Coaching Supports to Address Behavior Management

Coaching Supports to Address Behavior Management

Joyce Escorcia: Hello, everyone. I am Joyce Escorcia with the National Center on Early Childhood Development Teaching, and Learning, or the NCECDTL. Thank you so much for joining us today for our latest installment of the Coaching Corner webinar series. I am joined today with some wonderful colleagues from NCECDTL, as well. There's Sarah Basler and Ashley Nemec, and then Melissa Jaen is going to be heading up our Q&A. So, we're excited to connect and to hear from you today. So, just as a reminder, the Coaching Corner webinar series happens every other month, and so, we invite you to go ahead and mark your calendar for the next episode. It's going to be September 23rd at 3:00 p.m. So, the goal of every episode is to support you as a coach by exploring topics that are relevant to you and your role, to identify resources and strategies that are specific to whatever we're talking about, and then having an opportunity to put it into practice through scenario videos, the opportunity to ask questions, and even some discussion. So, again, we're excited to have you here today. All right. So, today, we really kind of want to build on and talk about how coaches' self-care really supports effective behavior- management practices. And we want to kind of pause there and just say that typically, we as CTO kind of talk about behaviors that challenge adults when we talk about behavior management. But because today, we're gonna place children's behaviors that challenge adults kind of in a broader frame, including adults' ability to approach our work from kind of a place of mental and physical health and wellness, that we're gonna be including kind of an umbrella term of behavior management that includes kind of coaches' behaviors, including things you do to kind of center yourself and support your coachees to implement effective practices, and also coachees' behavior and how we support children and families. So, we just kind of want to kind of start with that. We are also gonna identify how strengthening the collaborative partnerships impact relationships with coachees and with children and families. And then, as always, we're gonna explore some resources that you as a coach can use to help coaches kind of demonstrate those effective behavior-management practices. So, that's just a little bit of kind of what we have in store for you today. And so, as a reminder, practice-based coaching, or PBC, is a successful process for supporting education staff. It uses effective teaching and home-visiting practices that help to support and lead to those positive learning outcomes for children, that each component of the cycle is designed to inform actions by a coachee and a coach, and that PBC is really focused on those effective teaching and home-visiting practices, that it's based on that collaborative partnership, that it's guided by goals and a plan for refinement and action, that it's assessed through that focused observation, and it's supportive of coachee growth and development through reflection and feedback.

So, just kind of wanted to kind of give just a brief overview. And so, today, we're gonna be focusing on this coaching support that can be used to support education staff efforts with behavior management. So, kind of want to lay a little foundational knowledge there for you. And we also kind of just want to start off and talk about how behavior management – it is about so much more than just, like, fixing or addressing children's behavior. It is also something that's impacted by how we feel or our own, like, state of being at the time. So, it's really important to recognize where we are physically, mentally, and emotionally, that how we feel can impact how we respond and react to the world and the people around us, that if you're running on empty, it's gonna be hard to do your job successfully or to just do your best in that moment, and that the thing that's true about responding to challenging behavior – think about how you react to different situations that may pop up in your day-to-day life. Think about when you're well-rested in different situations. So, when you're well rested and healthy, you tackle problems or bumps in the road with much more ease than you do, say, if you aren't feeling well or if you're stressed, right? I believe we all do that. So, the same is very true for children and families, coachees, and other staff that we come into contact with, that really promoting self- care is so important, especially now, as staff are dealing with a variety of issues related to transitioning back to in-person services, or not kind of during and in the midst of this pandemic, or just dealing with current events related to race and equity. And so, we think that that's really important to mention, that staff and children – that they may feel nervous, anxious, and even fearful about coming back and what they're coming back to. And I meant to say this when we started out. I know that, by now, you guys are used to seeing our wonderful faces, and you're gonna get the chance to see and interact with Ashley and Sarah via their webcam. I personally had some technical issues today, and so, I was not able to connect via webcam, but no worries. Sarah and Ashley – you're gonna be able to see them and talk with them in that way in just a few slides.

