2016 A new technical report and policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) provide information about the prevalence of emotional, behavioral, and relationship problems among very young children; the long lasting consequences of these early problems across multiple domains; and effective, safe treatments that are available to enhance outcomes for young children experiencing mental health problems and their families.

Added: Jan 2017 | Updated: Feb 2019

American Psychological Association

Resilience Booster: Parent Tip Tool
In order to help parents and caregivers combat environmental stressors that can take cognitive, emotional, physical and social tolls on children and their families, the Resilience Booster: Parent Tip Tool is a new resource which highlights ways they can help children build resilience in their homes, neighborhoods and communities, as well as in child care and school settings. The Resilience Booster: Parent Tip Tool is available online.

Bag the Behavior Charts

Despite our good intentions, there are significant problems with using these class-wide behavior charts as a means of helping young children self-regulate, remain engaged, and control their impulses.

Big Feelings Play List (Videos)
Sesame Street in Communities | February 2020
Playlist from Sesame Street includes 5 videos with Sesame Street characters talking about Exploring Big Feelings, Naming Feelings, Feelings Have Names, Hugging It Out, Singing It Out

Brookes Publishing

For 27 years, Brookes has published highly respected resources in early childhood, early intervention, inclusive and special education, developmental disabilities, learning disabilities, communication and language, behavior, and mental health.

Added: Apr 2015 | Updated: Aug 2019

Bullying-How Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Can Help Prevent Bullying (Webinar)

August 2018 This interactive webinar from the Children's Safety Network focused on the latest research on bullying among children and adolescents and explored strategies for using social and emotional learning (SEL) to prevent bullying. Social and emotional learning helps children and adolescents to manage their emotions, empathize with others, and develop positive relationships. (1) It provides an important framework for schools to use in helping students acquire and strengthen social and emotional skills to prevent bullying behaviors and support inclusion and respect. (2) Catherine Bradshaw, Ph.D., M.Ed. of the University of Virginia and Tracy Waasdorp, Ph.D., M.Ed of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health described their research and practice in applying social and emotional learning to the prevention of bullying.

Bullying-Recognize, Respond, Report: Preventing and Addressing Bullying of Students with Special Needs (PDF)

Bullying in schools affects a high percentage of students with disabilities, affecting their ability to focus, learn, and thrive in inclusive classrooms. This excerpt from Recognize, Respond, Report illuminates the prevalence of bullying and disability-based harassment in schools, helps you distinguish bullying from normal childhood conflict, and outlines the legal protections students with disabilities are entitled to.

Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (ECMHC)

The Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (CECMHC) was funded as an Innovation and Improvement Project by the Office of Head Start in October 2008. The 3-year grant brings together a group of university researchers to develop strategies to help Head Start programs build a strong mental health foundation for their children, families and staff. The site houses resources for Head Start mental health consultants, staff, families, administrators and T&TA Providers.

ECMHC Resources

Early Identification & Family Engagement Healthy Mind, Healthy Body

Taking Care of Ourselves: Stress & Relaxation Stress is natural and can be inevitable. But stress can take a toll on your health and effectiveness as an early childhood educator or parent. It impacts the quality of care that you can give. When you are too stressed it is difficult to offer the praise, nurturance, and structure your children need.
Social-Emotional & Behavior

Added: Mar 2015 | Updated: Feb 2019

Center for Healthy Minds

Founded by world-renowned neuroscientist Richard J. Davidson, the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (CIHM) at the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a global leader in conducting novel research that has revolutionized how we understand the mind, our emotions, and how to nurture well-being for ourselves and others.

Added: Sep 2016 | Updated: Feb 2019

Center for Inclusive Child Care: Social and Emotional

Center for Parent Information and Resources (CPIR)

The Center for Parent Information and Resources (CPIR), produced under the US Department of Education Office of Special Education, serves as a central resource of information and products to the community of Parent Training Information (PTI) Centers and the Community Parent Resource Centers (CPRCs), so that they can focus their efforts on serving families of children with disabilities. The site provides resources by topic area, some in English and Spanish and when available, by state.

Additional Resources from CPIR

Trauma Informed Resource Collection Dec 2018

Tools That Empower Spanish Speaking Families

Index to Resources in Spanish for English speakers and link to the index that is entirely in Spanish

A Resource Collection on Positive Behavior Supports, Functional Behavioral Assessment, and School Discipline Nov 2017 Welcome to this collection of resources on positive behavior supports and discipline of children with disabilities. The collection has been developed by a team of Parent Centers, specifically for the Parent Center network to use in their work supporting and empowering parents and families of children with disabilities.

Rare Disorders: Disability Fact Sheet Published: June 2017 Roughly 7,000 rare diseases/disorders have been identified as affecting the human race. Because they are rare, it can be a real challenge for a person to be accurately diagnosed. Finding effective treatments, especially medicine, can also be a challenge-and for the same reason. Rareness. If you have a rare disease, know someone who does, or work with people who might, here's a core of resources we hope are helpful.

Parent Technical Assistance Centers Parent centers work to improve educational outcomes for children and youth with all disabilities (emotional, learning, mental, and physical). There are ten parent centers in California.

Fact Sheet on the Rights of Immigrant Children

NICHCY's New Home Sept 2014 September 30, 2014 was NICHCY's last day after more than 20 years of service. Happily, most of NICHCY's resources will stay in their new home at the Center for Parent Information and Resources.

Developing culturally Responsive Approaches to Serving Diverse Populations: A Resource Guide for Community-Based Organizations Mar 2017 This 30-page resource guide, produced by the National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families, identifies easily accessible resources on cultural competency that CBOs can use to become more responsive to the needs of their targeted populations, and to help attract funds to support their important work.

Added: Oct 2014 | Updated: Jul 2019

Center for the Promotion of Social & Emotional Learning (CPSEL)

Our mission is to promote social and emotional learning and character development, bridging the gap between research and practice by providing evidence-based professional development, consulting, coaching and resources to educators and practitioners in formal and informal settings.

Added: Sep 2018 | Updated: Feb 2019

Center of Excellence for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation

September 2019 With its new website launched in September 2019, the Center aims to IMPACT the field of IECMHC by supporting the GROWTH and ADVANCEMENT of the profession. IECMH consultants support professionals in early care and education, home visiting, early intervention and other early childhood settings. The CoE provides technical assistance to programs, communities, states, territories, and tribal communities, and individual mental health consultants to increase access to high-quality mental health consultations throughout the country.

Added: Dec 2019 | Updated: Feb 2021

Center of Excellence for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC)

The Center of Excellence for IECMHC helps communities support the success of the next generation by increasing access to evidence-based IECMHC.

Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO): Suspension & Expulsion
Added: Apr 2017 | Updated: Feb 2019

Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University | Social-Emotional Behavior

Early childhood is a time of both great promise and considerable risk. Assuring the availability of responsive relationships, growth promoting experiences, and healthy environments for all young children helps build sturdy brain architecture and the foundations of resilience.

Let's Tell the World About #ServeAndReturn! Jul 2019 Did you see the video of the father and his baby on social media talking to one another? It was not only entertaining, but also a great example of "serve and return." The Center for the Developing Child is taking full advantage of this video and has included the video in it's framework for explaining 'serve and return'.

What is Early Childhood Development? A Guide to the Science Mar 2019 This guide leads you through video and research resources that bring to life the importance and scientific rationale for investing in early childhood as well as providing strategies for service providers, teachers and families.

Training Module: Talk with Me Baby
Learn how to empower and support families so that they can engage in meaningful conversations with their young children and advance their language and lifelong learning. The eight-session "Talk With Me Baby" course, which includes multimedia content from the Center on the Developing Child, is open to the public and available through Cox Campus and Read Right from the Start, a program of the Rollins Center for Language & Literacy.

5 Steps for Brain-Building Serve and Return Child-adult relationships that are responsive and attentive-with lots of back and forth interactions-build a strong foundation in a child's brain for all future learning and development. This is called "serve and return," and it takes two to play! Follow these 5 steps to practice serve and return with your child.

