Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning

The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) is a national center focused on strengthening the capacity of child care and Head Start programs to improve the social and emotional outcomes of young children. The Center has developed and disseminated evidence-based, user-friendly information to help early childhood educators meet the needs of the growing number of children with challenging behaviors and mental health challenges in child care and Head Start programs.

California is partnering with the National CSEFEL and WestEd is providing training on the Teaching Pyramid Model, a systematic framework developed by CSEFEL that incorporates Early Childhood Positive Behavior Support (EC-PBS) through promoting social-emotional development, providing support for children's appropriate behavior, preventing challenging behavior, and addressing problematic behavior. For more information about the Pyramid Model, please see the accompanying articles from Young Children and from the Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Interventions (TACSEI).

Many early educators report feeling ill equipped to meet the needs of children with challenging behavior and frustrated in their attempts to develop safe and nurturing classroom environments. As administrators and specialists know, these teachers spend much of their time addressing the behaviors of a few children, leaving little time to support the development and learning of the other children.

Increasing evidence suggests that an effective approach to addressing problem behavior is the adoption of a model that focuses on promoting social-emotional development, providing support for children's appropriate behavior, and preventing challenging behavior (Sugai et al. 2000).

The Teaching Pyramid, a model for supporting social competence and preventing challenging behavior in young children, addresses four components:

• Nurturing, responsive relationships with children, families, and colleagues
• High quality supportive environments
• Targeted social and emotional teaching strategies
• Intensive individualized interventions

Various types of training are available as described below. Further information on this training is available by contacting The Teaching Pyramid, WestEd Center for Child and Family Studies, 751 Rancheros Dr., #2, San Marcos, CA 92069 or by calling 760-682-0200 or by emailing teachingpyamid@wested.org.

For further information on each of the available training options, please download the corresponding PDF below:

• Training Option A: CSEFEL Overview
  This training provides an overview for administrators and specialists or for teaching staff of CSEFEL's Teaching Pyramid Model.
• Training Option B: CSEFEL Training for Program-Wide Implementation in Classrooms
  This training provides an in-depth training for all staff (administrators, specialists, and teaching staff) on CSEFEL's Teaching Pyramid Model.
• Training Option C: CSEFEL Positive Solutions for Families Training of Facilitators
  This training, which is offered as evening or Saturday sessions, addresses the needs of the families who will act as facilitators by providing an overview of The Positive Solutions for Families Modules.
• Training Option D: CSEFEL Onsite Training, Mentoring, and Coaching for Implementation
  This technical assistance support, which is offered as an additional benefit for programs trained in the Teaching Pyramid, is aimed at preschool, infant/toddler, and birth through Pre-K to address the implementation of The Teaching Pyramid Model strategies.