Identifying Common Practice Elements to Improve Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Outcomes of Young Children in Early Childhood Classrooms

Abstract

Educators are increasingly being encouraged to implement evidence-based interventions and practices to address the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of young children who exhibit problem behavior in early childhood settings. Given the nature of social-emotional learning during the early childhood years and the lack of a common set of core evidence-based practices within the early childhood literature, selection of instructional practices that foster positive social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes for children in early childhood settings can be difficult. The purpose of this paper is to report findings from a study designed to identify common practice elements found in comprehensive intervention models (i.e., manualized interventions that include a number of components) or discrete practices (i.e., a specific behavior or action) designed to target social, emotional, and behavioral learning of young children who exhibit problem behavior. We conducted a systematic review of early childhood classroom interventions that had been evaluated in randomized group designs, quasi-experimental designs, and single-case experimental designs. A total of 49 published articles were identified, and an iterative process was used to identify common practice elements. The practice elements were subsequently reviewed by experts in social-emotional and behavioral interventions for young children. Twenty-four practice elements were identified and classified into content (the goal or general principle that guides a practice element) and delivery (the way in which a teacher provides instruction to the child) categories. We discuss implications that the identification of these practice elements found in the early childhood literature has for efforts to implement models and practices.

The Irie Classroom Toolbox: developing a violence prevention, preschool teacher training program using evidence, theory, and practice

“…The key features of the intervention are: (1) it was developed with close participation of Jamaican preschool teachers and incorporates teachers’ preferred behavior management strategies and preferred training methodologies; (2) it is theory‐informed with a clear theory of change; and (3) it was designed to be feasible in low‐resource contexts. As the toolbox was developed by integrating teacher and facilitator perspectives with theory, it is grounded in the common core elements of evidence‐based behavior management programs and uses evidence‐based behavior change techniques in training …”

“…As the toolbox was developed by integrating teacher and facilitator perspectives with theory, it is grounded in the common core elements of evidence-based behavior management programs and uses evidence-based behavior change techniques in training. [24][25][26] Although the toolbox includes a wide range of strategies, a selection of core behavior management practices is packaged into chunks to form five key components, which are repeated and reinforced throughout the intervention. This is aligned to the "seven, plus or minus two" rule of psychology and helps prevent teachers from being overloaded with information.…”

Elementary school teachers’ preferences for school‐based interventions for students with emotional and behavioral problems

“…With a multitiered system of support, general education elementary teachers are encouraged to apply universal strategies with all children. Effective universal classroom management practices include the consistent use of rules, expectations, and procedures, opportunities to respond, labeled praise, acknowledgment and response to rule violations, and token economies throughout the school day (McLeod et al, ; Simonsen, Fairbanks, Briesch, Myers, & Sugai, ). Social and emotional learning (SEL) programs are also applied universally and designed to improve the skills of students who struggle to meet social and behavioral expectations.…”

Adaptation and implementation of the German social–emotional learning programme Papilio in Finland: A pilot study

“…A recent review suggests that although Finnish educators are using different materials and methods to support children's social–emotional competences, the use of evidence‐based intervention programmes is infrequent and inconsistent (Määttä et al, ). Problems with emotion and behaviour regulation are relatively common in early childhood (McLeod et al, ), with a prevalence of 10–20% (Kato, Yanagawa, Fujiwara, & Morawska, ; Pihlaja, Sarlin, & Ristkari, ). The concept social–emotional competence involves both intrapersonal and interpersonal skills (e.g., self‐awareness, self‐management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision‐making), and children need guidance, teaching and modelling to learn and practice these skills (Weissberg, Durlak, Domitrovich, & Gullotta, ).…”

“…Teachers are encouraged to implement evidence‐based intervention programmes specifically designed to support children's social–emotional learning and development in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Such interventions can prevent long‐term academic and behavioural problems as well as address existing ones (McLeod et al, ).…”