Additional Resources from Center on the Developing Child

8 Things to Remember About Child Development

The Spectrum of Neglect: Four Types of Unresponsive Care Using science as a guide, this interactive chart delineates four types of diminished responsiveness and their consequences in order to provide a useful framework for developing more effective strategies to protect vulnerable children from this complex challenge. The four short video clips below, each under a minute in length, are excerpts from the 6-minute video InBrief: The Science of Neglect. The chart is based on a graphic from The Science of Neglect: The Persistent Absence of Responsive Care Disrupts the Developing Brain, a Working Paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child.

Enhancing and Practicing Executive Function Skills with Children from Infancy to Adolescence Executive function and self-regulation (EF/SR) skills provide critical supports for learning and development, and while we aren't born with these skills, we are born with the potential to develop them through interactions and practice. A new 16-page guide describes a variety of activities and games that represent age-appropriate ways for adults to support and strengthen various components of EF/SR in children. Each chapter of this guide contains activities suitable for a different age group, from infants to teenagers. The guide may be read in its entirety (which includes the introduction and references) or in discrete sections geared to specific age groups.

Downloadable resources including 8 Working Papers

Tipping the Scales: The Resilience Game Have fun while testing your knowledge of the most effective ways that communities can build resilience in children.

Building Core Capabilities for Life (PDF)
This report combines research from the biological and behavioral sciences with practical, on-the-ground knowledge from working with adults and families to provide effective solutions for helping individuals develop more effective skills for coping with adversity.

Added: Jul 2019 | Updated: Jun 2020

Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University: Understanding Motivation

Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL)

The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) is a national resource center for disseminating research and evidence-based practices to early childhood programs across the country. The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) is focused on promoting the social emotional development and school readiness of young children birth to age 5. To support this goal, we have developed a conceptual model of evidence-based practices for promoting young children's social-emotional competence and preventing and addressing challenging behavior.

Sitio en Español (Site in Spanish)

How Do I Decide? Series of Guidelines
The first two installments in this new series provide guidelines on: How to Choose a Social-Emotional Curriculum and When to Seek Outside Help for Children's Problem Behavior.

Online Videos
Two CSEFEL videos, Promoting Social Emotional Competence and Practical Strategies for Teaching Social Emotional Skills, can now be viewed online in their entirety.

Home Visiting Training Package
One of the last products developed by TACSEI was a three-day training package for professionals who provide home visiting services (e.g., Part C, Early Head Start). They are not posted on the CSEFEL website for download, but you can order them for the cost of production $20.

Added: Oct 2014 | Updated: Feb 2019

Child Mind Institute

The Child Mind Institute is dedicated to transforming mental health care for children everywhere. Founded by Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz, Brooke Garber Neidich, and Debra G. Perelman, our organization is committed to finding more effective treatments for childhood psychiatric and learning disorders, building the science of healthy brain development, and empowering children and their families with help, hope, and answers. Website offers tools for parents worried about a child's mood, behavior, or success in school including: Mental Health guide, Symptom Checker, Developmental Milestones, Quick Facts on disorders and a Glossary of useful terms.

Child Trends

Child Trends is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center that provides valuable information and insights on the well-being of children and youth. For more than 35 years, policymakers, funders, educators and service providers in the U.S. and around the world have relied on our data and analyses to improve policies and programs serving children and youth. Our team of experts brings together a range of educational, work, policy and cultural experiences to provide cutting-edge research on issues affecting children from birth to early adulthood. Our work is supported by foundations; federal, state and local government agencies; and by nonprofit organizations. - See more at: http://www.childtrends.org/about-us/#sthash.bcRKL2Oc.dpuf

Additional Resources from Child Trends

Supporting Children and Parents Affected by the Trauma of Separation June 2018

The prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACES) nationally, by state and by race or ethnicity Feb 2018

Three videos demonstrating the needs of very young children for healthy development (Videos) July 2018

A State Multi-Sector-Framework for Supporting Children and Youth with Special Needs July 2018 According to the 2016 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), over 19 percent of children in the United States from birth through age 17 are children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN). As this diverse group experiences (or may be at increased risk for) chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional health conditions, they rely on a wide range of supports to meet their health, education, employment, and other needs. However, gaining access to such supports can be a complex challenge for families as they navigate different health insurance and financial assistance programs; coordinate health services across primary care physicians, specialty care providers, and schools; and seek services that support inclusion in education programs, the workforce, and the broader community as young people transition into adulthood. This report describes the current status of services for this population and suggests a framework for improving access to services and supports.

5 Questions Families Should Ask About School Discipline Sept 2017

Understanding and Addressing the Early Childhood Origins of "Mean" Behavior and Bullying: Resources for Practitioners
This Research Brief is based on the longer report: Bullies in the Block Area: The Early Childhood Origins of "Mean" Behavior. This brief first provides a summary of the developmental trajectory to bullying behavior and theories about social and environmental contributors to bullying. The remainder summarizes promising strategies and evidence-based intervention models designed to prevent bullying by addressing factors that contribute to the development of "mean" behavior and aggression in early childhood.

Five Ways Trauma Informed Care Supports Children's Development
This news bulletin describes childhood trauma and explains the importance of trauma informed care (TIC) as providing a common language to support children who have been exposed to trauma. It includes links to resources and provides information helpful to parents and everyone who works with children.

Added: Sep 2016 | Updated: Jul 2019

Children's Safety Network Bullying Prevention Guide

May 2020Bullying during childhood and adolescence is painful when it happens and can have long-lasting effects, both for the bully and the victim. Despite efforts to decrease bullying, the percentage of students reporting being bullied- roughly one in five- has not changed since bullying-related data began being collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) in 2011. This guide provides links to a multitude of bullying prevention resources available to you. It is divided into six sections:

1. Organizations and Websites;

2. Data and Data Sources

3. Programs, Campaigns, and Resources;

4. Policies, laws and Legislation;

5. Publications;

6. At-Risk Populations.

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)

Culturally & Linguistically Appropriate Services Early Childhood Research Institute (CLAS)

The CLAS Institute identifies, evaluates, and promotes effective and appropriate early intervention practices and preschool practices that are sensitive and respectful to children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The CLAS Institute identifies, collects, reviews, catalogs, abstracts, and describes materials and practices developed for children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and professionals who work with them.

Edutopia: Social and Emotional Learning

Working to improve public schools with resources, tools, and solutions for teachers, administrators, and parents. Find and share resources for creating a healthy school culture by helping students develop skills to manage their emotions, resolve conflicts, and make responsible decisions.

Added: Jul 2016 | Updated: Feb 2019

Edutopia: Suspension & Expulsion
Added: Apr 2017 | Updated: Feb 2019

Empathy and Resilience, Responsibility and Self-Care: Resources for Social and Emotional Learning

Published: New York Times, Jan 2019 Do you deliberately devote classroom time to social-emotional learning, or SEL? Does your school address it building-wide? How? Because we know more and more schools are incorporating strategies to bolster these strengths, we have collected recent Times writing that seems to us to speak especially well to the five SEL "core competencies" as defined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning ( Casel). Before delving into the "core competencies" the article suggests several ways that this information can be used in the work place, in the classroom and in your personal life.

Fear and Anxiety-An Age by Age Guide to Common Fears, The Reasons For Each and How to Manage Them

It is very normal for all children to have specific fears at some point in their childhood. Even the bravest of hearts beat right up against their edges sometimes. As your child learns more about the world, some things will become more confusing and frightening. This is nothing at all to worry about and these fears will usually disappear on their own as your child grows and expands his or her experience. In the meantime, as the parent who is often called on to ease the worried mind of your small person, it can be helpful to know that most children at certain ages will become scared of particular things.

Added: Jun 2017 | Updated: Feb 2019

Fostering Healthy Social and Emotional Development: Four New Resources for Communities and Families with Young Children

Building on prior successful partnerships to promote early brain and language development and early STEM education, the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services have joined with Too Small to Fail to release a Social and Emotional Toolkit on social and emotional development. All of the resources feature examples of simple actions to take, some of which caregivers might be doing already, such as maintaining consistent routines for young children.

Fred Rogers Center

Free Spirit Publishing

Whether at home, school, or out in the world, all kids face challenges in their lives. No matter how many choices, changes, and opportunities young people encounter, Free Spirit has had the same mission for more than 30 years: to provide children and teens-and the adults who care for and about them-with the tools they need to think for themselves, overcome challenges, and make a difference in the world.

