Early Childhood Social-Emotional Development Program

2 preschool boys

In September 2005, the Wyoming Developmental Disabilities Division and CDS launched a pilot program on early childhood mental health. The primary goal of this effort is to develop a system of service provision in Wyoming that meets the social and emotional needs of preschool children and their families.

smiling girl

Over the past several years, social-emotional issues associated with infants and preschool children have become more evident nation-wide, including Wyoming. Expulsions from child care and preschool due to behavioral problems have been increasing, and extensive research demonstrates that the lack of appropriate attention adversely affects the misbehaving child as well as all of the other infants and preschoolers in the class. These studies also indicate that timely interventions convey a lifetime of benefits to the child, family and community. The stakes are high in providing effective social-emotional services early in life.

The developmental preschools are playing the key role in the creation of a statewide mental health system for young children in Wyoming. Since 2005, the Division and CDS have retained the Youth Consultation Service Institute for Infant and Preschool Mental Health (YCS) in New Jersey to provide extensive training and technical assistance in early childhood social-emotional development to professional developmental preschool personnel. Several mental health clinicians are also involved in this advanced instruction.

Armed with this additional knowledge, the preschool professionals and licensed clinicians then offer training in social-emotional development to thousands of early childhood frontline services providers throughout the state. The training regimen consists of 14 modules that require approximately 35 hours of instruction. The trainers also provide technical assistance and reflective supervision to the frontline child care workers and preschool teachers in integrating the training into their classroom settings and dealing with specific behavioral issues.

The fundamental principle of the program is to convey the level of behavioral intervention that the infant or preschooler requires. In most instances, this consists of basic interventions within the context of the classroom. However, if more extensive interventions are required, the child and family can receive social-emotional services through the developmental preschools, or in the most severe cares, get formal pediatric mental health therapy through one of the clinicians participating in the program.

By the summer of 2008, 22 developmental preschool professionals and 33 mental health clinicians were actively participating in the program, most of them full time. An appropriation of state funds by the 2007 legislature is supporting much of their salaries, and grants from the Division, John P. Ellbogen Foundation and the McMurry Foundation are covering the costs of YCS’ training.

The grants are also underwriting the efforts of the University of Wyoming’s College of Education in developing post-graduate certificate programs in early childhood social-emotional development and pediatric mental health. Due to be launched in the fall semester of 2009, these certificate programs will replace YCS’ training and establish the capacity of Wyoming to sustain its pediatric mental health system financially and academically.