Unpacking the Pyramid Model

A Practical Guide for Preschool Teachers

Mary Louise Hemmeter, Michaelene M. Ostrosky, Lise Fox, Mary Louise Hemmeter, Michaelene M. Ostrosky, Lise Fox

• Publisher: Brookes Publishing
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781681253916
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Gestion du comportement

For more than a decade, the widely used Pyramid Model for Promoting Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children has been helping early educators use research?based practices to boost social?emotional development. Now there's a practical guide that makes it easier than ever to implement this highly effective framework in preschool classrooms.

Created by the Pyramid Model developers and experts with extensive training experience, this is the first book to provide a comprehensive, step?by?step overview of the Pyramid Model for children ages 2–5. Early childhood educators will get a complete overview of the framework, plus in?depth guidance, evidence?based strategies, and helpful checklists for implementing all tiers of the Pyramid Model: universal, targeted, and individualized.

Ideal for use in teacher trainings, preservice methods courses, and individual professional development, Unpacking the Pyramid Model will give current and future educators the foundational skills they need to promote positive behavior and build all young children's social?emotional competence.

Learn how to use the Pyramid Model to:

• Construct a positive classroom environment that supports access and engagement for all students
• Develop predictable schedules and routines that maximize participation and learning
• Clearly define and teach behavior expectations and rules
• Deliver intentional, explicit instruction in social?emotional competence
• Support smooth and streamlined transitions that prevent challenging behavior
• Create a culture of friendship and actively teach children friendship skills
• Teach children about emotions and help them develop a "feeling vocabulary"
• Give children the skills they need to solve interpersonal problems appropriately
• Provide individualized support for children with persistent challenging behavior

1

Overview of the Pyramid Model

Lise Fox, Mary Louise Hemmeter, Michaelene M. Ostrosky, and Robert M. Corso

The Pyramid Model is a framework for organizing effective promotion, prevention, and intervention practices that are related to supporting young children’s social-emotional development and preventing and addressing challenging behavior (Fox, Dunlap, Hemmeter, Joseph, & Strain, 2003; Hemmeter, Ostrosky, & Fox, 2006). As a framework, the Pyramid Model provides the context in which a curriculum and evidence-based practices can be implemented. The Pyramid Model is designed to support all children in preschool classrooms. In this book, we focus on classroom-based practices for preschool children. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the tiers of the Pyramid Model and the practices associated with each tier in the model (Hemmeter, Fox, & Snyder, 2014). The practices are described more completely in the chapters that follow, which provide examples and checklists for implementation. The practices are supported by an effective workforce, which means teachers have opportunities to engage in self-reflection, are open to learning, respect ideas and perspectives that may be different from their own, and have access to the supports they need to implement the practices with fidelity.

Reprinted by permission of the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations, challengingbehavior.cbcs.usf.edu

THE PYRAMID MODEL PRACTICES

Tier 1: Universal Practices

Tier 1 involves two sets of practices: responsive and nurturing relationships and high-quality, supportive environments. These practices are designed to promote children’s social-emotional development and prevent challenging behavior. They are intended to be used with all children in preschool classrooms. Although the practices are universal, it will be necessary to individualize the delivery of the practices based on each child’s needs and abilities and the unique experiences they bring from their homes and communities.

Responsive and nurturing relationship practices include practices that are designed to build relationships between children, between children and teachers, and between adults (e.g., parent–teacher, teacher–teacher, teacher–colleague). Relationships form the foundation of any good early childhood program. Relationships provide a context in which children can learn, grow, and try new things. Practices related to relationships between children and teachers include positive time and attention, supportive conversations, positive descriptive feedback, joining children’s play, and giving directions that are short and tell children what to do. It is important to learn ways to use these practices with all children including those who are nonverbal or who are learning English as a second language.

The Pyramid Model also includes practices that focus on building relationships with families. It is important to help families learn about supporting their children’s social-emotional development at home and in the community. We also focus on building relationships with families so that if there is a challenging behavior, a positive relationship is already established, and the relationship provides a supportive context for working to develop supports for the child. Practices related to promoting relationships with families include sharing family-friendly resources to support children’s social-emotional development at home and in the community, linking these resources to how teachers are working on social-emotional skills at school, exchanging information with families about positive things children are doing at school and home, using a variety of strategies to engage families in their children’s educational experience and maintain communication between home and school, and making home visits.

Relationships with colleagues are critical to implementing the Pyramid Model. Relationships among colleagues provide a model for children and families and are important to ensuring that everyone is on the same page in supporting social-emotional development and addressing challenging behavior. These practices include modeling appropriate social behaviors and emotions during interactions with colleagues, developing a classroom-wide approach to behavior support and working together to plan and implement these practices, sharing roles in the classroom so that all adults are engaging meaningfully with children, and providing positive feedback to colleagues.

High-quality, supportive environment practices are designed to promote engagement and provide structure and predictability to early childhood classrooms. These practices help children know what to do in the classroom, understand expectations, and follow rules and routines. Environments that are predictable and consistent help children feel safe and engage in meaningful ways with their peers and learning experiences. These practices are related to 1) schedules and routines, 2) environmental design, 3) promoting engagement, 4) transitions, and 5) rules and expectations, and these practices are described in detail in the chapters in this book.

Tier 2: Targeted Social-Emotional Supports

This tier of the Pyramid Model is focused on supporting children’s development of social-emotional competence by providing high-quality instruction that includes increasing levels of support to meet the needs of all children. This involves knowing what to teach, when to teach, and how to teach.