And so, kind of back to talking about that parallel process of support, that we all feel stressed from time to time, maybe more now than in previous times in our lives. That coaches feel stress. Coachees feel stress. Families and children may feel stress. And that's why it's so important to first recognize that our own kind of mental state really has an impact on our behavior and, in turn, can have an impact on the behavior of those around us. So, awareness of this when it's within ourselves can also help us become better at recognizing signs of stress and well-being in others. And so, when we can identify how others feel, it can help us to choose how to best support them in different situations. And so, we just want to kind of hear from you. You can answer via the poll. How would you describe the status of a majority of your coaching? So, when you think about, say, your case load or the coachees that you're supporting, how would you describe their status? Are they fully charged, are they running low, are they feeling drained, or maybe you're just not sure, and that's OK, too. So, I'm just gonna give you a minute to kind of answer that. And let's see, let's go to our results here, and I see the majority say that they feel like their coachees, for the most part, are just running low or even just feeling drained, and then many of you are just not sure, and that's OK. Many of us don't feel sure about a whole lot of things, so that can be stressful, as well. And then there are some that are fully charged.

And it's OK to be in a little bit of all of this, maybe. So, thank you for sharing so we see kind of where people are, and that can kind of help us think about how we can use the strategies that we talk about today to better support our coachees, and then to think about what can we do to support the coachees to keep their batteries charged? So, that's kind of the other thing to think about – what are some of the things that can help to keep the coachees and even our own batteries charged, and our children and families? We're gonna dig into that a little bit more today.

And so, here, just as it is important to recognize how we are feeling and how others are feeling, it's also important to identify what behaviors kind of push our own buttons, that everyone has triggers or behaviors that others do that kind of push their buttons, and that also then causes us to react in a certain way. It maybe causes us to do something or say something that we kind of regret later. Or we may even regret just the attitude that we said something with. So, let's just think about something or some things that trigger us. So, what triggers you? What's a trigger for you? So, the resource that you see on the screen has been included with the resources for this webinar. So, no worries – you have the link and everything there. So, just thinking about that, what could trigger coachees, children, and families as they transition back to in-person services, or whether they're going to kind of extend the virtual interaction? And you can use your Q&A widget to kind of respond there. Gonna pull up and kind of see ... see, maybe, kind of what we're hearing and seeing. Let's see, and so, things are coming up, and so, again, the question is what could trigger coachees, children, and families as they're transitioning kind of back to in-person services or extending the virtual services? And Mary just says – Mary shares just attitudes. Shamika says distance. Joy has talked about scheduling. Lesha talks about just the uncertainty of everything that's going on. All of these things are so right and can be a trigger. Sarah shares just that fear of the unknown of what's happening. Sandra shares just a loss of wages. Ty Johnson – she talks about just that question of "Am I safe? Am I really OK to go back?" Feeling isolated, Ruth. Yes, that's definitely one. So, another ... That can be scary, too, like, "What does this look like? What am I going into?" Attitudes and schedules, and so, all of those different things are things that people are kind of talking about and feeling and things that are causing and triggering those different emotions, actions, even attitudes that we may be kind of experiencing, either ourselves or from other people. So, thank you for sharing all of that. And so, let me pull my Q&A down here. And so, now we want to kind of just take a minute and share a mindfulness activity. And so, we know that supporting coachees to use resources, like the one I was getting ready to share, it takes just a few minutes, but it can really help us – kind of help others center themselves or even help ourselves to kind of center ourselves in a moment. And so, this video has been included as a resource for the webinar. So, Dr. Gail Joseph, our kind of DTL colleague from the University of Washington – she's gonna walk us through a mindfulness exercise called "Notice Five Things." Some of you may be familiar with this mindfulness exercise. And so, this could be something helpful to teach, say, your coachees. First, you may want to kind of teach yourself and be comfortable with it yourself and then be able to use it to support coachees. And so, we invite you to kind of just watch the video, kind of walk through it yourself and just be thinking about how you could use this or other resources with your coachees.

[Video begins]

Dawn Williams: All right, we are back for Resiliency & Wellness. Hi, Gail. Dr. Gail Joseph: Hello, Dawn. How are you?

Dawn: I'm great. I'm gonna be better after Resiliency & Wellness. I am every time.

