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A Focus on Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health
August 2023
Back to School Basics
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This newsletter focuses on sharing information on infant/early childhood mental health and
the importance of relationship-based approaches and supports that help infants and young children feel safe, supported, and valued by the adults around them. The newsletter, and the Infant Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) program, is made possible by a partnership between the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) and the Pennsylvania Key.
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Hard to believe, but the time has come to prepare for the start of the school year! However that looks in your program, it is a time of transitions and new beginnings filled with wonder and excitement. This is an opportunity to get to know and strengthen relationships with the children and review classroom routines and expectations. It is also a time for patience! Change is difficult for everyone, children and adults alike. Extend patience and grace to the children and adults in your program, including yourself! |
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After a break it’s likely children and adults may forget some of the routines that help make the day go smoother. It may be important to re-teach or remind children of schedules, expectations, and routines. Adults should expect that children will NOT remember!
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Children learn best when they are in safe, well-supervised environments. Teachers set up their classroom environment and position themselves so they can always observe all children – watching, listening, and counting. Everyone has a responsibility to keep children safe!
Active Supervision Toolkit. Active supervision promotes a safe environment and prevents injuries in young children. It requires focused attention and intentional observation at all times. Staff use active supervision strategies to make sure children of all ages explore their environments safely. Each program can keep children safe by teaching all staff how to look, listen, and engage.
Supervising School Agers: 3 Steps. Effective supervision ensures that children are safe, interact with each other and adults in respectful ways, and are engaged in activities and experiences that support their development and learning.
Zoning to Maximize Learning 3:41. Zoning is an effective practice to help teachers manage staff. This practice can also be used to create well-organized classrooms. This in-service suite explores how zoning can increase children's engagement and learning.
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Building positive relationships with young children is an essential task and a foundational component of good teaching. All children grow and thrive in the context of close and dependable relationships that provide security, love, and nurturance. It is built on trust and understanding.
5 Steps for Brain-Building Serve and Return 6:06. 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 its takes two to play! Follow these five steps to practice serve and return.
Building Positive Relationships with Young Children. As children learn in the context of caring relationships with adults, they will become more skilled at building positive relationships with other children, are easier to teach, more compliant, and less likely to engage in challenging behavior.
School-Age Social-Emotional Development: Positive Relationships. The ability to establish relationships is a crucial part of social-emotional development. This ability will help children be successful as they grow. As a school-age staff member, there are three main types of relationships to see in a program: adult-to-child, peer-to-peer, adult-to-adult.
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Classroom rules clarify expectations, establish boundaries, and foster accountability for the classroom setting. A simple visual representation of rules in a classroom lends to an engaging, safe, learning environment for children and teachers.
Behavior Expectations. Behavior expectations and rules are important because children are less likely to engage in challenging behavior when they know what to do, how to do it, and what is expected.
Going to School. A social story about classroom expectations and rules. Available in English and Spanish.
Getting Started with Establishing Ground Rules/SACC. Establishing classroom rules sets the tone of a class, provides clear guidelines on how to behave, decreases instances of challenges, and enables students to feel safe expressing their ideas or points of views.
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A visual schedule represents the big picture of a day and includes familiar, predictable activities that provide comfort and safety for children. Routines are the steps needed to complete each part of that schedule. Schedules and routines happen at about the same time and in the same way every day which helps children understand where they are in the day.
Creating Routines infographic. The beginning of a new school year and the arrival of fall remind us of the importance of routines. While we always enjoy a break from the same-old, same-old, getting back into the familiar routines of fall creates stability and a sense of the familiar. For young children especially, those familiar routines are important to their overall healthy social and emotional development.
School-Age Learning Environments: Schedules and Routines. The routines and activities that make up your program’s schedule are essential elements of your learning environment. Designing your schedule and space to support effective routines helps promote children’s and youth’s development and learning.
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When you hear the words, "back to school," it's difficult NOT to think of your basic school supplies. Understandable! But these resources will provide you with tips for how to go back to school as a FAMILY. Parents and family members, this is for you and your kiddos!
Back To School. School is back in session! Explore different topics, such as coping with back-to-school anxieties and emotions, creating daily routines, and tackling common situations that arise with the start of school. Ease the transition with some fun lunch box or after school snacks and downtime activities.
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IECMH Consultation helps adults strengthen their relationships with young children and build capacity to respond to children’s social-emotional needs. IECMHC can help reduce caregiver stress, as well as increase caregivers’ reflective practice skills.
IECMH Consultants are available by appointment to provide IECMHC Virtual Office Hours consultation via telephone or video conference. IECMHC Virtual Office Hours is a short-term, collaborative, problem-solving conversation to help you find next steps for: Child Social-Emotional Concerns | Child Behavioral or Developmental Concerns Emotional Well-being of Teachers and Caregivers | Partnering with Families.
Appointments are held on the first and third Fridays of the month, or other days/times by request. Get more info.
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Programs and families can contact the program leadership directly at PAIECMH@pakeys.org with questions or concerns.
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With the generous support of the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL), the Pennsylvania Key IECMH Consultation team was able to add staff member, Lauren Walter, to support School Age Child Care (SACC) programs participating in Keystone STARS. This service will be primarily tele-consultation support. Click here to request support.
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Share your feedback! We'd like to hear what you think about infant early childhood mental health. Are there resources you'd like to see? Questions you have? Tell us! Send your feedback to PAIECMH@pakeys.org.
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