I'm Happy-Sad Today: Making Sense of Mixed Together Feelings by Lory Britain Happy and also sad. Excited but nervous too. Feeling friendly with a little shyness mixed in. Mixed feelings are natural, but they can be confusing. There are different kinds of happy-the quiet kind and the "noisy, giggly, jump and run" kind. And there are conflicting feelings, like proud and jealous, frustrated and determined. With gentle messaging and charming illustrations, a little girl talks about her many layered feelings, ultimately concluding, "When I have more than one feeling inside me, I don't have to choose just one. I know that all my feelings are okay at the same time." A special section for adults presents ideas for helping children explore their emotions, build a vocabulary of feeling words, know what to do if they feel overwhelmed, and more.

Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development (GUCCHD)

The Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development (GUCCHD) was established over four decades ago to improve the quality of life for all children and youth, especially those with, or at risk for, special needs and their families.

Georgia Education Leaders Release New Learning Climate Videos

Unless discipline focuses on teaching children how to act appropriately, they won't learn anything from it. Creating a supportive school climate-and decreasing suspensions and expulsions-requires close attention to the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of all students. But all too often, preschools and early learning centers are left out of conversations about school climate and strategic planning for student discipline. The Get Georgia Reading Campaign has released a new resource to educate childcare and school staff about embracing a new way of looking at behavior and discipline. Five videos, created for administrators, teachers, parents, policymakers-anyone with a stake in creating healthy classrooms in Georgia-show how to apply positive learning climate practices in everyday, real-life classroom scenarios:

Great Kids!

This educational website, supported by several well-respected organizations and foundations, provides educational resources for parents and educators aimed at preschool through high school. It addresses learning issues, parenting, academics and "the whole child" that includes emotional smarts, early learning, and the child's brain.

Added: Jul 2016 | Updated: Jan 2021

Greater Good Science Center (University of California, Berkeley)

The Greater Good Science Center studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being, and teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society.

Added: Mar 2015 | Updated: Feb 2021

Head Start ECLKC

The Head Start Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (ECLKC) helps young children from low-income families prepare to succeed in school through local programs. Head Start and Early Head Start programs promote children's development through services that support early learning, health, and family well-being.

Added: Oct 2017 | Updated: Aug 2019

Head Start ECLKC: Mental Health

Head Start Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (ECLKC) programs support the mental health of children, families, and staff every day. Early childhood mental health is the same as social and emotional well-being. It is a child's developing capacity to express and regulate emotions, form trusting relationships, explore, and learn-all in the cultural context of family and community. The mental health of children and the adults that care for them is essential for school readiness.

Added: Feb 2018 | Updated: Aug 2019

How to Handle Tantrums and Meltdowns
Child Mind Institute
"The first thing we have to do to manage tantrums is to understand them. That is not always as easy as it sounds, since tantrums and meltdowns are generated by a lot of different things: fear, frustration, anger, sensory overload, to name a few. And since a tantrum isn't a very clear way to communicate (even though it may be a powerful way to get attention), parents are often in the dark about what's driving the behavior." This article will help you assess the tantrum, change your behavior in response to the tantrum and model calm.

How to Make This Hard Transition Back to School With Your Students
Greater Good | August 18, 2021
This year, Greater Good Science Center's education team partnered with California County Offices of Education to support statewide SEL communities of practice through an emergency grant funded by FEMA. Throughout the pandemic, we have networked, shared online SEL resources, and spotlighted districts' offerings around staff and student mental health. Here are some of the things we have learned from this work with our educator-colleagues-along with some easy-to-implement, research-based practices and activities you can use to foster a stronger sense of collective well-being in your classroom or school.

How Unconditional Positive Regard Can Help Make Students Feel Cared For

As a teacher, I know how important it is to create clear expectations for my students and hold them to high standards. This also applies to me as I seek to build relationships with my students. The high standards I hold myself to in building teacher-student relationships come from my guiding philosophy: unconditional positive regard. This approach helps ground my equity-centered and trauma-informed work.

Incredible Years

The Incredible Years are research-based, proven effective programs for reducing children's aggression and behavior problems and increasing social competence at home and at school. The Incredible Years programs were developed by Carolyn Webster-Stratton, M.S.N., M.P.H., Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Parenting Clinic at the University of Washington. She is a nurse and licensed clinical psychologist and has published numerous scientific articles evaluating training programs for helping families and teachers with children who are highly aggressive, disobedient, hyperactive, and inattentive. She has had extensive clinical experiences helping over 1,000 families whose children were diagnosed with conduct problems and attention deficit disorder.

Kids in the House

The Ultimate Parenting Resource offers over 8000 videos on a comprehensive range of topics for a variety of age ranges for every type of family. Well respected experts present positive, useful information in short videos. For example take a look at the videos from:

Learning Modules
Institute for Learning and Brain Science, University of Washington
The I-LABS Outreach and Education talent pool at the University of Washington has produced free learning modules that take an in-depth look at the science of child development. Modules include 20-25 minute narrated PowerPoints with embedded videos, plus a discussion guide and handout. There are over 20 topics including The Importance of Early Interactions, Understanding Emotions, Language Development: Learning the Sounds of Language, Bilingual Language Development, Temperament in Early Childhood, Foundations of Literacy, Development of Literacy, Early Music Experience, Early STEM Learning, Early Numeracy, How Play Helps Math Learning, Spatial Skills and Reasoning, Learning to Make Things Happen, Race Today: What Kids Know as They Grow, and "Racing" Towards Equality: Why Talking to Your Kids About Race is Good for Everyone.

Love Talk Play
Added: Feb 2018 | Updated: Dec 2018

Meditation Helps Lower Truancy and Suspensions (Video)

Published: Feb 21, 2012 Surrounded by poverty and escalating violence, a San Francisco middle school committed to peace and embraced a program of meditation that has made students feel safer, teachers more productive, and brought unity and purpose to the school. Click "like" if you enjoyed this video!

Added: Sep 2016 | Updated: Feb 2019

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is the nation's largest organization of early childhood professionals and others dedicated to improving the quality of early childhood education programs for children birth through age eight. NAEYC's primary goals are to improve professional practice and working conditions in early childhood education and to build public understanding and support for high-quality early childhood programs.

Additional NAEYC Resources

Cultural Competency & Family Engagement Healthy Mind, Health Body Policy/Trends

Public Policy Overview NAEYC promotes national, state and local public policies that support a system of well-financed, high quality early childhood education programs in a range of settings, including child care centers, family child care homes, and schools.
Social-Emotional & Behavior

Promoting Social-Emotional Development: Helping Infants Learn About Feelings (PDF) Starting from birth, infants begin learning how to make sense of their world through interactions with caregivers. Responsive caregiving-which involves caregiver reflecting and validating a child's feelings and behaviors-help very young children makes sense of their world. Over time, children who have this type of nurturing, reflective care better regulates their emotions.

10 Tips for Raising a Compassionate Toddler Recent research shows that infants and toddlers are far more empathetic than we once thought. While they have short fuses, and don't cope well with sharing, they are capable of being compassionate. With this in mind, here are ten tips I use in the classroom to help infants and toddlers become pro-social that families can also try at home.

NAEYC Radio NAEYC and BAM Radio Network partnered to bring NAEYC Radio. The program was developed to bring the best and latest insights on early childhood education directly to parents and educators.

10 tips for Raising a Compassionate Infant Toddler

Helping Infants Learn About Feelings (PDF)

Standing Together Against Suspension and Expulsion Joint Policy Statement (PDF)
A group of more than 30 national organizations recently published a joint statement, Standing Together Against Suspension and Expulsion in Early Childhood: A Joint Statement (April 2016), which supports the recommendations from the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human services in their December 2014 Joint Policy Statement on Expulsion and Suspension. The organizations have also compiled a number of related resources to help states, districts, communities, and classrooms prevent, limit, and ultimately eliminate suspension and expulsion in early childhood education.

Caring Relationships: The Heart of Early Brain Development By Ron Lally and Peter Mangione

Added: Aug 2014 | Updated: Feb 2021

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC): Standing Together Against Suspension and Expulsion

Published: April 2016 Expulsion in early childhood education is not an intervention. Over a decade of research and data tell us that the policies and practices of suspension and expulsion in early childhood, which disproportionately affect children of color, are causing harm to children and families. Over 30 national organizations came together to create a joint statement that amplifies and elevates the issue. It's time to heed the calls to prevent, limit and eliminate suspensions and expulsions in early childhood education. In addition to creating the joint statement NAEYC provides resources for teachers, administrators, policymakers, states and districts that offer data, toolkits, models and templates to help change our policies and practices (or download the PDF). Eliminating suspension and expulsion across all states and settings in early childhood education is our collective and systemic responsibility. What will your part be?

