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Intervention resources for children who need basic needs met

  • 1.  Intervention resources for children who need basic needs met

    Posted 12-18-2020 01:25 PM

    Hi everyone,

    I am trying to find a resource(s) to decide on what kind of interventions to use for a student. We have determined that the child's basic needs for proper sleep, intimacy, feeling safe, and sense of connection are not being met at home. So far, we have been trying to get this child to understand that we can't help  if we have no idea what he is feeling or what isn't right in the child's world. We have been using Second Step lessons to introduce feelings and how they are felt and expressed through our body, the use of breathing techniques, and trying to help the child work through anger, aggression, and outbursts. We have been patient and nurturing to the child, even when the child is hurting others. We have sent home information to the family on the appropriate amount of sleep for preschoolers. I will do a parent meeting in January on the topic of the importance of structure and routine.

    Does anyone have any resources to help us further work through these needs that aren't being met?



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    Sue Miller
    team leader
    Child Development Center
    Remsen IA
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  • 2.  RE: Intervention resources for children who need basic needs met

    Posted 12-19-2020 08:58 AM

    Sue, you describe this child's need very well. Developmental science suggests that the child will need a caregiver who has proven herself to be safe: never angry or impatient, always calming. Something described in research articles as a synchronous caregiver who calmly reinforces a child to pay attention to consequences without being afraid. 



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    Jack Wright
    Child Development Consultant
    Success With Children
    St Ignatius MT
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  • 3.  RE: Intervention resources for children who need basic needs met

    Posted 12-20-2020 01:49 AM

    Hi Sue,

    It sounds like a mental health professional could be helpful to work with the child and there are several funding sources for it. I notice there are several centers that are in your area. All the best with this and sorry to hear. My background is in this area so feel free to run this by me offline if you wish. 



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    Scott Mesh, PhD, CEO
    Los Niños Services (NYC) www.losninos.com
    Los Niños Training, www.youngchildexpo.com
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  • 4.  RE: Intervention resources for children who need basic needs met

    Posted 12-20-2020 02:44 PM

    Sue,

    Many years ago as a pre-school teacher I had a difficult child who was hyperactive and kept the parents completely clueless as to his behavior.  I remember the father, who was a minister, once telling me that sometimes families have a child that parents are psychologically and  temperamentally mismatched and unequipped to deal with.

    The first recommendation is that there must be a good relationship between the teacher and parents.  Letting the parents take the lead and listening is a must. Most parents want what is best for their children whether it meets our expectations or values. 

    Here is a suggestion that seems to work with some explosive and difficult children.  This strategy  is to associate "color zones" with feelings- blue=sad, red=angry, green= good and ready to work (learn), etc.  Colors can be selected and tailored by the child.  Other ideas for emotions and colors include: fear, frustration, tired, etc. 

    I hope this one idea can help.

    Carolyn Newman, Ph. D.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Professor Early Childhood Education



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    CAROLYN NEWMAN
    Professor
    New Mexico Highlands University (retired)
    Santa Fe NM
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  • 5.  RE: Intervention resources for children who need basic needs met

    Posted 12-21-2020 08:56 AM

    I agree with others about the need for the child to feel safe and a having a loving relationship with the caregiver. We have let pre-school children go back to sleep after they arrive at school. If they are too tired to control their emotions, and/or learn, a nap might help. They can join the group when they are ready.

    This is something within your control while you work with parents on developing a home routine. Remember to listen to the parent when you discuss this. They maybe doubled up in someone else's home, the child may be put to bed, but outside influences may not let them sleep. No private bedroom, loud environment, distractions, etc. Work through possible problems as a team with the parent: caffeine? chocolate? too much screen time before bed? tv/tablet in their room?



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    Trudy Eby
    Early Literacy Specialist
    School District of Lancaster
    Lancaster PA
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  • 6.  RE: Intervention resources for children who need basic needs met

    Posted 12-21-2020 09:18 AM

    Hi Sue,

        This can be challenging in a classroom especially with so many changes occurring this year already (in and outside the home). When doing the parent-teacher conferences I always grabbed points of an article or research to help clearly deliver a message on the topic I was addressing. A couple of things I found on the NAEYC website helped me, and will hopefully help you as you search for supports. 

