Teaching & Learning

From CEED: NEW! Tip Sheet on Authentic Assessment

September 19, 2023

Our new evidence-based Tip Sheets explore topics of relevance to early childhood professionals. Our latest Tip Sheet, Introducing It: The Authentic Assessment Cycle and Its Role in Early Childhood Education, is the first of a planned series exploring aspects of Authentic Assessment.

Authentic Assessment is recommended practice because it allows educators to gain a holistic picture of a child’s development. The data compiled through Authentic Assessment is used to adjust instruction and even to make changes to the child’s environment. Download Introducing It: The Authentic Assessment Cycle and Its Role in Early Childhood Education below, and learn about:

Characteristics of Authentic Assessment
Steps in the Authentic Assessment cycle
The role of implicit bias in Authentic Assessment
And more!

Tip Sheet_Authentic Assessment 1 (Theory) 9.13.2023 Download

Make sure to check out our other Tip Sheets! Have feedback to share or an idea for a topic you’d like to see covered in a Tip Sheet? Email us!

Introvert? Extrovert? Or other?

March 24, 2023

By Anna Landes Benz

Happy National Introverts Week! If you’re an introvert, we celebrate you. If you know an introvert, this post might help you better understand them. If you’re an extrovert or an ambivert…well, they don’t have a national week of recognition for you yet. You might have to make your own!

My father loves to tell a story from my childhood that depicts the difference between me and my older brother. We’re on a plane going to visit our grandparents. My brother is around six years old and content to sit in his seat, not wanting his feet to touch the ground. I’m around three, and I’m on the floor, crawling around. I sneak out from our row and almost get run over by the beverage trolley as I try to crawl past the curtain separating first class from everyone else.

As I grew older I identified a lot with my father, an extreme “people person.” I was a very outwardly expressive child. Enthusiastic. Energetic. Big feelings and emotions that I needed to share with everyone. Despite being small, I was loud with big opinions. I always assumed I was an extrovert, because I was boisterous, energetic, and enthusiastic about exploring the world around me.

And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. I was surprised to find myself very content to be at home “hermiting,” as I call it. Get-togethers were canceled or moved online, where we were still able to connect with friends, but separately, from our respective homes. Professional responsibilities went virtual, and I spent less time both commuting and transitioning between events. All of this made me question how I saw myself. Had I changed over time? Had the pandemic changed me? Or was I never an extrovert to begin with?

A young child covers her face with her hands. — Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash

The Introversion-Extroversion Spectrum

Marti Olsen Laney, Psy.D., describes introverts and extroverts this way in her book The Hidden Gifts of the Introverted Child:

Introverts generally prefer stimulation in small, manageable doses, whereas extroverts seek lots of action and excitement. An introvert may pursue topics in depth, while an extrovert would be more oriented toward breadth…. An introvert often needs time to “process” his emotions before responding; an extrovert is more likely to react in the moment.

These classifications have been around for quite a while. None other than Carl Jung, the pioneering psychiatrist, proposed the idea of introversion and extroversion way back in 1921. These days, we often classify people as introverts or extroverts based on what gives them energy or what allows them to recharge their battery. Introverts are often described as feeling drained after socializing and needing time alone to recharge. Extroverts are said to get energy from being around people. But things may not be as simple as that binary would suggest. As early as 1927, Edna Heidbreder published the results of a study conducted at the University of Minnesota which concluded that “Introverts and extroverts are not distinct types, but belong to a single mixed type of which introversion and extroversion are the extremes.” Most people fall somewhere in between on a spectrum. Maybe, instead of being purely an extrovert as I had always assumed, I was actually somewhere in the middle, like most people.

As for whether extroverts can become introverts or vice versa, there is debate in the psychology field about how much personality traits (like the “Big Five,” of which extroversion is one) change over the lifespan. There is some evidence that people mellow out as they age, and a recent study even found that the pandemic might have caused at least temporary changes in people’s personalities. Maybe my newfound enjoyment of “hermiting” was part of that shift.

Why does this matter?