Added: Jan 2017 | Updated: Feb 2019

Parent Tool Kit
Added: Sep 2016 | Updated: Dec 2018

Policy Statement on Expulsion and Suspension Policies in Early Childhood Settings (PDF)

Published: 2016 | Size: 2MB This Information Memorandum (IM) encourages Lead Agencies to adopt policies set forth in the Policy Statement on Expulsion and Suspension in Early Childhood Settings issued by the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Education. Appendix 1 offers several free, publicly available resources states can use in their efforts.

Added: Nov 2016 | Updated: Jul 2019

Preventing Suspension and Expulsion of Young Children in Child Care & Early Education Settings
Do you have questions or concerns about a child in your care? The CA CSEFEL (California Collaborative on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning) has gathered tools and resources to support you! Your role in supporting the child behind the behavior is vital to the long-term outcomes and well-being of that child.
With the passage of Assembly Bill 752, there is an increased need for tools and materials that can support early care and education programs, particularly California State Preschool Programs, as they work to support ALL children to be successful in their early care and education settings. This website provides resources that may be helpful to implement AB752 requirements. Included are links to websites and tools for program self- assessment, informative webinars and articles, and training and technical assistance projects funded through the California Department of Education, Early Learning and Care Division (ELCD) that may be available to support some programs.

Added: Jun 2018 | Updated: Feb 2019

Preventing Suspensions and Expulsions in Early Childhood Settings: A Program Leader's Guide to Supporting All Children's Success

The purpose of this guide is to provide relevant, specific recommended policies and practices that are actionable. The recommended policies and practices are based on the most important research for eliminating suspensions and expulsions in early childhood settings and were developed with guidance from a panel of national experts. There are many resources for early childhood caregivers, educators, and program leaders on supporting social-emotional development, reducing challenging behavior, recognizing the role of cultural differences and implicit biases, and eliminating suspensions and expulsions. This guide organizes these resources into a coherent and comprehensive framework that is easily accessible. To help you prioritize what recommended policies and practices are most necessary and timely to implement in your program, we have developed a self-assessment. The self-assessment is an optional tool that includes a brief questionnaire to help you reflect on your program's policies, practices, and needs. The results of the self-assessment will help you reflect on your strengths and needs and provide you a roadmap to navigating the guide.

Added: Jan 2017 | Updated: Feb 2021

Program for Infant Toddler Care (PITC) Six Essential Program Practices

This series helps promote essential program practices to ensure quality within family child care and center-based programs that serve infants and toddlers. It addresses the following topics:

1. Continuity of care

2. Culturally sensitive care

3. Inclusion

4. Individualized care

5. Primary care

6. Small groups

Added: Oct 2017 | Updated: Feb 2019

Pyramid Model Consortium: Suspension and Expulsion Resources

On this website find key resources the use the Pyramid Model in addressing equity, how to eliminate expulsion and a webinar to explain it all including: Pyramid Equity Project Fact Sheet, Expelling Expulsion Fact Sheet, and Webinar.

Added: Sep 2016 | Updated: Feb 2021

Recognizing and Addressing Trauma In Infants, Young Children and Their Families

Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation The purpose and overall goal of this tutorial is to help early childhood mental health consultants, as well as Early Head Start and Head Start staff, understand what is meant by trauma, recognize the developmental context of trauma in early childhood, and extend their own knowledge for intervention through consultation. Early childhood mental health consultants must be prepared to recognize and address trauma in a way that supports and protects the child and his or her family, enables Early Head Start and Head Start staff to respond effectively, and links children and their families to valuable resources and, when needed, effective therapeutic intervention.

Reducing suspension and Expulsion Practices in Early Childhood Settings

Recent data indicate that expulsions and suspensions regularly occur in preschool settings. This is a problematic issue given the well-established research indicating that these practices can influence a number of adverse outcomes across development, health, and education. In addition, stark racial and gender disparities exist in these practices, with young boys of color being suspended and expelled at much higher rates than other children in early learning programs. These trends warrant immediate attention from the early childhood and education fields. The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Education issued a policy statement and recommendations to assist states and public and private early childhood programs in partnering to prevent and severely limit expulsions and suspensions in early learning settings. The effort, part of President Obama's My Brother's Keeper initiative, encourages states, early childhood programs, and families to partner in preventing, reducing, and eventually eliminating the expulsion and suspension of young children from early learning programs.

Resource Guide for Developing Integrated Strategies to Support Social and Emotional Wellness in Children (During the COVID-19 Pandemic)
Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Child Care | January 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has swiftly and substantially affected the social and emotional health of children, especially those experiencing multiple hardships. As the pandemic has spread across the United States, many children are experiencing widespread disruptions in daily life. Young children are reacting to stress as their parent and caregiver routines change. Children may have strong feelings of fear, worry, sadness, and anger about the pandemic and related issues that impact behavior at home and in child care.

To address these issues, the Office of Child Care (OCC) has a new initiative to further integrate social and emotional support strategies in child care's mixed delivery system. A Resource Guide for Developing Integrated Strategies to Support the Social and Emotional Wellness of Children highlights promising strategies and provides information about how some CCDF grantees have already leveraged partnerships and funding to support implementation success.

Responsive Classroom: Want Positive Behavior? Use Positive Language

Responsive Classroom is an evidence-based approach to elementary and middle school teaching that focuses on the strong link between academic success and social-emotional learning (SEL). Independent research has found that the Responsive Classroom approach is associated with higher academic achievement in math and reading, improved school climate, and higher-quality instruction. It has been described by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) as one of the most "well-designed evidence-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programs".

Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress: A Series of Reports from the Office of Planning Research and Evaluation and the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute

The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) was founded in 1966 by a small group of scientists who had a vision-to conduct research that would make a difference in children's lives, support families, and inform public policy.

Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress: Foundations for Understanding Self-Regulation From an Applied Developmental Perspective
This is the first in a series of four inter-related reports titled Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress. The first report, Foundations for Understanding Self-Regulation from an Applied Developmental Perspective, provides a comprehensive framework for understanding self-regulation in context, using a theoretical model that reflects the influence of biology, caregiving, and the environment on the development of self-regulation.

A Review of Ecological, Biological, and Developmental Studies of Self-Regulation and Stress The second reportprovides a cross-disciplinary review of research on the relationship between stress and self-regulation.

A Comprehensive Review of Self-Regulation Interventions From Birth Through Young Adulthood February 2016 The third report describes results of a comprehensive review of self-regulation interventions from birth through young adulthood and summarizes the level of evidence for different interventions across age groups and outcome domains. In this report, we provide details on the methodological approach and data findings, including figures with detailed descriptions for the reader who is interested in the evidence base supporting our conclusions. These conclusions are repeated in our fourth report,Implications for Programs and Practice, with a more applied summary of the results organized by their implications for different types of programs. This third report therefore provides a more technical reference for the fourth report.

Self-Regulation and Toxic Stress Report 4: Implications for Programs and Practice December 2, 2016 The fourth and final report is targeted specifically towards program administrators and practitioners. This report reviews the key concepts for understanding self-regulation, including the relationship between stress and self-regulation. Additionally, it summarizes principal findings from a comprehensive review of self-regulation interventions. Finally and most importantly, it addresses how current theory and knowledge of self-regulation may apply to programs and practitioners serving children and youth in different developmental groups from birth through young adulthood.A discussion of the report is found on the FPG website

Added: Sep 2016 | Updated: Feb 2019

Sesame Street in Communities-Health Emergencies - Caring for Each other

This set of workshops and activities can benefit families and child care providers as we are transitioning into new routines and more interaction with friends, neighbors and the general public. Changes can be awkward and scary if we don't talk about what to expect and how we are feeling. These resources alert you to topics and situations that might be addressed to help you and your child adjust to changes. The workshops include instructions for interactive activities, a video to watch with children, articles and activities for kids. Here are some sample workshops that might be helpful:
See the menu of workshop options on the Health Emergencies page

Stop Bullying

StopBullying.gov provides information from various government agencies on what bullying is, what cyberbullying is, who is at risk, and how you can prevent and respond to bullying. When adults respond quickly and consistently to bullying behavior they send the message that it is not acceptable. Research shows this can stop bullying behavior over time. Parents, school staff, and other adults in the community can help kids prevent bullying by talking about it, building a safe school environment, and creating a community-wide bullying prevention strategy.