    This first resource, I took the Powerful Interactions training and this article sums up the power of "Being present, connecting and extending" I provide this in a chance that it will help build relationships that the child can feel secure in and then once secure and safe extend language or comfort in their learning/home environment. 

    https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/tyc/aug2018/promoting-powerful-interactions

    The second resource I found is mainly geared towards sleep, I would pose prompts or questions for the family so you can get more information to decide how the information for proper sleep and the child's experiences align. 

    https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/encouraging-healthy-sleep-habits 

    Last but not least, I'm a huge visuals person; i.e taking the child's own pictures of different emotions, strategies for breathing, and family photos can help comfort a child, keeping a journal of things they have accomplished or are proud of etc. I hope this helps a bit! And just as you are giving the child breathing techniques don't forget to breathe yourself :-) 



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    Mary Samour
    Online Community Manager
    National Association for the Education of Young Children
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  • 7.  RE: Intervention resources for children who need basic needs met

    Posted 12-22-2020 03:36 PM

    Hello Sue,

    Through my experience teaching in Chicago, we frequently worked with student's whose basic needs were not met at home, and oftentimes my students did not have a home.  In these situations, we need to realize that what happens outside of school is quite often out of our control.  As scary or frustrating as that may be for us as adults, it sounds like you are truly empathizing with your kiddo in just how overwhelming their world could feel like right now. Second Step is a fantastic tool for teaching the social emotional aspect of education, and may help give language to the feelings they experience.

    In order to make the world (aka your classroom) feel safer, more predictable, and give them time to rest their amygdala a break, I would encourage you to look into CHAMPS as a positive behavior support for classroom management. CHAMPS can lend insight to strategies for you to design every aspect of your classroom to support the various needs of your children in general, and in doing so, support the one who likely needs the support the most.  There are resources within the book/trainings/website, that you can start with in supporting your kiddo who most needs the support, and work backwards to see how you can wrap the support around him throughout your current classroom management strategies.  What's great about CHAMPS is that you don't have to use everything the book provides to get what you're looking for...it's pretty exhaustive, and you likely only need every aspect when you have an extremely high needs student population (self-contained/therapeutic classroom)...which means, you only need one book to get most of the help you need.

    Best wishes, 



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    Maria Jordan
    ECSE Teacher
    Nippersink School District 2
    Cary IL
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  • 8.  RE: Intervention resources for children who need basic needs met

    Posted 12-22-2020 04:42 PM

    Maria Jordan, CHAMPS sounds like an awesome resource. When I Googled it I got mostly sports oriented responses. Except for this one. Is this the agency you were referring to? Community Health Assoc. of Mountain Plains States 

    Please and thank you



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    Trudy Eby
    Early Literacy Specialist
    School District of Lancaster
    Lancaster PA
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  • 9.  RE: Intervention resources for children who need basic needs met

    Posted 12-23-2020 11:55 AM

    Safe and Civil Schools: https://www.safeandcivilschools.com/services/classroom_management.php

    Training Videos: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb7wzqvUjI5PSdbBLu9EN0Les46rke1N4



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    Maria Jordan, M.A. ECSE, LBS1, ESL-SE
    ECSE Teacher
    Cary IL
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  • 10.  RE: Intervention resources for children who need basic needs met

    Posted 12-28-2020 10:53 PM

    I looked up CHAMPS and it is PBIS which we also already use in our classroom. I have also used some of the Character Counts initiative from the state of Iowa discussing being trustworthy, respect, responsibility and fairness. I am going to do a parent meeting in January on the importance of routine  for young children. I am hoping that this will help this parent to understand the importance for making sure that some semblance of routine is enforced and that bedtime routines are extremely important. if the other children in the house wake this child, mom states he refuses to go back to bed. Therefore, he comes to us tired and irritable. I know it is not the child's fault and I am not blaming the parent either, but someone needs to take the adult role. I had a child that didn't need much sleep and would find him awake and playing on the floor by the street light outside. I would put him back in bed and lay down with him if necessary. It is just that we need to help the family at this time as well as the child. I thank everyone for the advice and suggestions.

    I have our local area education agency getting on board for this child but with all the new changes in the referral processes, the education specialists are now requiring us to come up with interventions to do with these children. That's what we had these specialists for in the past and they have to have data on how the interventions are working or not working. It places a lot more responsibility on general ed teachers to come up with these interventions when it deals with academics, let alone dealing with social/emotional/mental health issues. I was just trying to find some intervention suggestions to start using with this child other than what we have already done. I will go back to your posts and try some of the suggestions that you have all made to me. Thank you again.



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    Sue Miller
    team leader
    Child Development Center
    Remsen IA
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  • 11.  RE: Intervention resources for children who need basic needs met

    Posted 12-23-2020 08:40 AM

    Also, I love Becky Bailey's Conscious Discipline. Her keynotes are fabulous and there are many offerings including virtual recorded webinars, consultation virtually, books, and her approach is very loving and SEL (social emotional learning) based  https://consciousdiscipline.com/  which I think can really support children who don't have enough love/social support/nurturing from home.



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    Scott Mesh, PhD, CEO
    Los Niños Services (NYC) www.losninos.com
    Los Niños Training, www.youngchildexpo.com
    ------------------------------