New Statewide Programming Now Available for Teachers and Families in Infant and Early Childhood Facilities Across Wyoming
Author: Martha Nesslinger
Young children have mental health needs, which means there is a need to support the people who care for those children. Early childhood professionals, educators, and staff are often the ones who are the first to notice mental health struggles for families and their children. There is a need to support the mental health of these children, which means there needs to be support for the professionals and the parents who work within the early childhood services provided in Wyoming.
Programs like this have been implemented in more populated areas with significant improvement in children’s behaviors, eliminating the need for expulsion from early childhood programs and strengthening the network that supports children in the developmentally challenging early years. Supporting families and children when the children are still very young has shown great improvement in children’s functioning as they mature and has increased their ability to stay in and succeed in the academic setting.
Each child develops in many ways, with social and emotional development being an important piece as young children grow. Yet some children may struggle with their social and emotional development. When this happens it's up to the teachers, staff, families, and other early childhood educators to help that child find success, minimizing suspensions or expulsions. This is where we come in. Wyoming has a new program bringing access to more support for early childhood education centers, daycares, and preschools across Wyoming. We are here to work alongside children, early childhood educators and the families. We are the Wyoming Early Childhood Behavioral Consultants (WYECBC).
Our Early Childhood Behavioral Consultant team are professionals who can provide consultation services to staff, teachers, and families. This allows each center to have access and support so that each child can have the best social and emotional engagement and growth. We will provide training to staff, support to teachers and parents and we will be sharing with you information for supporting children in mental health best practices.
Programs like this have been implemented in more populated areas. Yet we know we live in a rural state. This is why we are building a pilot program for Wyoming, allowing us to use evidence-based skills and find ways to bring them to each of you across our beautiful state. Our team consists of counselors and early childhood specialists who will partner and support to build this program.
This is not classroom management, nor is it therapy. Instead, we will listen to the educators and parents, consult on best practices, give ideas and support for any situation and help develop active plans for positive growth and change in the environment where the children are functioning every day.
So, if you have a child in an early childhood classroom you are struggling with, reach out. We will help you find the best solution to create the most successful outcome for all involved. We are excited to partner with each of you. We look forward to sharing more about our program and how we can support you as early childhood educators and caregivers. Keep an eye out on this page; we have so much more to share with you! We will provide updates and information pages as the months go on offering ideas for such topics as supporting children with attention issues without medication in the classroom, helping teach personal regulation skills and minimizing classroom disruption, supporting teachers and families with trauma influenced behaviors in young children and many more topics.