Added: Sep 2018 | Updated: Feb 2019

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

SAMHSA's "Caring for Every Child's Mental Health" public awareness effort was created in 1994 with the mission to increase awareness around children's mental health. The "Caring for Every Child's Mental Health" team works to support SAMHSA-funded sites through the strategic use of social marketing and communications strategies. The overarching purpose of the team is to stimulate support for a comprehensive system of care approach to children's mental health services.

Talk with Me Baby

Published: Sep 2015 | 2:38 minutes The team behind Talk With Me Baby™ is a collaboration of six leadership organizations, all working to bring the concept of language nutrition into public awareness and educate caregivers on the importance of talking with their baby every day, in an effort to close the word gap. Talking with your baby helps grow your baby's brain. Learn how early exposure to language can help a child build vocabulary, communicate better with adults, be ready for kindergarten and develop an essential life skill: the ability to read by the end of third grade.

Talking is Teaching: Talk, Read, Sing

"Talking is Teaching: Talk, Read, Sing" is a campaign of Too Small to Fail in partnership with various organizations that are dedicated to improving early childhood development. It offers the free downloadable Sesame Street Family Guide: Talking is Teaching available in English and Spanish. It helps caregivers and parents fill each day with words, stories, songs ... and love. Inside are tips and activities around talking, reading and singing with children and Milestone Cards to use as the child grows.

Added: Mar 2015 | Updated: Feb 2019

Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children (TACSEI)

The Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children, also known as TACSEI, is a five-year grant made possible by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. TACSEI takes the research that shows which practices improve the social-emotional outcomes for young children with, or at risk for, delays or disabilities and creates FREE products and resources to help decision-makers, caregivers, and service providers apply these best practices in the work they do every day. Most of these free products are available right here on the website for you to view, download and use.

The Hidden Way That Kids Learn Empathy (and How Parents Can Help)

UC Davis MIND Institute

Understood : For Learning and Attention Issues

Parents want the best for their children. We do, too. For the first time ever, 15 nonprofit organizations have joined forces to support parents of the one in five children with learning and attention issues throughout their journey. With the right support, parents can help children unlock their strengths and reach their full potential. With state-of-the-art technology, personalized resources, free daily access to experts, a secure online community, practical tips and more, Understood aims to be that support.

US Department of Health & Human Services (USDHHS): Administration for Children & Families: Early Childhood Development

Reducing suspension and Expulsion Practices in Early Childhood Settings
Recent data indicate that expulsions and suspensions regularly occur in preschool settings. This is a problematic issue given the well-established research indicating that these practices can influence a number of adverse outcomes across development, health, and education. In addition, stark racial and gender disparities exist in these practices, with young boys of color being suspended and expelled at much higher rates than other children in early learning programs. These trends warrant immediate attention from the early childhood and education fields. The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Education issued a policy statement and recommendations to assist states and public and private early childhood programs in partnering to prevent and severely limit expulsions and suspensions in early learning settings. The effort, part of President Obama's My Brother's Keeper initiative, encourages states, early childhood programs, and families to partner in preventing, reducing, and eventually eliminating the expulsion and suspension of young children from early learning programs.

Useable Knowledge: The Brain Changing Power of Conversation

Feb 2018
For parents, daycare providers, and early educators, new research describes a simple and powerful way to build children's brains: talk with them, early and often.

Zero to Three

Zero to Three is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated solely to advancing the healthy development of babies and young children. Zero to Three disseminates key developmental information, trains providers, promotes model approaches and standards of practice, and works to increase public awareness about the significance of the first three years of life.

Additional Resources from Zero to Three

Developing Self-Control From 12-24 Months Toddlers have minds of their own and strong feelings that they express with gusto. "No!" becomes a favorite word and a powerful way to assert their independence. Learn ways to help your toddler learn self-control from 12-24 months.

Challenging Behavior Resources

Early Childhood Mental Health Babies and young children thrive when they are cared for by adults that are "crazy about them!" (Bronfenbrenner, 1976 1). Responsive relationships with consistent primary caregivers help build positive attachments that support healthy social-emotional development. These relationships form the foundation of mental health for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. This site directs you to resources supporting healthy social emotional development of very young children.

Baby Brain Map The Brain Map was adapted in 2006 by ZERO TO THREE from BrainWonders, a collaborative project (1998-2001) between Boston University School of Medicine, Erikson Institute and ZERO TO THREE.

Cope After Exposure to a Traumatic Event

The Magic of Everyday Moments video series
Each video shows in a clear and compelling way how parents can nurture key skills and attributes children need to be eager, competent learners and to form strong, healthy connections with others as they grow-all through everyday interactions and routines!

Celebrating Your Child's Lies

Strong Evidence Against Spanking
Although controversial, many consider spanking an acceptable form of discipline. However, studies of more than 160,000 children show connections to poor outcomes, specifically: aggression, antisocial behavior, mental-health problems, negative parent-child relationships, impaired cognitive ability, low self-esteem and more.

Building a Brain from US News and World Report

Tuning In: Parents of Young Children Tell Us What They Think, Know and Need
ZERO TO THREE, in partnership with the Bezos Family Foundation, conducted a comprehensive research effort, including a series of in-home discussions and a large national parent survey with a diverse range of parents of children from birth to 5. Our findings provide brand new insights about the challenges parents face, what they do and do not understand about early childhood development, and what they want and need to be the best parents possible.

Let's Talk About It: 5 Ways to Build Babies Language and Communication Skills

Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation: Policies and Practices to Foster the Social-Emotional Development of Young Children 2016 The new ZERO TO THREE publication,"Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation: Policies and Practices to Foster the Social-Emotional Development of Young Children" provides an overview of early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC), current issues in the field, and possible future directions. The paper also provides a snapshot of current programs across the nation and highlights some of the challenges and innovations that are shaping the field. Thirteen states are profiled, underscoring the variability of how ECMHC programs are funded, managed, implemented and staffed. A list of guiding questions are provided for states to consider in designing and creating their ECMHC program.

Preventing Expulsion from Preschool and Child Care ZERO TO THREE provides you with a myriad of resources on how to better support social and emotional development to prevent expulsion of young children from educational settings, including videos you can use in your own presentations.

Select link for more information on ZERO TO THREE

Added: Jun 2016 | Updated: Feb 2019

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In the News! Archived In the News! Complaining About Students is Toxic: 4 Ways to Stop Jun 2019 A child's bad behavior isn't 'attention-seeking.' She's seeking a relationship Jun 2019 Want Safe Schools? Start With Research-Based School Discipline Policies May 2019 I'm a Neuroscientist.

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Identifying your "Hot Buttons" - Activity

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Identifying your "Hot Buttons" - Activity

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Bringing Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Teaching Practices to Pre-K and Kinder Classrooms - NCPMI

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Bringing Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Teaching Practices to Pre-K and Kinder Classrooms - NCPMI

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National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations

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Scripted Stories for Social Situations help children understand social interactions, situations, expectations, social cues, the script of unfamiliar activities, and/or social rules. As the title implies, they are brief descriptive stories that provide information regarding a social situation. When children are given information that helps them understand the expectations of a situation, their problem behavior within that situation is reduced or minimized.
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These easy-to-use guides were created especially for teachers/caregivers and parents to provide hands-on ways to embed social emotional skill building activities into everyday routines. Each book nook is comprised of ideas and activities designed around popular children's books such as Big Al, Hands are Not for Hitting, On Monday When it Rained and My Many Colored Days. Examples of suggested activities include using rhymes to talk about being friends, making emotion masks to help children identify and talk about different feelings, playing games around what to do with hands instead of hitting and fun music and movement activities to express emotions.

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Practical Strategies - National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations

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The Pyramid Model is comprised of practices that are implemented by teachers and families. Below are ideas, resources, and illustrations of strategies that might be used to implement Pyramid Model practices and promote young children's social and emotional competence in a classroom setting. Teaching Social-Emotional Skills Social-emotional skills can be categorized into four types: behavior ...

