Iowa State University Extension

Problem:
Many children in group settings are presenting difficult behavior challenges. 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. CSEFEL is a national resource center funded by the Office of Head Start and Child Care Bureau for disseminating research and evidence-based practices to early childhood programs across the country. Their Pyramid Model for Supporting Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children stands on a solid research foundation and was adopted by the state of Iowa in 2007 as the state model for training child care providers.

The CSEFEL framework is based on Positive Behavior Support (PBS). Positive Behavior Supports describes a process for addressing children’s challenging behavior based on an understanding of the purpose of the behavior and a focus on teaching new skills to replace challenging behavior. Over the last 20 years, there has been an accumulation of evidence that the use of PBS can result in decreases in problem behavior and assisting individuals with challenging behavior and their families in achieving their desired life-style. When several staff in a center are trained in Positive Behavior Supports model, they can work together to ensure that children understand behavior expectations, receive instruction in social skills, and those with the most persistent problem behavior receive individualized assistance.

Response:
In 2007, Iowa and the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) entered into a partnership agreement with the Iowa Department of Education to develop a model for a statewide system that includes trainers and training, coaching and technical assistance, system connectors and data management system. This partnership was formed between the Center on Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning, the Iowa Department of Education and the Statewide PBS Planning Team with representation from the Iowa Departments of Human Services and Public Health, Iowa State University, Area Education Agencies, Child Care Resources and Referral and Head Start and local school districts for the purpose of promoting the social, emotional and behavioral competence of Iowa’s young children and decreasing challenging behaviors in group settings. It is the goal of the state that early care, health and education providers in the state will provide services that embody the pyramid model of positive behavior support.

In Southwest Iowa, Mary Hughes, Family Life Field Specialist with ISU Extension, attended 4 days of intensive training with representatives from many organizations around the state. A team of 3 trainers returned to SWIA and delivered an overview session at local conferences and a three-session series that included 20 hours of instruction from the four modules designed for caregivers of infants and toddlers to which 39 participants attended. This summer, these same trainers will attend the preschool training track so as to return to train child care providers working with preschoolers.

Impact:
Nation-wide program impact shows problem behaviors in early childhood programs implementing the PBS model have been reduced by two-thirds. The need for programs to take exceptional actions like dismissing or transferring children, requesting outside assistance or calling the family has been virtually eliminated. Iowa programs implementing PBS have shown a consistent increase in social skills. The percentage of children “at-risk” or with “significant” problems has been halved. Teacher perception data confirmed that program-wide expectations were owned by children (“The rules are their rules and they own it now”). Program quality measures have increased 32 percent for year-one sites and 46 percent for year-two sites. Studies from pilot sites using PBS in preschool settings show staff felt more confident in their own ability to address challenging behavior and less reliant on outside support.

Participants comments following completion of the training series describe the following increased understanding of how they can support social-emotional growth in infants and toddlers in group settings: “I have increased my understanding of the importance of relationships with the infants and toddlers with whom I work;” “I better understand the impact of environment on the opportunity for infants and toddlers to expand their social skills; ” “I have increased my awareness of strategies that can be used to build social skills in infants and toddlers;” “I can describe the kinds of interactions with infants and toddlers that will support their social-emotional emotional development;” “I better understand the importance of using routines of care to support the social-emotional development of infants and toddlers.” By attending this training series, child care providers are positioned to decrease the development of infant-toddler challenging behaviors.

Additional Team Members or Community Partners:
Wendy Buley, CCR&R wbuley@netins.net
Jaye Briggs, CCR&R jayelob@msn.com

Contact:
Mary Hughes
West Pottawattamie County Extension
3501 Harry Langdon Blvd, ISD Campus 2nd Floor-Careers Bldg
Council Bluffs, IA 51503
712-366-7070
mhughes@iastate.edu