It remains to be seen whether I will return to my pre-pandemic level of extroversion. For now, my experience has made me more attuned to the needs of the introverts in my life. Whether we are stuck with our temperament from birth, our personalities adapt to our early environment, or our traits are fluid and change over time, it can be helpful to have words and language to better understand who we are and how to interact with those around us. This is especially true when we support the development of young children, who are still building their understanding of the world within and around them and learning how to communicate what they’re discovering and feeling.

The Characteristics of an Introverted Child

Jenn Granneman, author of The Secret Lives of Introverts: Inside Our Hidden World, posits that introverted children share certain characteristics. Bearing in mind that every child is unique and that we exist on an introversion-extroversion spectrum, Granneman’s description of introverted children resonated with my experiences. According to Granneman, such children:

have rich inner lives
reflect on their life and experiences
are intent observers
are resistant to peer pressure
warm up slowly to new people and environments
may struggle in formal group settings like child care centers and schools
prefer to socialize with one other person or in small groups.

Knowing all of this, what can we do to support children–whether at home or in our work–when they tend more towards introversion?

General tips for supporting introverted children

Create routines that help to settle the nervous system and give space for quiet after stimulating situations. This may be especially helpful at transition times like arriving home from school or getting ready for bed.
Make a plan and practice. If small talk or approaching a potential new friend is hard for a child, talk through their feelings in advance. Role-play initiating conversations. When the time comes for a child to introduce themself to a new friend, ask someone to play, or strike up a conversation, they can partner with a buddy who may already have these skills. Alternatively, their caregiver can act as a buddy and then slowly leave the interaction, letting the child continue the conversation on their own once they are comfortable.

Supporting introverted children in a child care or school-based setting

Look at your classroom from multiple perspectives. Do you have a mix of spaces, activities, and ways of responding that allow all children to be themselves?
Some children are quick to answer and raise their hands right away. Others never get the chance, because by the time they’ve collected their thoughts and composed their answers, the discussion has moved on. Those children may need a bit more time to build the courage to express themselves, especially in a group discussion. Be sure to leave thinking time.
Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, try to make sure that your preferences aren’t unduly influencing how you set up, teach, and respond in your classroom.
Find picture books that depict all types of children being the hero in the story.
Talk as a class about differences and similarities within your classroom. Discuss how children feel in different situations, helping them articulate what they need to be their best.
Young children are still developing vocabulary and language skills, and some kids find using visuals easier when their emotions are heightened, so consider using visual cue cards. Cue cards can help with talking about emotions and identifying strategies for self-regulation. They can also be used to communicate when emotions are heightened and a child needs a break. Head Start has some great resources to get you started.
Brainstorm ideas to support different children’s needs, and let young learners take some initiative in implementing their ideas. Maybe they want to create a quiet space within the classroom. Or maybe they want a way to remind one another when the volume in the classroom is getting too loud.
Make individual plans with children who need quiet or alone time. Develop a secret hand signal they can give you when they need a break, or practice using the cue cards we talked about earlier. Make a plan for where they can go and what they can do during their break.
Practice. Give children reminders. Help them recognize within themselves signals that they may need some quiet time.

Supporting introverted children at home

Create a retreat or restorative niche. Often these are quiet, calm places with adjustable lighting. You might include some calming sensory experiences such as the smell of lavender or a soft toy or pillow to hug. Create this as a family so that everyone feels included.
Find stories at your local library about kids handling overwhelming situations and environments. If you don’t know where to start, ask a librarian. They are superheroes of the library!
Make a list of calming actions to do alone or together when your child starts to feel overwhelmed:

Deep breathing
Taking a break
Putting on noise-canceling headphones
Using a weighted blanket
Getting outside to observe and listen to nature
Doing something rhythmic and repetitive
Swinging on a swing
Bouncing a ball on a point
Jumping on a mini-trampoline
Hugging a pillow or stuffed animal
Listening to a piece of music to help reset
Making a cup of tea or a snack, focusing the brain on the process
Cuddling a pet (as long as the pet is okay with it!)

Whether you’re an infant, a toddler, a preschooler, a teen, or an adult, an introvert, an extrovert, or somewhere in between, it’s important that your individual differences are honored. When, as early childhood professionals, we are aware of the full spectrum of human desire for both social contact and quiet solitude, we are better able to meet children’s needs.