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Promoting Young Children's Social & Emotional Health - NAEYC Article

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Promoting Young Children's Social & Emotional Health - NAEYC Article

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In a preschool classroom, some of the 3- and 4-year-old children smile, laugh, and giggle during free play; are curious about what happens next during story time; ask what and why questions while doing hands-on activities; and use words to express feelings and needs. In the toy area, Tom and Juan both reach for a small blue car. Tom says, "May I please have it first, then you have it later?" Juan replies, "You have it for five minutes and then I have it for five minutes." Noticing this exchange, their teacher says, "Tom and Juan, you are talking about taking turns. What a great way to play together!"

Tom, Juan, and their classmates are a model of social and emotional health in preschool. Children who are socially and emotionally healthy tend to demonstrate, and continue to develop, several important behaviors and skills (adapted from McClellan & Katz 2001 and Bilmes 2012). They

Are usually in a positive mood

Listen and follow directions

Have close relationships with caregivers and peers

Care about friends and show interest in others

Recognize, label, and manage their own emotions

Understand others' emotions and show empathy

Express wishes and preferences clearly

Gain access to ongoing play and group activities

Are able to play, negotiate, and compromise with others

Why social and emotional health matters

Children's social and emotional health affects their overall development and learning. Research indicates that children who are mentally healthy tend to be happier, show greater motivation to learn, have a more positive attitude toward school, more eagerly participate in class activities, and demonstrate higher academic performance than less mentally healthy peers (Hyson 2004; Kostelnik et al. 2015). Children who exhibit social and emotional difficulties tend to have trouble following directions and participating in learning activities. Compared with healthier peers, they may be more likely to suffer rejection by classmates, have low self-esteem, do poorly in school, and be suspended (Hyson 2004; Kostelnik et al. 2015). Thus, children's social and emotional health is just as important as their physical health, and affects their capacity to develop and potential to lead a fulfilling life.

Teachers can promote children's social and emotional health in many ways, for example, by organizing a material-rich environment to stimulate social interactions among children. This article focuses on two of the most important practices: building trusting relationships and conducting intentional teaching.

Establish trusting relationships

Young children develop and learn in the context of relationships. A trusting and caring teacher-child relationship is essential for children's optimum development (Raikes & Edwards 2009). Children who have trusting relationships with their teachers are, on average, more willing to ask questions, solve problems, try new tasks, and express their thinking than their peers without such relationships (O'Connor & McCartney 2007). In her work supervising student teachers, Ho (the first author) often sees children developing positive social and emotional health as a result of close relationships with their teachers. For example, children learn to use words to express their feelings-such as Amy saying to Emily, "I am sad when you use hurting words!"-and to show empathy-as when Arjun gently pats Brian's head and says, "Are you okay? Do you want to hold the teddy bear?"

Children benefit socially, emotionally, and academically when teachers intentionally create close, trusting relationships (Palermo et al. 2007). But gaining the trust of every child is not as simple as being nice and engaging. How can teachers create trusting relationships with all of the children? Consistently offering warmth, affection, respect, and caring is essential.

Showing warmth and affection consistently

Warmth and affection-even on bad days and when children are misbehaving-are critical to children's well-being in early education settings (Ostrosky & Jung 2005). They contribute to developing secure relationships between children and adults, provide models of gentle behavior, and are linked with children's ability to interact positively with peers (Twardosz 2005). The preschoolers we observed used gentle hands and kind words and positively interacted with peers most of the time. Their social and emotional well-being was nourished by their teachers' warmth and affection, which is shown in the following examples:

Ms. Johnson displays a pleasant facial expression throughout the day. She smiles when greeting children in the morning, says goodbye in the afternoon, and acknowledges children's appropriate behaviors.

Mr. Logan uses the appropriate tone of voice at all times. His speech is at normal pitch and volume; his tone is relaxed and soft. Even when he has to redirect a child's behavior, he remains calm and warm to convey that his concern is with the behavior-not the child.

Ms. Aragon gives appropriate touches when necessary, such as a pat on the back, a handshake, hugs, and brief tickles.

Ms. Lizama moves physically close to the children and bends or crouches to be at the children's eye level while talking to them.

Mr. Sharma often uses loving comments to show he cares: "I am so happy to see you this morning!," "I missed you yesterday," "I love seeing your smile!" And he is careful to make such comments to all of the children in his classroom.

Respecting and caring about every child

Showing respect is a key way to connect with children and strengthen positive relationships. It helps children feel more confident and competent to explore and learn (Dombro, Jablon, & Stetson 2011). Ms. Carnes establishes and maintains close personal bonds with every child in her classroom by consistently acting in respectful and caring ways. Specifically, she

Listens with full attenti on and restates what children say (often also seizing the opportunity to expose the children to new vocabulary). Jason, a 4-year-old, says, "Look, I made a truck with lots of Legos!" Ms. Carnes replies, "Oh, I see, Jason. You built a truck with dozens of Legos." Jason adds, "I use this truck to deliver apples and bananas to the grocery store." Ms. Carnes responds, "Using a truck to deliver nutritious fruits to the grocery store is helpful." Listening to children attentively and reflectively enhances their self-worth and confidence. When teachers actively listen to children, they convey that they care about what the children have to say, and the children are more likely to share their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and stories.

Accepts and reflects children's feel ings. Frowning, Jasper says to the teacher, "Michael has all the big blocks!" Ms. Carnes responds, "Jasper, you seem upset that there are no more large blocks to build with right now. It is difficult to wait!" Amy says with enthusiasm, "We are about to go outside!" Ms. Carnes answers, "The sparkles in your eyes tell me you can hardly wait to go outside. You are excited." When they accept and reflect children's feelings, teachers exhibit sensitivity and caring in a way children understand. Teachers' acknowledgments make children feel heard and accepted (Duffy 2008). As a result, children feel safe to express their emotions-and receive support in identifying, labeling, and better understanding their emotions.

Spends private, quality time with individual chi ldren through one-on-one activities, such as story reading and game pla ying. Emily is sad when her mom leaves. Ms. Carnes reads her a book in a cozy corner with soft pillows and stuffed animals. Afterward, Emily is ready to explore and play in the classroom. Judy complains that no one wants to play with her at the tactile table. Ms. Carnes sits at the table and plays with Judy until another child joins the play. In addition, Ms. Carnes spends quality time with individual children by putting aside other work, moving to the child's level, and conversing openly with the child. Ms. Carnes keeps track to ensure that she speaks with each child regularly, which deepens their relationship and builds trust (Gartrell 2007). Ms. Carnes finds time for these conversations throughout the day, especially during greeting, free play, snack, lunch, and departure time.

Teach social and emotional skills intentionally

Helping children develop social and emotional skills is the heart and soul of any good program for young children (Gordon & Browne 2014). Teachers (and all caregivers) play key roles in helping children develop social and emotional competence (Kostelnik et al. 2015). Teachers can intentionally support children's social and emotional health by using children's books, planning activities, coaching on the spot, giving effective praise, modeling appropriate behaviors, and providing cues.

Warmth and affection-even on bad days and when children are misbehaving-are critical to children's well-being in early education.

Using children's books

Reading and discussing children's books is an excellent way to invite children to identify the characters' emotions and relate the characters' experiences to their own (Roberts & Crawford 2008). To introduce a new social or emotional skill, Ms. Coz carefully chooses high-quality books to read aloud at circle time. Sometimes she chooses books related to children's recent social and emotional behaviors in the classroom. When she sees some of the children having trouble sharing toys, she reads aloud The Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister. When she finds a child crying because her friend hit her, Ms. Coz reads aloud Hands Are Not for Hitting, by Elizabeth Verdick. (See " Children's Books for Teaching Social and Emotional Skills," for more titles to consider.)

To connect the characters and situations in the book with the children's experiences, Ms. Coz plans to read the book at least twice and also add it to the classroom library. During the second reading, she asks meaningful questions: "What do you think the characters are feeling?," "How would you solve the problem?," "Can you use words from the story to explain how you feel when you . . .?," "What could we do differently if this happens in our classroom?" These open-ended questions enable children to talk about their own experiences, learn new vocabulary words, and practice social and emotional skills.