Gail: I hope that you are. So, one of the things that we know from being teachers is that it can be stressful. And I remember when I was a Head Start teacher, I was also going to school, trying to get my degree, trying to teach at the same time, and it just was – I had a lot of stress. And so, I like to think of this section as kind of what I wish I would have known then in terms of some strategies. And so, I wanted to just give one strategy that I've been using a lot lately, and I think could be really helpful when we just want to take a break for ourselves. So, this is the section where we think about, how do we just kind of give ourselves some break, give ourselves some self-care so that we can do a better job at teaching young children, working with young children, getting through our days happy and healthy. So, this little strategy is what we call "Notice Five Things." And so, it's a pretty common mindfulness exercise. And the idea here is really just to center yourself, to connect to the environment, and to just think about just what I'm gonna tell you to think about. So, this is the time to not think about what you're worried about from what just happened that morning or worried about what's gonna happen tomorrow when they come do an observation in your classroom. Instead to just be in the moment here.

And so, we call it "Notice Five Things." So, you just pause for a moment. And you look around. And you just notice five things you can see, OK? So, you might just say, "I see the camera. I see the lights. I see the table. I see the snow globe from one of our other 'Teacher Time' episodes. I see the clicker." So, it's just noticing five things you can see. And then it's noticing five things you can hear. And you really have to pause to do that, right?

Dawn: You do.

Gail: I can hear the traffic. I can hear my breathing. I can hear the click of a keyboard. So, just thinking about what I can hear. And then the last thing is kind of five things that connect with my body, so kind of five body points, if you will. So, I can notice my feet on the floor, my back against the chair, my watch on my wrist, my shirt on my skin, the air on my face. So, it's really just thinking about five things I can see, five things I can hear, and then five kind of body point connections. And doing that in just a moment and doing it at several times during the day, right? Just kind of, "Wow, let me just notice five things." So, this is not like, "I'm taking a break, and I'm gonna be in the staff room." This is like, "I'm gonna be right here in the moment, and I'm gonna just notice five things." And then what's great about this strategy is that you could teach this to young children, as well. So, imagine at circle time just making a daily practice, perhaps, of noticing five things, maybe just kind of noticing five body points, if you will. So, asking kids to just notice five things on their body, like how my head is feeling or how my shoulders are feeling, how my back of my legs are feeling on the floor, how my feet are feeling. So, it's just this idea, again, of being in the moment, of centering yourself, giving yourself that break, not thinking about what you're worried about, not thinking about what happened before, but just be in the moment, and that's the tip for today.

Dawn: I am calmer. I am calmer. I got to do all that. I hope you did 'cause it worked on me. [Video ends]

Joyce: I really appreciate this video because it's a fast, free way to really kind of help center ourselves and even to be able to share with others. And I think that's more important now than ever. And we want to talk a little bit about some of the things that calm us. We've talked about some of our triggers, shared that mindfulness video, and I invite you to, in the Q&A, kind of as you're thinking about it, what are some of the mindfulness activities that you're sharing with your – those that you're supporting around you? And so, we can gather those, and we'll post those to MyPeers, but definitely want to invite you to do that. Now, we just want to spend a few minutes and talk about kind of what can calm us. So, we saw in the video that Dr. Gail Joseph – that she walked us through this simple, kind of free way to calm down that we can literally do anywhere, any environment, that really calming ourselves when we become dysregulated is such an important skill to learn. It's like a muscle. We have to kind of build and keep working on it, right? And it's something that we often teach children in our care, but it's also something that we and our coachees need to be able to do, as well. So, oftentimes, when we think about or hear the word "self-care," we think about things like spa day or yoga or mani- pedis or something elaborate but calming down doesn't have to be something big. Especially now, thinking about the cost of things and also just our ability to get out and do those things may not be very practical or safe. But calming down can be something easy, and it doesn't have to cost any money or kind of put us in harm's way. So, again, in that Q&A, just tell us a little bit about what are some of the things that you're doing now that calm you? What are some of the things that you've found for yourself that help to kind of calm and center you? And I'm gonna pull up my Q&A and see. And so, Tina ... Hi, Tina – says just taking a walk, looking out the window at the trees. Breathing exercises. Levi shared, "Just breathing." Sometimes just a few good breaths helps. Again, Tina shared about those breathing exercises, just exercise in general. A lot of people taking some great walks. Just taking a break and taking a pause from whatever you're doing and say, "OK, I'm just gonna give myself just a couple of minutes to reset.