All of us need time to recharge; recharging is directly related to improved mental and physical health. As parents or caregivers or in our professional lives, making this a part of our routine means that when we really need it, we automatically have several tools to use when we need them.

Further resources:

Susan Cain is the author of two popular books about introverts: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking and Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverted Kids. If you are short on reading time, she also has a TED talk.

Brightly has a roundup of books with introverted characters that includes picture books as well as books for middle grade and young adult readers.

NEW tip sheets for early childhood professionals

December 14, 2022

We’re excited to introduce a new series of evidence-based Tip Sheets that explore topics of relevance to early childhood professionals. Each topic has an Introducing It Tip Sheet and an Applying It Tip Sheet. The Introducing It Tip Sheet gives background information and current research about the topic. You can think of this as the “why” behind our recommendations. The Applying It Tip Sheet suggests ways to implement your new knowledge. This explores the “how” of each topic.

Our first Tip Sheets are available now! Download these free resources.

FINAL Tip Sheet_Stress Behavior in Young Children (Theory) 12.12.2022 Download

This tip sheet introduces what causes unmanageable stress in children, the role the brain plays, and the impact a child’s unmanageable stress may have on caregiving adults. It also describes what children need to remain emotionally regulated.

FINAL Tip Sheet_Stress Behavior in Young Children (Practice) 12.12.2022 Download

This tip sheet introduces the steps adult caregivers can take in preventing stress in a child before challenging behaviors occur, and how to respond when a child uses behavior to communicate feelings.

Look for new Tip Sheets rolling out regularly over the coming months on topics such as:

Reflective Listening
Authentic Assessment
Relationship-Based Professional Development
And more!

What other topics would you like to read about? Feedback is welcome at ceed@umn.edu.

A vicious circle: how the child care staffing crisis leads to real consequences for children

June 28, 2022

By Ann Bailey, PhD

One of the most rewarding parts of my job as a program evaluator is interviewing early childhood professionals about their perceptions of the programs in which they work. I love talking with people who are in the field every day, and their observations often make me think differently about the work that we do at CEED.

Recently an educator told me a story about her work that stayed with me. She told me about a young child who was displaying challenging behaviors in his center-based preschool program. This child–let’s call him Ryan–was expelled from the program. Expulsions from preschool and child care, unfortunately, are not news to anyone in the early childhood sector. Walter Gilliam and others have been publishing research on suspension and expulsion in early childhood settings since 2006. As an early childhood researcher, I know that expelling a child because of challenging behavior is often a result of adult intolerance, adults not having the necessary skills to support the child’s needs, and/or implicit and explicit bias.

The educator explained, however, that in this case the reason for Ryan’s expulsion was staff retention. The program director told her that it was more important to retain staff than to work with Ryan to develop more appropriate behavior. The director explained that it is just too difficult to find qualified personnel these days. If a staff member became so frustrated with Ryan’s behavior that they decided to quit, the director would have trouble finding a replacement. Once a replacement was found, they would need to spend countless hours–and dollars–getting that new teacher the training necessary to do the job well.

I’ll be honest: my initial reaction to the story was judgmental. Ryan needed help learning new skills and behaviors through caring relationships with adults. I was incensed that he had been expelled. After a moment, however, my reflective training kicked in, and I realized that the story I had just heard was much more complex than it had originally seemed.

Perspective-taking

As CEED staff members, we do our best to put the tenets of reflective supervision into practice. In the words of the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health, reflective supervision can “help professionals develop the capacity to shift perspective, address personal biases, set boundaries, and slow down, observe, and listen.” I thought about the other people who were involved in Ryan’s story. What might they be thinking and feeling? How might their needs and wants have influenced the director’s decision?

The educator

First, I thought about Ryan’s teacher. Early childhood professionals expect a certain level of challenging behavior from all children in their care, as it’s often the way young children communicate their needs. We know that some toddlers bite. Maybe it’s for attention; maybe it’s because they’re teething; maybe it’s because they’re frustrated; maybe it’s because they’re dealing with trauma. We can expect some preschoolers to hit, yell, cry, and “act out” for similar reasons.

Early childhood professionals must try to determine the root cause of behaviors like these; it’s their job. They must also help children learn appropriate, alternative communication methods. But as anyone knows who has worked with or parented young children, behavior changes don’t happen overnight. Success requires a lot of time, energy, and practice. And it usually requires all the adults in a child’s life to be coordinated and consistent in their responses to the child.