Planning activities

To extend and apply what children learn from reading stories, Ms. Coz plans follow-up activities, such as hands-on crafts, games, and songs. She often uses Book Nook guides, created by the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning ( http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/resources/strategies.html#booknook). These guides help her embed social and emotional development activities into daily routines, including read-alouds. (See " Activities for Supporting Children's Social and Emotional Learning " for some ideas adapted from Book Nook guides.)

Coaching on the spot

When they coach children on the spot, teachers help children realize what they are doing, understand how their actions affect others, and choose positive alternatives (Riley et al. 2008). For example, when Ryan and Ethan build a firehouse in the block area, Ethan grabs the fire truck from Ryan, and Ryan cries. Ms. Coz crouches down at Ethan's level to look into his eyes; calmly and warmly, she says, "Ryan was still using the truck. When you took it away from him, he got upset. What could you do to make Ryan feel better?" After Ethan says he is sorry and gives back the fire truck, Ms. Coz says, "Next time if you want to play with the toy Ryan is using, could you ask if he will share?" Ms. Coz follows up by observing Ethan and providing immediate positive feedback on his desirable behavior.

Giving effective praise

Meaningful feedback pertinent to the task at hand in the form of effective praise is a powerful strategy for fostering children's social and emotional development (Kostelnik et al. 2015). To make praise effective, teachers describe specifically what they see-without generalizing, evaluating, or making comparisons. When Emily finishes her drawing, Ms. Coz notices her picture and her smile. Ms. Coz says, "I see a blue sky, a yellow sun, and green grass around the big brown tree. This picture makes you happy, doesn't it?" This praise is effective because Ms. Coz offers detailed, positive comments immediately after desirable behavior occurs. Noticing Ethan asking Ryan politely for a policewoman figure, Ms. Coz says, "Ethan, you used the magic words May I plea se? to ask for that policewoman while you and Ryan were building the firehouse together. Great job!" Smiling, Ethan responds, "We are friends and we can share things."

Modeling appropriate behavior

Children learn by observing other people, getting ideas about how new behaviors are formed, and using the ideas to guide their actions (Bandura 1977). Many studies have found that modeling-or demonstrating appropriate behaviors-teaches and enhances children's social and emotional skills (Katz & McClellan 1997; Hyson 2004). This research-based conclusion is evidenced in Ms. Coz's and Ms. Carnes's classes. Both teachers implement several noninvasive strategies-including modeling-that their center administrators created to support teachers in promoting socially and emotionally healthy behaviors. They display the strategies on the classroom wall and put them into action by

Moving closer to children, when needed, as a nonverbal cue to rethink behaviors

Modeling appropriate warm and respectful behavior throughout the day and at specific moments when a gentle reminder is needed

Using nonverbal gestures and contact (e.g., nodding the head, giving thumbs-up signs, and touching children gently on the shoulder) to send messages

Employing simple language (e.g., "Walking feet, please" and "Use gentle hands") to set expectations and give reminders

Acknowledging a kind act on the spot or praising a group effort for a job well done

Placing a hand-gently-on a child's hand to redirect attention and behavior

When children see teachers demonstrate these noninvasive strategies, they often smile, use their gentle hands, say please and thank you, give hugs and high fives, and use words to express their feelings.

In addition to being role models, the teachers use the children's appropriate behaviors to model social and emotional skills. They carefully observe and record details about how children apply the target skills, and they share their observations with the children through puppet shows during circle time. Using puppets to demonstrate children's appropriate behaviors helps children learn social and emotional skills meaningfully.

Providing cues

Providing cues to engage children in appropriate social behavior has been shown over time to improve their social behavior with their peers (Bovey & Strain 2005). Ms. Coz and Ms. Carnes often provide verbal cues to help some children participate in activities. Before playtime, for example, Ms. Carnes asks, "James, who are you going to ask to play with you at center time?" During playtime, she suggests, "Saanvi, can you ask Anna to build an airplane with you?" To teach sharing and turn taking, Ms. Coz asks Steven, who has been waiting to play with a toy dolphin for a while, "What magic words could you use to have a turn with the dolphin John is using?"

Both Ms. Coz and Ms. Carnes prominently display visual cues in their classrooms to assist children's social and emotional interactions. For example, they provide teacher-made hand puppets to guide children to use quiet voices, helping hands, and walking feet. To help children calm down, they also created a "push wall"-a designated spot on the wall to push anger out-and use puppets to demonstrate the strategy. These puppets, demonstrations, and explanations are essential for clarifying and modeling appropriate behavior-and the visual cues are essential for reminding the children to practice what they have learned. Long-term visual cues function like a third teacher in the sense that children use the cues to remind one another of solutions and appropriate actions.

Teachers and caregivers promote children's social and emotional health by establishing trusting relationships, created when teachers express warmth, affection, and respect. Teachers can intentionally teach and enhance these skills using evidence-based strategies to teach, model, and reinforce positive behaviors. As evidenced in the preschool classrooms we observed, teachers who prioritize developing children's social and emotional health are richly rewarded with happy, engaged children who learn to avoid and resolve conflicts, share and take turns, and express their emotions in productive ways.

Children's Books for Teaching Social and Emotional Skills

Can You Be a Friend?, by Nita Everly

Care Bears Caring Contest, by Nancy Parent, illus. by David Stein

Fox Makes Friends, by Adam Relf

How Do Dinosaurs Play with Their Friends?, by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague

How I Feel Frustrated, by Marcia Leonard

I Can Do It Myself (a Sesame Street Series), by Emily Perl Kingsley, illus. by Richard Brown

I'm in Charge of Me!, by David Parker, illus. by Sylvia Walker

Mouse Was Mad, by Linda Urban, illus. by Henry Cole

My Many Colored Days, by Dr. Seuss, illus. by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher

Sharing: How Kindness Grows, by Fran Shaw, illus. by Miki Sakamoto

When I'm Feeling Sad, by Trace Moroney

When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry, by Molly Bang

Activities for Supporting Children's Social and Emotional Learning

Helping hands chain: Trace and cut out multiple hands for each child. Place them in a pocket or baggie that is easily accessible. As you recognize a child's helping hand behavior, have the child get a hand from their pocket and connect it to the class's helping hand chain. The hands can be placed on the wall to wrap around the room. On a regular basis, celebrate how long the helping hand chain is getting!

Hand puppets: Create character puppets by having children color or paint the pictures, cut them out, and glue them to craft sticks. Once dry, children can bring their puppets to circle time and act out the story while you read the story aloud. Later, they can take the puppets to the story area or puppet center.

Moving to music: Choose songs with lyrics that encourage movement. Before you start, remind the children that they need to listen closely to the words so they know what actions to take. Classic songs like "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" work well. Many children's CDs have great songs that involve following directions (try "My Ups and Downs," and "Hands Are for Clapping," by Jim Gill). Do the motions with the children as you listen to the songs. After listening to each song several times, children will build confidence and know which motions to do on their own. Point out to the children that they know what to do because they are being such good listeners.

Pass the feeling bag: Place an assortment of scenario picture cards in a bag. As music plays, the children pass the bag. When the music stops, one child picks out a card and identifies it. Have the child talk about how each scenario or item makes him feel and why. Allow children to take turns pulling out picture cards.

Feeling faces collage: Have children cut out different feeling faces from magazines. Mix nontoxic glue and water together in a small bowl. The children put the pictures on top of a piece of paper, take a paintbrush and dip it in glue solution, and paint over their pictures. They can hang their feeling faces collages on the wall.

Share box: Create a special share box that is only introduced during circle time. Children can decorate the box with primary colors or with a bold pattern. Inside the box, place items that can be shared, such as musical instruments, a box of chunky sidewalk chalk, playdough, or several sensory bottles.

Singing: After a story about sharing with friends, sing "Share, share, share your toys; share them with a friend. Share, share, share your toys, let's all play pretend," to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." After a story about feelings, sing "If You're Happy and You Know It" with a variety of emotions and body gestures.

Note: Adapted with permission from Book Nook, created by the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning. To use Book Nook guides at no cost, visit http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/resources/strategies.html#booknook.

References

Bandura, A. 1977. Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Bilmes, J. 2012. Beyond Behavior Manage ment: The Six Life Skills Childre n Need, 2nd ed. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf.