Sometimes I'll do that. I just have to close my eyes and just reset. Music, prayer, playing a game – I like all of those things. Sometimes I'll do that, as well, just take a little brain break. Listening to instrumental music. All those are really great. One thing that I do that people around me find really weird is I like to organize things Whenever I feel like things are kind of chaotic, I like to find something to organize, even if it's just a drawer, my desk. If I have time, I make plans to organize something even bigger, like I organized my whole pantry this weekend. Those are things that help me to kind of center. So, just closing your eyes, going outside. These are all really great ideas and so important, now more than ever, in what we're doing, right?

So, we want to share just a few resources with you that could kind of help you and also help the coachees and staff that you're supporting. And so, here, you're gonna see kind of some snippets of different things. No worries. In the resource list that we provided you, all of these things are listed there with a brief description and also, links to everything. So, you have things like the Early Childhood Mental Health team has recorded a series of relaxation exercises in English and Spanish. So, these could be used by Head Start, Early Head Start families and staff. It can help reduce stress. Other resources on ECLKC, too. You're gonna find different clips and resources for families and staff. There's also a series of, like, these great 12 colorful posters, and you see an example of a couple there, that you can download and print or just download and send a link to you. You can make them kind of like your screensaver on your phone. I like to do that kind of stuff, too. Just something that kind of reminds you of like, "Hey, it's OK, take a moment," those things. And then you'll see those other little icons there. We have Headspace and Calm. Those are just examples of different sites and apps that have some free content that you can have access to. And again, all that's listed on your resources list. So as staff return to providing in-person services, as coaches, you can encourage coachees to kind of embed some of these resources that we've talked about today, either by modeling or just sharing them with their children and families, as well. So, now let's take a look at how establishing that collaborative partnership can help identifying those kind of things that you may face on a daily basis kind of moving forward. So Ashley is going to talk to us about that. So, Ashley, I'm gonna turn it over to you.

Ashley Nemec: Great, thank you, Joyce. So, Joyce just shared how mindfulness and being aware of our thoughts and feelings and perspectives and how that can impact our response to others' behaviors. We also know this is a parallel process. And I'm thinking about this process both at the coach and coachee level, and then also thinking about it at the coachees' interactions with children and families. And when we take the time to do the work ourselves as coaches, then we're better equipped to support coachees and their work in that, and then they're better able to support families and children, and in teaching their mindfulness strategies. So, as Joyce said, we're gonna kind of extend these concepts now into the context of the collaborative partnership... and really in using it as thinking about it in terms of connection and as a tool that we can use to address challenging behavior. In your resource handout, we have linked the collaborative partnership brief, and there's a link for a video about collaborative partnerships, if you'd like to dive deeper. But really, as I said before, we're going to kind of look at collaborative partnerships today simply as connection, thinking about the ways you're connecting to coachees, how open you are to a partnership with an individual coachee, thinking about their openness to a partnership with you as a coach. And oftentimes, as coaches, when we're not connecting with a coachee, I think we automatically label them as resistance without maybe thinking why they might be closed to the experience. In simple terms, where are these behaviors from the coachee coming from? Are there other ways maybe we can approach this partnership? And thinking about it that way. And then this is also a parallel process with helping coachees to think about this in the same way, in the context of their connections with individual children and families and really thinking about those blocks to that connection.

Before we dig deeper, I just kind of want you to take some time to think about, what steps do you currently take to establish and maintain collaborative partnerships with coaches? Do you find you're taking similar steps for each coachee you work with? Are you individualizing the way you connect? And how do you help coachees build their relationships with children and families? And now, with the reality that we're living in right now with possibly doing coaching at a distance, are there ways that that might change in the way that we try to connect moving forward? So, just kind of keep that in the back of your mind as we go through this.