I pictured myself as the lead teacher in Ryan’s classroom. I’m in charge of 20 preschoolers in a room with one other adult. Let’s say that at least three children regularly display various challenging behaviors. I’m responsible for maintaining all licensing requirements, including the health and safety of all the other children. My job also includes helping all the children meet appropriate learning outcomes. That means I must implement an evidence-based curriculum and collect assessment data to demonstrate developmental changes.

I thought about everything that needs to be accomplished in a classroom like that. If I were Ryan’s teacher, how would I balance maintaining a safe environment where children could learn with addressing a few children’s behaviors? How would I prioritize these different, important tasks? Who would I prioritize?

The parents of Ryan’s classmates

Next, I thought about the parents of other children in Ryan’s classroom. How would I respond if my young child was the target of another child’s challenging behavior? How many times would I be expected to forgive and forget about my child being harmed by a peer before I started looking for a different provider? Even in the absence of physical harm, I would wonder how regularly occurring interruptions impacted my child’s learning and classroom relationships. Perhaps Ryan’s behaviors had been disruptive enough that classmates’ parents had become concerned.

Further complicating matters, many child care programs were forced to close during the pandemic because parents lost jobs or kept children home. This worsened an already critical shortage of providers. Now, as people return to work and demand increases, it may be next to impossible to find another provider if a parent is unhappy with their child’s experience. If I was the parent of one of Ryan’s classmates, I’d be daunted by the process of finding alternative care. Yet I might feel my family was being driven away by Ryan’s behavior.

The program director

Child care directors answer to many different people. On the most basic level, they must ensure that children are safe and that their program meets licensing requirements. If the program is part of a larger organization, they have obligations towards the parent company. They are, of course, responsible for the care and education of the children in their program and are answerable to their families. And they are also responsible for their employees.

I put myself in the director’s shoes. If I was in charge of a child care center, I would be highly attuned to the risk of my staff experiencing burnout. The World Health Organization states that burnout results from “chronic workplace stress” and has three main symptoms: “feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and reduced professional efficacy.”

Clearly, child care professionals have difficult jobs. They work long hours and are poorly paid; our society also does not give their work the respect it deserves. It should come as no surprise when people who feel unsupported in their work of managing children, including children with challenging behaviors, leave their job for something with less stress and better pay.

Research shows teacher retention is associated with better outcomes for children. As director, I would do my best to keep my staff for the benefit of the children in their care. Furthermore, it isn’t easy to find a replacement when a child care worker quits. Pre-pandemic, turnover rates in child care programs were already between 26-40%. In November 2020, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) reported that of 6,000 survey respondents, 69% stated that recruitment and retention had become even more difficult.

My first instinct had been to blame the director for failing to support Ryan and try multiple solutions to a complex problem. But as I reflected on the sometimes competing pressures on directors, I realized that Ryan’s case presented a genuine dilemma. Ryan desperately needed support and consistency, but the other children in his class also needed their teacher and deserved a calm environment in which to learn and grow. Neither they nor Ryan would be well served if their teacher left. Did Ryan’s needs outweigh those of the other children? Should the director have prioritized supporting Ryan over supporting a staff member?

Ryan’s parents

When a child is expelled from an early childhood program, it is disruptive not just for the child but for their parents. We’ve already seen how difficult it is to find a spot given the severe shortage of providers. I wondered: when Ryan was expelled, how did his parents cope? Were they able to find another high-quality provider, or did they have to settle for a program they didn’t like as much? How long did they have to wait until a spot opened up? Unless they had support from family members, their work schedule might have been disrupted. They might have lost income or even left the workforce altogether.

Then I wondered if the pattern would repeat itself. A child who is expelled from one educational setting often continues their challenging behaviors in the next, risking another expulsion. Would this happen to Ryan? If I were his parent, how would that make me feel? I might be angry or even embarrassed. I might feel powerless to help my child. Or I might come to believe that Ryan was being treated unfairly by the adults who were supposed to help him grow and learn. If that was the case, where would I turn for help?