What to Teach In the Pyramid Model, we focus on teaching a variety of social skills and emotional competencies that will help children learn to interact with peers and adults in socially appropriate ways. These skills and competencies include rules and expectations, friendship skills, social problem solving, anger management, and calm-down strategies. These are complex skills, and children will need intentional instruction to learn to how to use these skills across contexts and people.

When to Teach It is important to teach social skills and emotional competencies across the day. They might be taught intentionally during teacher-directed instruction and then practiced throughout the day. Children often engage in challenging behavior when they do not have the social skills and emotional competencies to engage in more appropriate social behaviors. Appropriate social skills and emotional competencies should be taught when children are not engaging in challenging behavior. Additionally, children should be supported to use these skills during challenging situations.

How to Teach This book is all about how to teach, so we will make only some general comments here. For children to learn social-emotional skills, they need lots of practice in a variety of different situations. Social skills instruction can be implemented in large group, small group, and one-on-one contexts. In addition, these skills can be practiced throughout the day when children are engaged with peers and adults in classroom activities. Social skills also can be embedded in classroom routines, such as having a child who is working on initiating with peers practice serving as the greeter when other children arrive in the morning.

Tier 3: Intensive Interventions

This tier of practices is designed for children whose challenging behavior is persistent and not responsive to the practices implemented in the other tiers of the Pyramid Model. Children who engage in more frequent, more persistent, or more intensive forms of behavior will need the practices in this tier. Intensive interventions are developed by a team that includes the family, the teacher, a behavior support person, and other adults who work with the child. To develop intensive interventions, a comprehensive functional assessment is implemented, and a behavior support plan is developed. The behavior support plan includes prevention strategies, replacement skills, and new responses to a child’s behavior. Teachers and family members are supported to implement the behavior support plan in the child’s natural settings, activities, and routines.

POWER UP THE PYRAMID MODEL THROUGH FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

The foundation of the Pyramid Model—nurturing and responsive relationships—includes the development of strong relationships with families as a key component. However, working in partnership with families is part of each tier of the Pyramid Model and all the key practices. We often describe our partnerships with families as powering up the Pyramid Model practices. We use the phrase power up the practices because when we work in partnership with families, the outcomes for the children will be more consistent and durable. We hope that as you read each chapter, you notice the family strategies that are offered and consider what you might use with consideration for the different backgrounds and experiences families of the children bring to your program. Moreover, we want practitioners to consider what it means to become partners with families. We want practitioners to think about strategies they can use to learn more about and from each family, listen to family perspectives, and create a welcoming environment that fosters strong relationships with families.

Teachers are encouraged to develop multiple ways to connect with the families of every child in the classroom. Teachers will want to use a variety of strategies because each family is different and might not be responsive to just one way of making a connection. Some of the strategies that teachers have used are 1) conducting home visits, 2) establishing bidirectional communication systems via notebooks or an app, 3) representing families in the classroom through photos of the families for every child, 4) establishing an open-door policy so that family members can drop in the classroom when they want or can, and 5) offering structured opportunities for families to contribute to the classroom, such as volunteering, sharing a story, going on a field trip, or helping prepare materials. Materials should be shared with families in their preferred language. The goal for the teacher should be to identify the best way to connect with each family that allows for the sharing of information by the family to the teacher and from the teacher to the family (i.e., bidirectional communication).

At the high-quality environments level of the Pyramid Model, we guide teachers to think about sharing with family members practices that are used in the classroom to help children understand schedules and routines, transitions, expectations, and rules. Many of the practices in this book can be very helpful to families as they guide their children at home and in the community. Strategies for sharing this information might include: 1) hosting an open house for families to learn the routine of the classroom and see the visuals that support children’s participation in activities, 2) sending home information about expectations that are taught in the classroom, 3) producing short podcasts about classroom activities, and 4) providing visuals for families to use in guiding their children at home and on community outings. In addition to sharing information with families, it is just as important to encourage what families are willing and able to share with the teacher. This might include what food a child eats at home, the level of independence in self-care or daily routines the family expects of their child, a child’s preferences, or the experiences a child has had with other children at home or in the community. The classroom should reflect children’s homes and families as much as possible, including mementos or photos representing each family group posted where children can see them. Families can contribute important information that will help teachers connect with each child and promote each child’s engagement in classroom activities.

Family engagement is particularly important as we think about the social-emotional teaching level of the Pyramid Model. Teachers will want to share information about social-emotional development and why it is important for children. There might be some families who have not thought about how children develop social-emotional skills and why they are important to the child’s relationships with others and with future academic learning. The teacher also should be prepared to share information if there is a concern about a child’s social-emotional development or challenging behavior and to link to other program supports (e.g., team-based behavior support planning) when a child needs more intensive supports to be successful in the classroom.

Families and teachers benefit greatly from learning from each other how to teach the same skills in their everyday routines and interactions at home, school, and in the community. We encourage teachers to share materials and ideas with family members, along with tips about how materials and ideas might be used at home and in the community. We also encourage teachers to collaborate with families to address social-emotional issues that might be a concern in home environments. When we establish strong relationships with families, those relationships serve as a context for providing additional support when children need it. In each chapter that follows, we provide ideas of materials to use in supporting families.

Providing individualized instruction and developing individualized behavior support plans are components of the Pyramid Model in which partnerships with families are critical to children’s skill development. Programs should partner with families from the beginning to identify goals and design individualized intervention plans. Families have valuable information to share about their child, daily opportunities to teach skills, their child’s preferences, and challenges the child might encounter outside of school. This information can provide a rich context and key considerations as the program and family develop an intervention plan together. After an instructional or intervention plan is designed, the family remains a key change a...