Supporting young children and their social-emotional development is an incredible responsibility. Teachers, caregivers, and families must work together to provide quality care for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. While young children develop their social-emotional skills in ordinary ways, it’s helpful for the adults in their lives to have a framework to help support growth and development.
The Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA) Program is a resilience-focused, strength-based system designed to support the social-emotional development of young children. The program’s five-step approach provides teachers and caregivers with a framework for screening, assessing, and planning. This three-part training will provide participants with an overview of the DECA Program, including strategies to support children, enhance the quality of early childhood programs, partner with parents/families, and to promote their own resilience and well-being.
This training is appropriate for those who work with just infants/toddlers, just preschoolers, and for those who work with children birth to 5 years old.
During Session 1, participants will:
- Explore risk factors, protective factors, and resilience
- Learn about the DECA and within-child protective factors
- Learn about step 1 of the DECA Program: Collecting information on individual children and the classroom/group, and using the Reflective Checklists
During Session 2, participants will:
- Learn about step 2 of the DECA Program: Administering the DECA and understanding results
- Learn about step 3 of the DECA Program: Gathering data generated to prepare for the planning process for classrooms/groups and for partnering with families
- Explore the DECA online platform (report generation, accessing strategies, and more)
During Session 3, participants will:
- Learn about step 4 of the DECA Program: Planning universally for all children and creating targeted plans in classrooms/groups and with families for children with needs
- Learn about step 5 of the DECA Program: Using data to evaluate progress
- Review concepts of adult resilience through the examination of the Devereux Adult Resilience Survey (DARS) and strategies for promoting the resilience of adults who work with young children
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