So, let's start by looking at the collaborative partnership at the coach and coachee level. So what do you think your coachees are looking for from you in order to be open to a connection? I remember seeing a lot of you talking about safety in your responses to Joyce. Especially now with COVID happening, there's a lot of anxiety with things we hear on the news, and maybe even going back to thinking just at the basic level of things such as personality types. Maybe the coachee is more introverted and they don't feel as comfortable or safe speaking up with someone they might not know very well. Maybe they've had experiences in the past with administrative ... initiatives that just kind of keeps them distrustful of coaching and not really understanding because they don't understand the coaching process yet. So thinking about those things when you're coming to these connections, these collaborative partnerships, as to why these behaviors might be happening. Also thinking about communication right now. So maybe there's a lot of anxiety or maybe we're not able to meet face-to-face with a coachee right now because of the pandemic, or vice versa. Maybe they're not comfortable with technology or sharing personal reflections on technology, on that platform, because they've never really had to do it before. So just kind of keep these things in mind. Rethink, maybe, how you might have to connect at a distance. Maybe hand-writing letters or creating a drop-off system somewhere if they're not comfortable using that technology platform. You kind of have the freedom to think outside the box. But can you kind of start to see how a person's thoughts or beliefs might impact their behavior or might impact their ability to be open to connecting in the collaborative partnership? How they might not seem engaged? But when we take that time to really try to get to know our coachees on an individual level as a person and think about those whys of the behavior. Don't be scared to ask questions if you're feeling a block, right?

Point out the behavior you notice. We teach teachers to do that with children all the time. So, for example, you might say something like, "You know what? I notice you haven't been as frequent in your responses to my e-mails, and I'm just checking in. Is everything OK? Is there anything I can help you to do to navigate all these changes we're going through right now?

Because I'm feeling it, too. I know it's really hard right now." So, in the Q&A, I just want to give you some time to share in the chat box. What are some ways that you're currently connecting with your coachees right now? And has it felt successful? And maybe, if – Maybe you're still processing this, and that's OK. Because I know there have been a lot of changes in our day-to- day. I see by e-mail, by Zoom. Asking questions. Some of you have been saying it feels very successful, reestablishing expectations through a virtual lens. Using eye contact, taking time to know their values, their beliefs. Virtual meetings, FaceTime. So, it sounds like a lot of you are feeling success using a virtual platform, and that's really great to hear. So, I think the big message when thinking about the collaborative partnership, and when it's strong and you are feeling connected with your coachee, the rest of the PBC cycle kind of falls into place. And then that's where we can see that change in our coaching, our coachees' outcomes, and this is why the collaborative partnership is so important.

So, now we want to think about this collaborative partnership in helping our coachees to build those connections with children and families. So, again, when those connections are strong, children and families are feeling safe, they're feeling connected. Children are then more open to learning those self-regulation skills, those friendship skills, those problem-solving skills where rather than engaging in challenging behavior, they're open to and available to learning those skills. For families, we always hear a lot about lack of engagement or connection in that way, but when families are open to the connection and we're helping our teachers to make those connections in an individualized way with each family they work with, then they start to see the teacher as a safe partner, as someone that they can trust, and then they're more likely to open up. And so by focusing on helping our coachees take that time to build those partnerships with every child and family, that's a way to prevent some of those – many of those challenging behaviors that teachers share with us. And I do want to say not all children and families will be easy to connect with. But by introducing certain practices into a coachee's toolbox for building connections, they're gonna be a lot more resilient to keep trying to build those connections with children and families that they're struggling with, and they're gonna be open to problem- solving with you on different ways of connecting to promote that engagement. So let's start by looking at the coachee-child relationship. So, we know that putting positive behavior supports in place will decrease the majority of challenging behaviors we see in the classroom. And again, it's not to say challenging behaviors never occur. Going back to Joyce's battery slide, which I love as a visual to check in for myself or to share with others to kind of see what's your status, children are human, too, and we all have our good days and our bad days. And we also know that young children are learning language, and they're learning skills and dealing with some emotions for the first time, so that's gonna happen. But it will go a long way.

