Directions: Use this tool to help you become more aware of effective strategies that prevent challenging behavior and support positive social and emotional skills. Review and complete the checklist with a trainer, coach, or administrator who can support your professional development.

Preschool Classroom

Nurturing and Responsive Relationships

Creating a Caring Classroom Community

• Teach children to support one another through helping, inviting others to play, celebrating accomplishments, and giving compliments.
• Create a classroom environment where children and families feel welcomed, safe, and valued (e.g., reflecting children’s home lives and traditions).
• Provide opportunities for children to be leaders and help their peers.
• Display artwork from each child in the classroom.
• Include family photos, projects, and materials made by families to represent them in the classroom.
• Invite families and children to participate in decision-making related to the classroom community.
• Use knowledge about individual children and families to inform activity planning.
• Show appreciation and gratitude to children and families.

Relationships With Children

• Greet each child warmly on arrival.
• Use children’s preferred names throughout the day.
• Use a positive and supportive tone of voice.
• Show respect and warmth to all children.
• Speak to children who are dual language learners with key words from their home language.

Positive Attention

• Frequently comment on appropriate behaviors.
• Use specific, positive feedback for children’s efforts, skills, and engagement.
• Use forms of acknowledgment that are individualized to children, including use of nonverbal cues of appreciation (e.g., smile, thumbs up, pat on the back).
• Build positive interactions with children into daily routines (e.g., arrival, meals, departure).

Supportive Conversations

• Reflect and expand on what children communicate.
• Ask questions, make comments, and encourage turn-taking in conversations.
• Join play and discuss children’s interests.
• Use visual, verbal, or alternative strategies for non-verbal or dual language learners.
• Respond to children’s-initiated conversations with empathy and support.

Relationships Among Children

• Facilitate positive peer interactions during daily routines (e.g. arrival, meals, departure).
• Support and extend play by offering ideas and making connections between children.

Relationships With Families

• Treat all families with respect and understanding, recognizing their unique backgrounds and experiences.
• Build relationships with families using a variety of strategies.
• Offer a variety of ways for families to engage and participate in the classroom.
• Communicate in families’ preferred languages using personalized methods.
• Foster two-way communication and celebrate children's progress.
• Partner with families to support children’s social-emotional development at home.
• Provide information and community resources related to social emotional development.

Relationships With Colleagues

• Interact with colleagues using positive, supportive tones.
• Create opportunities to get to know staff.
• Greet all classroom visitors and colleagues and involve them in welcoming children.
• Share positive feedback with colleagues and model collaboration for children.
• Communicate about children’s progress and collaborate regularly with other service providers.

High-Quality, Supportive Environments

Schedules, Routines, Transitions, and Teaching

• Create and display predictable schedules with visuals.
• Use consistent routines and flexible strategies for all learners.
• Include a balance of teacher-directed and child-led activities.
• Remind the children of the classroom schedule throughout the day.
• Modify instructions and materials to meet children’s individual needs.
• Minimize transitions and embed learning across the day.
• Provide warnings or cues before transitions occur.
• Use transition strategies to keep children engaged while waiting.
• Provide opportunities for children to make choices throughout the day. Use clear, simple, and specific directions.
• Tell children what to do rather than what not to do.
• Review and teach behavior expectations regularly.
• Identify a small number or rules for the classroom.
• Give descriptive feedback linked to behavior expectations.

Teaching Social-Emotional Skills

Friendship Skills and Emotional Literacy

• Teach and model friendship and empathy.
• Plan and arrange classroom activities and materials to encourage social interaction.
• Encourage children to work together and help each other. Teach emotional vocabulary and expression using developmentally appropriate methods.
• Model and label your own emotions and appropriate ways to express emotions.
• Label children’s emotions.
• Point out facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, or words that will help children understand how others might be feeling.
• Support self-regulation and provide a variety of calm-down strategies.
• Teach children to identify problems and try out a variety of solutions.
• Teach children the steps for solving social problems.
• Use visuals and role-play to teach problem-solving.
• Identify social emotional learning goals for each child.
• Teach social emotional skills naturally and throughout the day.
• Provide individualized support for social-emotional growth.

Addressing Challenging Behavior

Challenging Behavior, Responses, & Behavior Support

• Collect data to identify and understand behavior patterns.
• Identify possible functions of children’s behavior.
• Respond with developmentally appropriate guidance strategies.
• Give positive directions and clear expectations for behavior.
• Provide positive feedback when children are engaging in appropriate behaviors.
• Help children identify their feelings and offer strategies to calm down.
• Remain calm and prioritize safety during escalation.
• Participate in Functional Behavior Assessments (FBA).
• Collaborate with families and team members on behavior support plans.
• Incorporate family beliefs and goals in planning strategies.
• Participate as an active member of the behavior support team.
• Implement the behavior support plan as written.
• Collect data to monitor children’s progress and the effectiveness of the plan.

Source:

National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations. (n.d.). Pyramid model practices implementation checklist for preschool (2–5 years) classrooms. https://challengingbehavior.org/docs/Pyramid-Practices-Checklist.pdf