Ryan

I spent a lot of time thinking about Ryan. We know that for children, healthy learning and growing occurs in the context of quality relationships with important adults in their lives. Ryan, for example, will likely only succeed in changing his challenging behaviors when he receives specific, consistent, age-appropriate support from those important adults.

What if Ryan ends up going from provider to provider without the opportunity to develop a meaningful relationship with an educator? Will other adults in his life, such as family members, have the knowledge, skills, and capacity to provide the kind of support he needs? How will disruptions in his early years affect his academic trajectory going forward? Will he learn to dislike school because of his experiences in child care? Will he develop quality friendships with peers? There are just so many unanswered questions.

No easy answers

Although perspective-taking helped me move beyond my knee-jerk reaction to Ryan’s story, I didn’t come up with a solution for this difficult situation. On the contrary, I ended up with more questions and concerns than when I started.

I’m concerned about the crisis in recruiting and retaining early childhood workers. Staff are experiencing intense burnout because the expectations of them are just too high. They can earn more and experience less stress working at the local big box store. Leaving the child care sector is a rational decision under such circumstances.

I worry that there will be generations of children who experience expulsion more regularly than consistent care. I worry that the children who need high-quality care the most will be expelled rather than have access to relationships and settings where they can grow and learn. Will their progress towards developmental milestones be affected? What behaviors should providers expect to see from these children? Will their attachment to adults beyond their parents or guardians suffer in the long term?

I’m concerned about parents, too. They need high-quality care for their children while they work. When problems arise, I worry that parents will be unable to work with providers to solve them. Will they have other child care options? Will they have the knowledge and skills–and the bandwidth–to advocate for their children? Will setbacks like expulsions impact parents’ relationships with their children?

I’m concerned that Americans don’t understand that quality child care is essential to creating a qualified workforce, a thriving economy, and a functioning society. What does it say about our priorities as a nation when retaining staff and keeping a program’s doors open must take precedence over a child’s need to learn social-emotional skills?

I wish I had easy answers to these questions. My heart aches for children like Ryan who need support. But I can take the perspective of the teacher who is charged with caring for a whole classroom of young children. I can also consider the viewpoint of the director whose livelihood, as well as that of her employees’, depends on the program remaining open. And when I think about the work that we do at CEED–asking the questions and doing the research to untangle these complex problems–I feel hope that they are solvable.

“Kids don’t need us to fix everything; they need us to witness it”: Kristin Irrer on social-emotional development

March 6, 2022

Kristin Irrer, MS, IMH-E®, has more than 20 years’ experience supporting children, their families, and those who care for them. A provider of reflective supervision, she is deeply invested in expanding access to reflective supervision and embedding this practice within infant and early childhood systems, including access for professionals in administrative roles. Irrer teaches CEED’s online courses Understanding Early Social-Emotional Development Using an Infant Mental Health Lens (UESED), Part 1 and Part 2, as well as RIOS™ 1: Using the RIOS™ Framework for Reflective Supervision. She is also the author of our self-study module Why You Matter: Professional Use of Self. We sat down with Irrer to learn more about the process of reformatting UESED into a two-part series. She also talked about what she hopes participants will gain from the course.

Who do you see as the main audience for the UESED courses?

KI: Typically participants work in the infant and early childhood field, but one exciting thing about this course is that the information has really broad application. People who work in any role that supports young children will find this course relevant to their work, whether they are educators, social workers, early interventionists, or administrators, for example. Some participants have an associate’s or bachelor’s degree; others have a master’s degree. Many participants are looking to refresh and reconnect with what they know about their field; others want to learn more about the most up-to-date science. If participants want to take their learning further, these courses can also be applied toward the Supporting Early Social and Emotional Development credential. The credits gained through this coursework can also be applied to obtain or renew Infant or Early Childhood Mental Health Endorsement through the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health.

UESED has been reformatted into two 5-week sessions, as opposed to a single, 13-week session. Why break the course into two parts?

We felt the 13-week commitment was a barrier to some students, so we retooled the course to be more accessible. We put a lot of thought into restructuring the coursework to better fit the needs of our busy students. The five-week courses are intended to help students digest the content in a more manageable timeframe. Additionally, we reframed the content to include more self-reflection. You will find more reflective prompts in the course, such as, “This week, casually observe someone in your environment who is interacting with a child aged 3 or under.” We encourage participants to start a journal and write down their thoughts, but they aren’t required to share them. Slowing down and deepening our understanding is an important theme of this class. We hope the two-part series will feel supportive to the very busy participants who are balancing many roles and expectations.

