Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning: A Conceptual Model for Intervention

TLDR

Recent years have seen a growing emphasis on preschool school readiness, highlighting the need for children to develop social relationships, concentration, emotional communication, and problem‑solving skills to succeed in elementary school. The article introduces the Teaching Pyramid, a model aimed at fostering young children’s social‑emotional development and tackling challenging behavior, with a focus on its implementation in early childhood settings. The Pyramid’s four components are building positive relationships, creating supportive environments, teaching social‑emotional skills, and tailoring interventions for children with the most challenging behavior.

Abstract

Over the last several years, there has been an increased focus on school readiness and supporting children during the preschool years to learn the skills they need to be successful in elementary school and beyond (Bowman, Donovan, Burns, et al., 2000; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). The capacity to develop positive social relationships, to concentrate and persist on challenging tasks, to effectively communicate emotions, and to problem solve are just a few of the competencies young children need to be successful as they transition to school. In this article, we describe the Teaching Pyramid (Fox, Dunlap, Hemmeter, Joseph, & Strain, 2003), a model for promoting young children's social—emotional development and addressing children's challenging behavior and its link to critical outcomes for children, families, and early childhood programs. The Pyramid includes four components: building positive relationships with children, families, and colleagues; designing supportive and engaging environments; teaching social and emotional skills; and developing individualized interventions for children with the most challenging behavior. Given the unique characteristics of early childhood settings, implementation issues and implications of the model are a primary focus of the discussion.