Investing in the Early Childhood Mental Health Workforce Development: Enhancing Professionals' Competencies to Support Emotion and Behavior Regulation in Young Children.

Shulamit Ritblatt,Charles Van Liew,Audrey Hokoda

doi:10.3390/brainsci7090120

Shulamit Ritblatt, Charles Van Liew + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci7090120

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Abstract

This paper delineates a preventive approach to early childhood mental health by preparing the workforce to provide relational, sensitive care to young children ages 0–5. One of the most prevalent issues in early childhood is behavioral challenges and the inability of young children to regulate themselves. This leads to an expulsion rate in early childhood (3–4 times higher than K-12 expulsion rate) and future mental health issues. The Early Childhood Social-Emotional and Behavior Regulation Intervention Specialist (EC-SEBRIS) graduate level certificate program was created to strengthen early care and education providers with the knowledge and practice of how to support emotion and behavior regulation in young children in their groups. Evaluation data provide evidence that early care and education professionals increased in their perception of self-efficacy and in their sensitivity of care and skills to support behavioral health in young children. Results indicated that the children in their care showed less challenging behaviors and increased social competencies. This manuscript highlights the importance of prevention and the dire need to provide young children with high-quality, appropriate care to support their mental health.

Highlights

There are nearly 11 million children under the age of five in the USA whose parents are working while other adults care for them
Behavioral challenges occur often in classrooms, lead to high preschool expulsion rates, and can lead to long-term mental health problems. This primary prevention approach targets children and their families before an intervention is needed as it equips ECE professionals who work with young children on a daily basis with the skills and competencies to support children’s healthy development, address problem behaviors on-site, and provide them with a safe, familiar adult who is able to “contain” their frustrations and temperaments and help them learn effective coping skills to handle stress
The EC-SEBRIS program presented above was designed to prepare a workforce of early childhood professionals to provide sensitive relational care and to address early mental health problems with behavior and emotional regulation

Summary

Introduction

There are nearly 11 million children under the age of five in the USA whose parents are working while other adults care for them. These children spend an average of 36 h a week in child care and. Serious problems in early childhood include behavioral challenges and the inability to regulate emotions These behavioral challenges (e.g., aggression, poor self-control, noncompliance, and difficulties socializing with peers) occur in the classrooms of young children once every six minutes [3], and lead to an expulsion rate in preschool settings three to four times higher than K-12 expulsion rates [4,5]. Poor emotion regulation is associated with depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder [9,10,11], sexual promiscuity [12], and physical health

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