I provide ongoing consulting to childcare programs to help teachers support young children’s self regulation skills, emotional connections, and learning capacity. Consulting can be ‘one-shot-deals’ (half day, full day, or week long intensives), short-term (6-12 weeks), or ongoing (annual contract) to help programs and teachers solve problems around challenging behavior or chaotic classrooms.

Consulting services include

• Child Observations: Complete observations of the child moving through typical routines of the day. Focus is on the function of behaviors and the attachment quality of children’s relationships with adults. Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBAs) are conducted along with teacher and parent interviews. Group development of individual behavior plans included.
• Classroom Observations: Focus on classroom routines and transitions. I determine levels of engagement, prosocial activities and behaviors, and identify strategies to best support child success.
• Reflective Supervision: An individual or small group reflective process whereby I “cherish strengths and partner around vulnerabilities” (Shahmoon-Shanok, 1992) to support the ability of teachers and management to respond to challenging situations with children and families in positive ways that support connection and development. Meetings occur weekly or monthly and can occur off-site via video or phone connections.
• Mentor-coaching for teachers: Using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) I partner with teachers to improve the quality of their interactions with children. This follows a planning-observation-reflection cycle and can occur monthly or weekly. Video observations and debriefing can be included.
• Family services: For childcare programs this can include group meetings where specific topics are presented and discussed. This can also include ongoing consulting with individual families to help support child regulation for learning and well-being.

Past and Current Contracts

• Early Childhood Learning Center, Head Start, Greene County, NY: 11 classrooms, 198 children, Mental health consultant and mentor coach for teachers. Services include group and individual reflective supervision for teachers.
• Special Quest:

 For more information on how I can help your child care program develop strong teachers who provide high-quality care for young children – especially for those children who struggle – please contact me at 845-633-1674 or katie@treehouseconnections.com