We have some strategies that can help teachers go a long way in helping children to feel safe and connected so that they don't need to engage in those challenging behaviors. So, what are some of these strategies? Providing positive attention by playing with them, talking with them about their interests, responding to their initiations and cues. In an infant-toddler classroom, this might mean coaching teachers or responding to a child's nonverbal as well as verbal communication. In preschool, this might mean positively commenting on a child's use of self- regulation, saying, "Hey, I know that was really hard for you, but you stayed calm. I'm so proud of you for that." Helping children feel valued by following their ideas and interests. Keeping the environment feeling safe and predictable with consistent schedules and routines. And then if you're coaching teachers who are also working at a distance with families, because that might be happening, too, in helping them to use some of those family coaching practices to teach families how to use some of these practices with their children. And also very important – reminding teachers, the work we're talking about and going through in reflecting on our blocks and our thoughts and feelings and responses, that they feel triggered by a particular child or family's behavior. And, also, just the importance of having a consistent self-care routine in their life so that their battery remains more on the full side, so that when a behavior does occur, a trigger does pop up, they're able to regulate themselves in those moments and approach it in a calmer way and with that problem-solving mentality. So, Sarah will talk about it more, but we have linked in the resource handout, the Fostering Connections In-service Suite has a whole 'nother – more strategies like this that you can look into for really building those meaningful relationships with children. There's also a Teachers Fostering Connections with Infants and Toddlers poster and a You Know Your Child Best tip handout for family resources and for working with teachers who work with infants and toddlers. But I want to move on to talking about helping our coachees connect with families, as well.

So, just as our coachees have their own experience, their beliefs, their priorities and needs coming to the partnership, so do families, and we need to work with coachees to understand this point and to develop the skills that they need to work on building that safety and trust and connection in their interactions with families. So what are some of these practices? Well, some quick wins. One is I know a lot of our coachees work hard to keep families informed about program initiatives, what's happening in the classroom, celebrations of their child, but really helping them to think about asking families how they like to connect. Some might want that newsletter. Some might prefer a back-and-forth journal or a text or an e-mail. And helping your coachees to help really differentiate the ways that they connect with families. Another quick win would be using language that the family's comfortable with when sharing information. So this might mean an interpreter if the family speaks another language or taking time to explain any jargon the teacher might need to use when sharing information. And then checking in with families for feedback or giving them an opportunity to ask questions rather than just providing information, to kind of have that bi-directional communication happening. We could also work with coachees to build their active-listening skills, to actually work on hearing what individual caregivers' perspectives and beliefs are and learn to validate and empathize without always having to have a solution, because sometimes the things families share aren't – it isn't an easy solution, but in gaining – approaching it from that way and gaining that perspective, this can set the groundwork for inviting families to partner in the decision-making process regarding their child's outcomes or access to resources. For coachees working with children and families at a distance, again, I talked about this family coaching strategy. So, an example of a family coaching strategy might be providing positive descriptive feedback to a family who imitated their infant's sounds.

So, you as a coach … There are resources like the HOVRS or on the Pyramid Model website, they have the Edsby practices, and then there's the effective practices for the home-based ELOF, if you're looking for some of what those practices are to help your coachees with that. But you as a coach could support some of these interactions. If there's a virtual capacity, maybe you hop on a call where the coachee's meeting with a family so that you can do your focus observation that way and provide feedback. For families that might not have access to technology, maybe you help the coachee plan out some – what they're gonna say over a phone call or to role-play with you a discussion that they might have with a family if they're able to do it face-to-face or in another way. So, before I push it back over to Sarah now, I just want to share a really great resource for you. If you're looking for specific relationship practices that you could work with your coachee in an action plan for building relationships with families, the Relationship-Based Competencies are really amazing. There are many versions. They target different levels, because we've talked about that parallel process. So there are Relationship Competencies at the program level, things that coachees can look at in their own practice. If you are an external coach, you can support your programs by looking at these competencies when planning to make sure that they're being responsive and relationship-based when planning initiatives in the programs for family engagement and for the children in their communities. So, I'm going to now hand it over to Sarah to share some more resources.

