In preparing young children for kindergarten, it is as important to nurture their social and emotional skills as it is to develop their academic knowledge and skills. The Pyramid Model for Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children is a widely used evidence-based framework that guides early childhood educators in supporting healthy social emotional development of all children, and address challenging behaviors that arise. A new Practice Guide was developed to support childcare providers and pre-K teachers as they grow their skills in the Pyramid Model.

The model takes a tiered public health approach by providing universal guidance for use with all children in the classroom to promote wellness, targeted guidance for those who may need additional support, and intensive interventions to address persistent, challenging behavior. Teachers utilizing the Pyramid Model have overwhelmingly reported that students in their classrooms show improved social and emotional skills. The Pyramid Model supports adults within a range of early learning environments including childcare, Head Start programs, and public pre-K. The new practice guide provides teachers with ongoing support to successfully bring the Pyramid Model practices into their classrooms and see improved outcomes in their students.

Professionals in the early childhood field generally have access to training in the Pyramid Model, however opportunities for more advanced skill building in the model are harder to come by. Individualized coaching to support implementation of the model with fidelity is hard to access and to fund.  “The goal of our guide is to bridge that gap for the early care and education workforce by offering them concrete strategies and opportunities to embed Pyramid Model practices within daily classroom interactions with all students. The guide helps them be their own coach,” says Kate Sweeney, Co-Director of Innovations Institute’s Parent, Infant, and Early Childhood team.

The practice guide provides additional resources and recommendations that are critical for teachers utilizing Pyramid Model practices in their classrooms and learning to think differently about how they address challenging behaviors. The guide — freely available through an interactive website with downloadable pdfs in English and Spanish (https://pyramidmodelpracticeguide.org/) — is designed for childcare providers and classroom teachers to embed Pyramid Model practices in current classroom routines, schedules, and curricula. The guide is also useful and relevant to administrators, coaches, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultants–all working with and supporting classroom educators.

“We are thrilled to offer this practice guide as a free, accessible resource to further support educators across the country as they work to build healthy social and emotional skills among young children and ensure they have the behavioral skills necessary to be successful in kindergarten and beyond.”  Margo Candelaria, PhD, Co-Director, Parent, Infant & Early Childhood, Innovations Institute.

The Parent, Infant, and Early Childhood team at Innovations Institute supports workforce development by providing high quality, relevant, and translational training and coaching, technical assistance, facilitation, consulting, implementation support, and research and evaluation. We also provide policy analysis, systems design and financing, data-driven strategic planning, and quality improvement for systems and programs serving young children and their families.

The Johns Hopkins University School of Education, together with Innovations Institute at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work, received a Maryland Rebuilds grant to build the Pyramid Model Practice Guide. The Maryland Rebuilds grant program at the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) issued funds from the American Rescue Plan Act for projects to strengthen and support early childhood education throughout the State and beyond and bolster school-readiness for very young children.