Head

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Head Heart

• Social Emotional Development
• and
• Infant Early Childhood
• Mental Health

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Christopher Watson, Ph.D. watso012_at_umn.edu -
612-625-2898 httpwww.education.umn.edu/ceed
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Challenging behaviors (or problem behaviors)

• "result in self-injury, injury to others, cause
  damage to the physical environment and/or
  interfere with the acquisition of new skills,
  and/or socially isolate the child"
• (Doss Reichle, 1991)

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Social-Emotional Development

• The developmentally and culturally
• appropriate ability to
• Manage emotions
• Relate to adults
• Relate to peers
• Feel good about oneself
• Connors-Tadros Yates, 2004

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Mental Health

• Mental health is a state of successful
  performance of mental function, resulting in
  productive activities, fulfilling relationships
  with other people, and the ability to adapt to
  change and cope with adversity. Mental health is
  indispensable to personal well-being, family and
  interpersonal relationships, and contribution to
  community or society.

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• Mental health is the springboard of
• thinking and communication skills,
• learning, emotional growth,
• resilience and self-esteem.
• Surgeon Generals Report on Mental Health (1999)

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Mother-Child Study1975-Byron Egeland, Ph.D.
Alan Sroufe, Ph.D.

• Children who had not received sensitive,
  responsive care
• Had more difficulty forming relationships with
  peers
• Had lower levels of school achievement
• Were more likely to require special education
• Exhibited more behavioral problems
• Were more likely to use drugs and alcohol during
  adolescence

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Attachment and sensitive responsive caregiving
is one lens for viewing behavioral concerns
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A Case Study Natalie

• Project Relationship
• Los Angeles Public Schools

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Natalie

• Robert She had empty eyes.
• She was unpredictable.
• Are there patterns to her behavior?

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What else do we need to know?
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Staff Feelings Natalie

• We didnt know what to do.
• Teachers have feelings about childrens behavior
  and need time to reflect on these feelings as
  well as on the behavior of the children.

• She was aching to reach out but when we did she
  couldnt accept it.
• Limited language development
• Couldnt express herself
• Couldnt maintain relationships
• Overly possessive with things

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Teachers, caregivers and parents dont know what
to do.

• The strategies they learned
• are not effective.

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• What we know
• What we can do with what we know
• How we can do what needs to be done

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What we know
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• multiple and multidirectional layers of influence
  on childs behavior
• behavior as the outward manifestation of the
  realized and unrealized capacities of the child
  and his/her lived experience

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Neurobiological stressthe research of Megan
Gunnar, Ph.D.

• Measurement of cortisol - increases under stress
• Social relationships control cortisol levels
  -behind similar behaviors can lie very different
  hormonal responses depending on the childs
  attachment to caregivers
• 70-80 of children in center-based care show
  increasing levels of cortisol during the day

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• Managing a complex peer setting triggers stress
  (toddlers experience the highest levels)
• Childrens stress levels do not rise when they
  receive a lot of attention, support and guidance
  (this is especially true for children with
  negative emotional temperaments)

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• The key ingredient to buffering stress is
  sensitive, responsive, individualized carethe
  type of care that leads to secure attachment
  relationships.

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Effects of Abuse and Neglect on Social Emotional
Development

• Children who have experienced physical abuse are
  more readily perceive anger in facial emotion
  than those who have been neglected or those who
  have not been abused.
• Those who been neglected have more difficulty
  distinguishing emotion.
• (Pollack, Cicchetti, Horning Reed, 2000)

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• Chronic interpersonal trauma has been shown to
  negatively impact functioning of neurobiological
  systems involved in emotion and stress response
  and regulation
• This difference in psychobiological functioning
  relates to increases in a range of behaviorsfrom
  aggressive, hyeractive and hypervigilant to
  distracted, withdrawn anxious and self-injurious
  behaviors.