Sarah Basler: All right, thanks, Ashley. So, we just wanted to share a few additional resources that you can use to support coachees with behavior management. And these resources that I'm about to mention are included in the resource widget of this webinar. So, it's really important that you stay informed during this time, and we have a role in doing that. And so, if you aren't already aware, there is a page on the ECLKC, where you can find COVID information. And this page is updated quite frequently, so be sure to check it often so you can get the most up-to- date resources. And there's a link on this slide as well as in the resource widget, so be sure to share this information. You can share this with coachees or with families. And another great place to stay informed is visiting the CDC website for the latest COVID information and happenings within your region, because we know that things change daily. All right. So, another great place to find resources that support positive behaviors is in the Effects of Trauma and Managing Challenging Behavior page on the ECLKC. And there's tons of resources here. We know that children who are exposed to trauma, much like they might be experiencing now with the pandemic or being home or experiencing different things, not being in the center or maybe home visits aren't happening right now, can have a considerable reaction that can interfere with learning and their behavior. So, you may have coachees that need support in finding resources related to trauma. So, the ECLKC offers a variety of resources on specific topics, like you can see in each of the little squares are some of the topics that are covered within this page, like responding to your child's behavior, resources around biting, strategies for understanding and managing challenging behavior, and what is developmentally appropriate and when you should be concerned, social emotional development and challenging behaviors, and eliminating expulsion in early childhood programs as well as prevention strategies. So, there's a wealth of information here. You can find the link within our resource page included in this webinar. And then, we'd also like to share with you the ECLKC's "Head Start Heals" campaign. This page is on the ECLKC, and there are many resources here that you might find useful. So, the goal of this campaign is to really increase your awareness about how Head Start is uniquely qualified to address trauma and promote resilience of children and families. So, this page includes information on the basics of trauma, what it means to have a trauma-informed care approach, and how trauma intersects with topics such as mental health, substance abuse, domestic violence, and child welfare. So, Head Start Heals really focuses on healing and addressing topics such as resilience and recovery, and these resources shared through the campaign, you can see in the squares. You can find resources for promoting empathy and understanding trauma, substance abuse. There's toxic stress, mental health consultation. So, a variety of information for you there.

As Ashley mentioned, we often talk about the In-Service Suites as a resource that you might – that a coach might share with a coachee to build their knowledge around certain practices. But it's also – these In-Service Suites are also a great PD for you as a coach. So, depending on what your coaching focus is, because of some of the interruption in the school year, because of the pandemic, it has caused some disruptions in how we coach. It might mean that you have a little bit more time to focus on your own PD. So, as we're all kind of navigating this new normal, you might find that you just need to focus on your own PD or giving coachees ideas for how they can increase their information. So, we've included in the resource widget a crosswalk of the 15- minute In-Service Suites and class. And we've also included the crosswalk and the In-Service Suites with a quick reference guide for you to identify In-Service Suites that might help you support a coachee's specific needs. And there's great resources in there. There's “Behavior Has Meaning” In-Service Suite, the Fostering Connections. So, hopefully you find these helpful. Now we're gonna talk about some resources that you can find on the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations. So, this resource right here is the “Routine Based Support Guide.” And it was developed to – it's an oldie but goodie. So, you'll notice that the graphics are kind of old, but it's a wonderful resource to help education staff problem-solve and plan for how to support children who might be demonstrating some challenging behavior. So, this guide is organized by common routines and activities that you would find in a typically occurring early childhood program or environment. This resource could be really helpful for a coach to help the coachee determine the function of the behavior or the why the behavior might be happening and walk through finding ways that the behavior could be prevented and how to address the behavior if it occurs and some skills to teach to replace the behavior if it continues to happen. So, within the guide, you'll see that the first column is a routine, and it's titled "Why My Child Might Be Doing This," and this gives ideas that will assist staff in thinking about what the child is trying to communicate, because we know that behavior communicates something to us. And then there's ideas that will assist staff in thinking about what the child is trying to communicate.

Once they have identified what the child might be trying to communicate, the function of the behavior, you can proceed to develop a plan and then find strategies to prevent and then think about how to teach new skills.