Bovey, T., & P. Strain. 2005. "Strategies for Increasing Peer Social Interactions: Prompting and Acknowledgment." Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning. What Works Briefs. http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/briefs/wwb17.pdf.

Dombro, A.L., J. Jablon, & C. Stetson. 2011. Powerful Interactions: How to Connect with Children to Extend Their Learning. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Duffy, R. 2008. "Are Feelings Fixable?" Exchange 30 (6): 87-90.

Gartrell, D. 2007. A Guidance Approach for the Encouraging Classroom, 4th ed. Florence, KY: Thomson Delmar Learning.

Gordon, A.M., & K.W. Browne. 2014. Beginnings and Beyond: Foundati ons in Early Childhood Education, 9th ed. Belmont, CA: Cengage.

Hyson, M. 2004. The Emotional Development of Young Chil dren: Building an Emotion-Centered Curric ulum, 2nd ed. New York: Teachers College Press.

Katz, L.G., & D.E. McClellan. 1997. Fostering Children's Social Competence: The Teacher's Role. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Kostelnik, M.J., A.K. Soderman, A.P. Whiren, M.L. Rupiper, & K.M. Gregory. 2015. Guiding Children's Social Development and L earning: Theory and Skills, 8th ed. Stamford, CT: Cengage.

McClellan, D., & L.G. Katz. 2001. "Assessing Young Children's Social Competence." Champaign, IL: ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED450953.pdf.

O'Connor, E., & K. McCartney. 2007. "Examining Teacher-Child Relationships and Achievement as Part of an Ecological Model of Development." American Educational R esearch Journal 44 (2): 340-69.

Ostrosky, M.M., & E.Y. Jung. 2005. "Building Positive Teacher-Child Relationships." Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning. What Works Briefs. http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/briefs/wwb12.pdf.

Palermo, F., L.D. Hanish, C.L. Martin, R.A. Fabes, & M. Reiser. 2007. "Preschoolers' Academic Readiness: What Role Does the Teacher-Child Relationship Play?" Early Childhood Research Quarterly 22 (4): 407-22. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3856866.

Raikes, H.H., & C.P. Edwards. 2009. Exte nding the Dance in Infant and Toddler Caregiving: Enhancing Attachment and Relationships. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.

Riley, D., R.R. San Juan, J. Klinkner, & A. Ramminger. 2008. Social and Emotional Developm ent: Connecting Science and Practice in Early Childhood Settings. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf; Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Roberts, S.K., & P.A. Crawford. 2008. "Real Life Calls for Real Books: Literature to Help Children Cope with Family Stressors." Young Children 63 (5): 12-17.

Twardosz, S. 2005. "Expressing Warmth and Affection to Children." Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning. What Works Briefs. http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/briefs/wwb20.pdf.

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Connections California: Transition to Adulthood can make it a little easier! You'll find important information in Connections California #cca. We want to help YOU create the smoothest transition to adulthood possible alongside your loved one!

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Resource Information Disclaimer In addition to the information DDS provides for its Regional Centers, this portal uses publicly available information from the following entities: Type of Resource Information Source Entity Family Resource Centers Family Resource Centers Network of California Family Empowerment Centers Seeds of Partnership Child Care California Department of Social Services Head Start... View Article

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Early childhood educators and their advocates often talk about the crucial development that happens after a baby is born through age 5.

What is happening to a baby's brain that makes these earliest years so important?

The answers should be universally known, said Beth MeLampy, who directs curriculum and staff training at Gretchen's House, a network of locally owned early learning child care centers in Ann Arbor.

"There's a general misunderstanding," MeLampy said. "People don't get how important 0 to 5 is in terms of setting that child up for future success if we get this right." MeLampy said she wishes everyone could take a class to understand the impact of early brain development on a person's ability to thrive in the future.

"If you want your kid to go to Harvard, make sure they have a responsive caregiver. Better than a tutor later on," she said.

The Free Press spoke to several scientists and early educators about what's happening in a baby's brain before age 5, why it matters, and what parents should know about caregiving's impact on their child's development.

What is happening to a baby's brain before age 5?

When babies are born, their brains are a quarter of the size of an adult brain. In the first year, a baby's brain doubles in size. By 5 years old, 90% of brain development has occurred, said Alissa Huth-Bocks, professor at Wayne State University and clinical psychologist with expertise in infant and early childhood mental health.

What's meant by "brain development" here is that before age 5, a baby's brain is growing rapidly, both in terms of size but also connectivity and strength, she said.

During this period, a baby's brain is creating connections between newly formed brain cells known as neurons. More than 1 million new connections are formed every second in the first few years of life, Huth-Bocks said.

Baby brains are like loaves of crusty bread, said Erica Schrodt, who used to work as an infant teacher at Gretchen's House and now teaches there across age groups. Babies are born expecting human interaction and through their relationship with caregivers, these connections, known as neural pathways, get reinforced.

Like a knife slicing through the same spot over and over again, until the pathway is carved deeply, solidified, Schrodt said.

These reinforced pathways set the foundation for a person's ability to learn, relate to others, and regulate their emotions, said MeLampy.

What do babies and toddlers need, particularly during this time?

The foundation of early brain development is social.

"As soon as babies are born, their bodies and minds are expecting, in some way, human interaction and relationship," said Katherine Rosenblum, clinical and developmental psychologist and co-director of Zero to Thrive at the University of Michigan.

It takes another person to light up a baby's brain and make it ready to take in information, said MeLampy.

One key way a caregiver participates in healthy brain development is through a process called "serve and return," which refers to the back and forth interactions between a baby and a caregiver.

Rosenblum said this could look like a baby cooing and their parent responding to them as though they're in conversation: "Are you talking to me?!"

Or a baby crying, and a parent giving them a compassionate look, asking what's wrong, and picking them up to comfort them.

"These are the subtle back and forth 'volleys' that you might miss if you were not paying attention," Rosenblum said.

Through this relational process, the brain's neural connections responsible for healthy development - including how to interact with others and emotional regulation - become embedded into the brain. This process happens more than 100 times a day throughout infancy, said Rosenblum.

Why do doctors call this period the most important time in a human being's brain development?

Healthy brain development happens in the context of highly responsive caregiving, said Huth-Bocks, meaning that the majority of the time, when a child indicates they have a need, that need is met in a timely and consistent way.

Consistent, responsive caregiving allows a baby's brain to put more resources toward learning - from figuring out how to move the eyes in tandem to acquiring language. When caregiving is less responsive or consistent, the brain has less time to devote to developing new connections because it's spending more energy on making sure it gets its basic needs met, MeLampy said.

The unique window the brain has at this moment in a child's life makes it a crucial time to create "responsive, reciprocal and safe relationships," to support healthy development, said Rosenblum.

Brains are plastic and can change and adapt, but Rebecca Knickmeyer, professor at Michigan State University's Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, who has researched babies' brains for nearly 25 years, compares the brain to a house.

"You can go back and make significant improvements, but you can't tear down the foundation and build it back up again," she said.

How to be a responsive caregiver

Parents should not feel guilty and don't need more things to worry about, said Rosenblum. "The things babies need are many of the things most parents just do naturally: hold their baby, comfort their baby, talk to their baby, sing to their baby, play with their baby," she said.

MeLampy says parents can turn to two easy tactics to make responsive caregiving feel less overwhelming.

First, be present - not on the TV, or on the phone. "Nobody is a superhero and it's not about being perfect," she said. "You can probably reflect and next time be a little more present and involve your child in conversation even if the child is not reciprocating, they are there and can hear you."

The second is to build community. MeLampy says there's so much information out there and confusion around which source is best or can be trusted.

"Instead of getting overwhelmed, call your friend with a 2-year-old or ask the person next to you what's working for them," MeLampy said.

And being a responsive caregiver cannot happen 100% of the time. Parents' lives are busy and stressful, Rosenblum said.

When society recognizes how important early childhood is and values the work of caring for and developing young children, quality child care follows. "It shouldn't always be on parents," she said.
Beki San Martin is a fellow at the Detroit Free Press who covers child care, early childhood education and other issues that affect the lives of children ages 5 and under and their families in metro Detroit and across Michigan. Contact her at rsanmartin@freepress.com. This fellowship is supported by the Bainum Family Foundation. The Free Press retains editorial control of this work.

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