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There is a significant amount of evidence to
suggest

• Children who are maltreated are a greater risk
  for adult psychopathology
• The younger and the longer children are abused
  the greater the risk
• Intervention at multiple levels is necessary to
  improve long-term outcomes.
• (DeBellis, 2001)

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Attachment relationships with teachers and other
community caregivers

• Young children do develop attachment
  relationships with care providers
• Secure attachments are related to higher
  caregiver sensitivity
• (Howes, Galinsky Kontos, 1998 Howes Oldham)

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Alternative attachments

• Children who have insecure attachments with their
  primary caregiver as a result of abuse can form
  secure attachment relationships with their
  preschool teachers and child care providers over
  time.
• Children with more sensitive care providers had
  higher attachment scores
• (Howes Segal, 1993 Howes Ritchie, 1998)

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Chicago Longitudinal StudyArthur Reynolds, Ph.D.

• Research done in communities with highest rates
  of poverty and with children facing many risks
  (gt70 with 4 or more)
• High quality child care is linked to school
  readiness, social skills and achievement
• Early childhood programs are among the most
  effective and cost-effective interventions

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1. National Center for Early Development and
Learning2. National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early
Child CareRobert Pianta, Ph.D., University of
Virginia

• 3,000 settings observed
• Majority of interaction is whole group or
  individual seatwork
• Few, if any, social or instructional interactions
  between teacher and individual children
• 40 time is non-instructional (does not include
  mediating interactions or scaffolding
  experiences)
• Exceptional variations across settings

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What we can do with what we know
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Head Heart

• In the context of the push for school-readiness
  view children ourselves holistically
• Our thoughts and emotions are intertwined
• Child development in all domains, including
  cognition, is facilitated through relationships
• How can we work together to support childrens
  development?
• What do children need? What do staff need?

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Populations Interventions
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BEAM Bridging Education and Mental Health

• Education
• Positive Behavior Support
• Origin assisting children with disabilities
• Question What is the motivation of the behavior?
  FUNCTION

• Mental Health
• Psychodynamic Therapeutic Support
• Origin assisting children who have experienced
  difficult emotional environments
• Question Why does the child behave in this way?
  EMOTIONAL NEEDS

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Bridging Two Perspectives

• Education
• Theoretical Orientation Behavior problems are
  not abnormalities, but reasonable adaptations
  necessitated by the abilities of our children and
  the limitations of their environments

• Mental Health
• Theoretical Orientation
• Children are biologically set up to establish
  relationships with adult caregivers. As a result
  of early relationships, children develop a
  mental model of what they can expect from the
  world.

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BEAM Hierarchy of Interventions
Relationships
Environment
Interactions Instruction
Child-specific Interventions
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Supporting Children

• Positive Behavior Support
• Consistent
• Predictable
• Contingent
• Physically Safe

• Therapeutic Approach
• Consistent
• Predictable
• Responsive
• Physically Safe
• Emotionally Safe

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We learn more about Natalie

• When enrolled, she had a lot of problems.
• She could not speak well. She could not express
  herself.
• She didnt understand much.
• if her mother had helped herHer mother is ill.

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Knowing why tells us how

• V. Mark Durand, Ph.D., SUNY Albany

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We experience the present in part through the
past.

• Relationships
• Child family (parents/caregivers, extended
  family)
• attachment, guidance discipline, abuse, neglect
• Child other children
• friendships, conflicts
• Child caregiver/teacher
• attachment, guidance discipline

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Childrens Critical Questions

• Am I worthy of attention?
• Are you trustworthy?
• Am I safe enough here to play and learn?
• Will anybody take care of me?
• Do I have any power here?

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The Teacher

• Challenges
• Affirms
• Listensand Hears
• Dr. Roberta Nelson

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To Listen

• Ear
• You
• Eye
• Undivided attention
• Heart
• Michael Trout, Parent-Infant Institute,
  Champaign-Urbana, IL

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Points we should ponder

• Setting events
• Life circumstances/events
• Function, communication and meaning
• Relationships

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2. Life circumstances/events

• Effect of physical and developmental disabilities
• Familys access to resources
• Family/cultural expectations
• Abuse, neglect, stress and trauma

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3. What is the function of the behavior?What
does it mean?What is it communicating?

• from Positive Behavior Support

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4. Relationships

• How can my relationshipor the relationships of
  other staff with this childbe used to support
  her?

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• It became clear Natalie could benefit from a
  special buddy
• Who does Natalie like?
• Robert, do you see her coming to you?