This resource is set up the same way, except this is the “Family Routine Guide,” and it's developed to do the same, but with parents and caregivers. And so, you'll notice the difference in this guide is simply that the activities and routines are more based in the home. So, it's going to be very similar to the resource the “Routine Based Support Guide.” This will just be more focused on activities or routines that might happen in the household. This could be used for a home visitor with families. It could be used for a coach who coaches home visitors. So, it's just a great resource to kind of have in your back pocket so you can kind of identify some of the behaviors that might be popping up in the home. Let's see. All right. So, this – there are tons of resources on the NCPMI website that can help with addressing challenging behavior. I wanted to point out one that really directly relates to the topics that we're talking about today, and that's the "Tips for Responding to Challenging Behavior in Young Children.' So, this resource has several strategies that you can share with coachees to use when responding to challenging behaviors. So, these should always be used in combination of trying to teach children skills. If we're constantly responding to the behavior, we're only going to continue to see the behavior. So, we want to respond to challenging behavior, but we'll also want to teach children new skills. But this handout is great for giving you some strategies to try when challenging behavior occurs because challenging behavior is going to occur. It's inevitable. So, it can be used by coaches to share with coachees. And then the website has a wealth of resources. There's infographics, visual support, social stories. There's tons of family resources that you could – a coachee can share with families, a home visitor can share with families. And a lot of the resources are available in English and Spanish. So, that is a really great website. We also want to talk about the importance of ensuring children with disabilities or suspected delays receive the support that they need, so whether that's virtual or in-person. The Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children has many great resources like this one that we're highlighting here. "Challenging Behaviors: Why Shouldn't We Expect Kids to Self-Regulate Too Soon." You could give this to coachees. You could also use this resource to educate yourself. This page also includes lots of handouts that you might find helpful, blogs, recorded webinars. And that link is included in your resource widget. All right. So, we also would like to highlight that NAEYC offers a variety of resources that you could use to build your own capacity as a coach or that you can share with coachees. They have lots of articles on social and emotional development, on guidance, behavior and development, and relationships. So, that's a great place to find information to educate yourself or coachees.

OK, so, we've got just a few minutes. I'm gonna open it up to take a few questions that you may have, so if you have any questions that maybe we didn't get a chance to answer, feel free to type that in the Q&A box. We've given you lots of resources and information today, but if there's any burning questions you have before we sign off, feel free to ask those now. Let's see. Pulling up my chat right now. Oh, let me see. There's a lag. We're getting lots of thank yous for the resources. You're welcome! Enjoy. There is a wealth of information out there. We just have to know where to find it. Rachel asks, "Are the resources for teachers to use in the classroom on the NCPMI website?" Yes. So, there are resources that could be helpful for teachers. There are resources that are also helpful for coaches, as well. There's lots of family resources. I would recommend going and just kind of taking a look, because there's all kinds of visuals that teachers could use in their class, visuals that you can use at home. I know that during this time, while my son has been here, I have printed out some of the visuals and used them myself here. I've got a question. "How can we help parents who are having a hard time with their children at home since we are working with them virtually?" That resource that I shared, the “Family Based Routine Guide,” would be a nice place to start. I mean, obviously, you want to connect with parents, find out what it is that's going on at home, and taking a look at that resource – Those resources are quite large. It's like a manual, but it's very in-depth, so take a look if some of the behaviors that the parents are saying that children are exhibiting, you might find some prevention strategies or ideas for ways to teach children some things that might be happening at home that typically wouldn't happen at school or in a different environment. OK. Courtney says, and this is the last one I'm gonna take because I want to make sure that I get the link out to you, "As a coach, I'm told not to be a behavioral consultant, but that is what I get asked about most. I often find practices to coach on using behavior as my foot in the door. Any suggestions on how I advocate for this in my agency?" So ... My response to this would be that you might want to partner with your behavioral consultant within your agency so that your behavioral consultant could certainly give you some ideas. But I think it's also just part of what we deal with as a coach. I have never coached in an environment where there wasn't some challenging behavior or perceived challenging behavior. So I think that partnering with your behavior consultant and getting ideas that you can share so you're talking the same language with the teacher is helpful. And then just, also, having some practices that align with maybe the focus of coaching. So, we know that challenging behavior is likely not going to be your focus of coaching. It could be that you're coaching on class practices or teapot practices. So maybe finding ways where you can integrate some of those strategies and get some foundational practices within the classroom. All right. So ... Thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks so much!