What does it mean to look at social-emotional development through an infant mental health lens?

Infant mental health by definition refers to how well a child develops socially and emotionally in the early years. So when we talk about social-emotional development from an infant mental health perspective, it’s wrapped up in the context of a relationship with an attachment figure and embedded in the culture and community in which the child develops. We are not exclusively looking at the child, we are noticing the whole dyadic system. Relationships are the cornerstone for all young children’s learning. When we are using an infant mental health lens with our work, this concept becomes the centering point for understanding social-emotional development.

You mentioned that a relationship with an attachment figure is key to infant mental health. What is attachment?

Attachment is our emotional bond that connects us to our important people. Infants bring something to this developing system just as adults do: it’s a two-way street. It’s the interactions between an infant and an important adult, over time, that allow the child-and-caregiver dyad to form emotional bonds and a felt sense of connectedness.

The foundation for attachment starts when a baby is born: when the baby displays hunger cues, does someone respond? How do they respond? When the baby fusses, does someone come and figure out what they need? Through these everyday interactions, over time, the baby is learning: “If I cry, does someone comfort me?” In the infant and early childhood field, we sometimes call this interactive behavior of the caregiver and child “serve-and-return.” Through these back and forth interactions, babies learn whether their needs will be met and whether an adult will show up–even if they don’t get the baby’s needs right every time. This attachment relationship becomes our roadmap of how to be in the world with others. Our primary attachments are alive in all of us, even as adults.

What does it mean to say a child is “securely” or “insecurely attached”?

Securely attached infants learn to trust that adults will respond to them and take care of their needs.They experience adults who are sensitive and are attuned to their bids for interaction. Adults can behave in ways that allow the child to feel more secure or a little more anxious or insecure in the relationship. If a person develops an insecure style of attachment, it can take one of three forms: avoidant, ambivalent, or disorganized. Children who we would consider to be in the “insecure” categories of attachment relationships experience adults who are less consistent, nurturing, or responsive to their needs. Children then adapt their own behaviors to get their needs met. Most of us in the field can’t “diagnose” attachment styles, but we most certainly can notice parent or caregiver and child behaviors that give us good information about the attachment relationship.

What would be some symptoms of disorganized attachment?

Disorganized attachment refers to a situation where rather than being a source of comfort, the adult in the attachment relationship is a source of alarm. The adult’s behavior is too unpredictable or scary for the child to grow to trust them. This way of being leaves the child in a constant state of fear. Typically trauma is embedded in disorganized attachment styles.

Attachment relationships influence how children treat others and how they expect others to treat them. Outside the context of their family, children who experience a disorganized primary relationship might display extreme behaviors that look like escalation, disorganization, fear, or anger. These children may be unable to go to an adult for help, because their expectation is that adults cannot be trusted and may harm instead of help.

A major theme in the UESED courses is the idea that we adults bring our whole selves–including our trauma and our relationship history–to our interactions and relationships with children. This is true of parents and caregivers and it’s also true of those of us who work with children. This is an important piece that we tend to overlook when we are solely focused on a child’s development, and it allows us to think more deeply about social-emotional foundations and developmental milestones. We can remind ourselves, “Adults are part of this developing emotional system, too.”

Can an attachment figure be someone other than the child’s parent or primary caregiver?

Yes! We call these secondary attachment figures. I think it’s especially important to talk about them in the context of the stress, upheaval, and trauma that COVID-19 has caused in many families’ lives. Who else is important in our children’s lives, besides their parents or primary caregiver? Along with primary attachments, these other significant relationships hold important potential to buffer stress for children. This also speaks to the fact that we need to do a better job at supporting child care providers and others who work with young children, because their emotional selves show up in those important secondary attachment relationships.

You mentioned that the information in this course is applicable even for people who don’t work directly with children.