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A significant adult

• Has a lot of patience
• Looks for clues
• Gives the child choices
• Is warm, caring and nurturing

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• Attachment is a mutual, reciprocal relationship
  in which the child becomes a knowing partner. It
  is a relationship that develops gradually during
  the early months and years of a childs life.
• Child-Adult Attachment A Lens for Viewing
  Decisions that Affect Children and Families, Lyn
  Glen and Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D.

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Attachment

• We are biologically geared to attach - for safety
  and survival
• Primary caregivers are first object of attachment
• Teachers and childcare providers can provide
  the safety and nurturing that young children need

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Shared Emotional Experience

• Personalized, individual attention is critical.
• Adults are not interchangeable.
• One adult forms a relationship to support the
  childs emotional and cognitive development .
• The child has a meaningful experience with a
  particular adult over time.
• It is shared emotional experience that builds
  resilience in children.

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An experience that provides repair is about

• changing the environment so that the child can
  grow socially and emotionally
• providing opportunities for the child to learn
  new social/emotional and educational skills.
• We may not be able to change the child's home
  environment.
• We can create an emotionally safe environment
  while the child is with us.

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A significant adult

• Is consistently available
• Sees the world from the childs point of view
• Sets limits
• Structures the childs experience

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What we dont often acknowledge

• Some of us work better with certain children than
  with other children and
• Some of us like certain children better than
  other children.
• ALSO
• Some children like us better than other children.

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Who likes this child?Who does this child like?

• Gave rise to a powerful intervention
• Gave staff an opportunity to reflect on
• who they are as individuals and
• what they bring to the educational setting

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Changes in Nataliea child who had been
considered inappropriate for the setting

• Beginning to relate well to others
• Much more animated
• Developing a consistent personality
• Getting a lot of pleasure out of life

• Changes are still difficult
• She needs a certain amount of space
• She has learned to trust

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What informs successful interventions for Natalie?

• We consider the
• impact of
• Life circumstances/events
• Setting events
• Function and communication
• Relationships

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Adults

• Do for
• Do with
• Stand back and admire
• Julie Ribaudo, President
• Michigan Assn. for Infant mental Health

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Going Around the Circle

• Whats the concern?
• Why do you think it is happening?
• What do you think the behavior is communicating?
• How can we help? Whats the plan?
• How is it going?

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How we can do what needs to be done
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Changing Teachers Internal Working Models of
Sensitive, Responsive CareRobert Pianta, Ph.D.,
University of Virginia

• Show what it looks like in behavioral terms
• Counteract the cognitive model teachers hold by
  providing alternative behaviors
• CLASS - Classroom Assessment Scoring System

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Changing Teacher BehaviorMelissa Stormont,
Ph.D.University of Missouri at Columbia

• Teacher behavior did change in a coaching project
• Increasing positive teacher behavior may be more
  challenging than than decreasing negative
• Teachers need ongoing - and different levels - of
  support

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Follow-up StudiesNoelle et al., 2005 Stormont
Stebbins, 2006

• Teachers perception of knowledge or of current
  implementation of research based practice may not
  be accurate
• Three kinds of support was provided to teachers
  technical assistance, affirmations for use of
  practice, and performance-based (data-based)
• Performance-based feedback was most significant
  in maintaining desired teacher behaviors - but
  all teachers thought they were still implementing

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Promising Practice Use of VideoRobert Pianta,
Ph.D., University of Virginia

• Teachers improved their interactions by watching
  videos of other teachers
• Greater improvement resulted from teachers
  watching video of themselves teaching
• Similar to use of video in Seeing Is Believing,
  Martha F. Erickson, Ph.D. Jill Simon, MSW, LICSW

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• Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at
  the same time what we want is for things to
  remain the same but get better.
• Sydney Harris

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• People looking for a way are themselves the
• new way.
• It is within people, it begins with people.
• Again people are the only hope.
• From Again by Park No-Hae
• (translated by Helen Kim)

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• The goal is to see the child not as an object
  to be changed, but as a potential author of her
  own change.
• Carol Cole,
• Project Leader
• Project Relationship

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watso012_at_umn.edu - 612-625-2898