This article reviews eight comprehensive social—emotional curricula for children under 6 years of age and describes two promising curricula currently under investigation. These programs have been successful in the promotion of interpersonal skills and the reduction or prevention of challenging behavior for a wide range of children. Particular attention is paid to the level of evidence or scientific believability associated with criteria that reflect efficacious adoption of curricula. Areas for future research are discussed.
Teaching is regarded as one of the most challenging yet rewarding professions. Moreover, research has shown that stress and burnout are likely to undermine teacher effectiveness and negatively impact their willingness and intentions to implement evidence-based practices. The present study sought to contribute to a growing body of research implicating the importance of teacher well-being by evaluating the efficacy of a theoretically based training that integrates several practices into a single program (e.g., mindfulness, values clarification, gratitude practices, sleep hygiene, etc.) that are designed to promote the well-being of teachers-the ACHIEVER Resilience Curriculum (ARC). To evaluate the ARC, a randomized block controlled study was conducted with pre-post measurement. Results from the study indicated that, compared with an active control group, teachers who participated in the ARC experienced significantly better outcomes, characterized by medium effect sizes, including reductions in job-related stress, improvements in teaching self-efficacy, and stronger intentions to implement evidence-based classroom practices. The implications of these findings for teacher preparation and professional development, along with the limitations of the study, are discussed. C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A lthough in the last 20 years much progress has been made on understanding the challenging behaviors of young children and providing effective prevention and intervention, it is not at all certain that recommended practices have been widely adopted across early care and education programs. In this article, the authors argue that a major impediment to widespread use of recommended practices is a variety of supervisory issues, including the fact that direct service staff members often feel overwhelmed, overworked, and disrespected. To address these issues, the authors offer a set of strategies leading to what they call engaged supervision.
Children's problem-solving skills represent a key feature in the development of social competence (Denham et al., 2003;Goleman, 1994;Webster-Stratton, 1999). The power of problem-solving skills lies in three areas. First, these skills travel well with children. They can be used in any social situation to resolve any number of social dilemmas. Second, these skills are an excellent vehicle for preventing challenging behavior. Third, problem-solving skills allow children to quickly repair breaches in their relationships with peers. For example, breaches are occasioned by typical squabbles about toys, materials, turn taking, and so on.We also know a great deal about children who do not acquire problem-solving skills in the early childhood years. For example, we know that
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