Absolutely. It is important that supervisors, policymakers, and administrators continually consider children’s perspectives and emotional experiences. Again, adopting that lens means taking into account the fact that social-emotional development is something that happens in the context of a relationship. This is tricky, because a relationship is difficult to see, target, talk about, or put a number on. But take a moment to wonder: what if supervisors and administrators, even though they’re sitting at desks instead of standing in a classroom, bring this lens into their work? They have the capacity to make decisions with the knowledge that anything they do affects relational outcomes for kids, from filling in forms to determining funding. What a powerful lens to hold for babies and families!

This is the crux of what I hope people get out of the class: the notion that social-emotional development is dependent upon relationships. Armed with this understanding, you can more deliberately be a foundation for social-emotional growth and development, no matter your role in the field. Prioritizing early attachments that play a crucial, lifelong role in our overall development is essential for healthy outcomes for babies.

Is social-emotional development different during pandemic times?

A lot of us have questions about how all of this is affecting kids emotionally. Learning about brain development is a big piece of this class. And I like to reassure people that brains are still developing during the pandemic!

We know that at baseline children will continually work to make sense of their experiences in the world, usually through play. This is especially true in times of uncertainty, change, and stress. I’ll give you an example. My four-year-old was playing tag with neighbors’ children. They were playing “COVID tag.” I asked him, “How does that go?” He said, “Well, if you get tagged, you have COVID, and you sit down. The only thing that can rescue you is the vaccine. You have to get tagged by the vaccine to get up and play again.” This was such a great illustration of my son and his friends using social games as a framework for making sense of the confusing times we are experiencing. Kids have wonderful abilities to sort through their significant emotional experiences and make sense of them.

I think one message of this course is that you don’t have to necessarily “fix” social-emotional development, even under stressful circumstances like a pandemic. By just showing up and being with children, noticing them, you are supporting children’s development. This is true of adults, too, by the way. This is really the magic of what relationships give us. One of the biggest predictors of our capacity to be resilient is our primary attachment styles. In other words, the responsiveness that adults show to our emotional needs influences our level of resilience. Kids don’t need us to fix everything; they need us to witness and be with them in it. This simple act boosts their social-emotional development.

Helping child care providers reach their goals: a Q & A with Kami Alvarez, professional development specialist in Minnesota’s Department of Human Services

February 21, 2022

Professional Development Specialist Kami Alvarez oversees the Trainer and RBPD Specialist Support (TARSS) grant as part of her role in the Minnesota Department of Human Services. In this Q & A, she shares her perspective on the professional development landscape for child care providers in Minnesota. She explains how the state’s professional development system for child care providers works. She also provides insight into how trainings are developed and delivered.

Thank you for taking time to share your perspective with our readers! You work in the Child Care Services Division within the Department of Human Services. Can you give us an overview of that unit’s work?

KA: We have two units within the Child Care Services Division. One unit oversees the Child Care Assistance Program. This program provides subsidies for child care to low-income families. The second unit is called Child Development Services (CDS). I work in CDS. We are primarily focused on quality measures. We oversee Parent Aware, which is Minnesota’s voluntary quality rating and improvement system for child care providers. We also serve child care providers in Minnesota by helping them access professional development and improve the quality of their programs.

My own work is focused on professional development for child care providers. Minnesota’s professional development system for child care providers was mandated in a state statute in 2007. So the state government has certain responsibilities to providers. The system was set up to help child care providers of many different types to reach their professional development goals. That can mean training, mentoring, consultation, and more. My team makes sure child care providers have access to those things.

What are the main reasons why child care providers seek out professional development?

There are three main reasons for providers to participate in professional development. The first reason is in order to obtain or maintain a license to provide child care. There are different license types that are issued by the Department of Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General. We often say that they’re the regulatory folks and we’re about quality. Achieving that license is a minimum standard.

When a provider is licensed, they need certain training. Licensing gives us the standards the training must meet: hours, topics, and so on. We design the training and for the most part we work with grantees who deliver the training.

The second reason is to participate in Parent Aware. Providers want to do their jobs well so that the kids they serve have more skills and more opportunities to learn. Parent Aware looks at raising the quality of child care so that children are ready for kindergarten. We have trainings for in-home providers and center staff that help raise program quality and help providers achieve higher Parent Aware ratings.

The third reason is that providers are seeking ways that they can advance their careers with short- and long-term professional development goals. Often, people join this field with no postsecondary education. We help them advance their careers, for example, by funding professional development advisors in all areas of the state. These career advisors sit down with providers and help them plan: “What training and education do I have? What are my goals? Where do I want to be? How do I get there? How do I fund it?”

CEED recently became the home of the Trainer and Relationship-Based Professional Development (RBPD) Specialist Support (TARSS) program. How does TARSS fit into your work?

The professional development team here at CDS makes grants to organizations that serve child care providers. We’re responsible for policies and fiscal management, and we help grantees develop procedures to serve child care providers. The grantees then directly provide services like training and coaching.

TARSS is one of these grantees. The program supports trainers and RBPD specialists—people like coaches, mentors, and classroom observers. They work directly with child care professionals, providing health and safety coaching, mental health coaching, professional feedback, and other important services.

Your background is in social work. What was the career journey that brought you to professional development?

I worked for many years as a social worker in nonprofits and then in child protection and welfare in county government. I have experience in adoption, home studies, and child care licensing. My bridge to DHS was that in 2008 I started working for the Minnesota child welfare training system for foster parents, social workers, and supervisors. I led foster parent training and curriculum development, all of which we did in house.

In 2016, I moved from that division to the Child Care Services Division to work on our state-owned curriculum. We’re responsible for more than 300 professional development courses that are delivered statewide. We fund and administer Develop, an online tool where providers can take courses and track their professional development. Our state-owned courses are available in Develop along with other training opportunities. I also work with the Child Care Aware training and delivery system. So I collaborate with trainers, course writers, and all of our grantees that work on regulating, approving, and delivering trainings.

Are there new courses coming soon in Develop that readers should keep an eye out for?

Yes, we will soon be offering a set of courses on trauma-responsive care that are designed for child care providers. Up until now, we have not had anything in our system that was specific to what child care providers can do around trauma-responsive care. I’m really looking forward to introducing these courses.

Do you develop the curriculum for courses like those?

In this case, I participated in a collaboration with the federal Office of Child Care. In addition to the federal workers, our committee convened people from 14 or so different states. We met over the course of about half a year to work on the curriculum. The Office of Child Care came up with a draft, and the rest of us helped shape and refine it. We also had input as to how it should be delivered in our states. So I am not the writer of this curriculum, but I helped create, shape, and Minnesota-ize it, you might say!

What are things you think about when designing a training or curriculum?

In instructional design for this audience, I have to be very mindful that the curriculum must be delivered statewide to all Minnesotans. What that means, in terms of the construction and content of a course, is that the activities, examples, and graphics have to be representative of the diversity of our communities in Minnesota. We design content with an equity lens to make sure that it’s going to be applicable in the metro, in rural Minnesota, on a reservation, in an urban community. We’re intentional and thoughtful about the different pieces that we put in—we’ve got to make sure that the information is useful and that it will actually be applicable. Providers don’t have a lot of time to participate in professional development each year, so we work hard to make sure they get what they need during that limited time.

I also think about empowering trainers, because in this field they may work with very diverse providers from different backgrounds. The providers also may have very different jobs. Center staff, family child care providers, center directors, substitute child care workers—these are really different roles. So when I think about a topic and how we talk about it, I make sure it is not specific to one type of role or one geographic location or one level of formal education. Often that means that trainers need to have multiple options to give them the flexibility to say, “Tonight I have a group of mostly family child care providers versus another role, so I’m going to present the information this way.”

The trainer has to gauge the room with a lot of emotional intelligence. A lot of times when we start out a training with icebreaker questions, it’s so that the trainer can figure out who is in the room. Then they can flex the content and activities while still maintaining the important points. This is very challenging work compared with something like training people to use a software program. Minnesota has a wide variety of communities, and a trainer can’t assume, for example, that their audience is college educated or that their first language is English. Meanwhile, these trainings are about topics that are serious in nature—health and safety, things like abusive head trauma or SIDS. So trainers have to ensure that the information is getting across.

Since your work is mandated by the legislature, do laws that get passed affect your work and impact what you do?

Yes, both federally and at the state level. On a day to day basis, there’s a regular cycle of the legislature. We’re a part of that, particularly when it has to do with changes to license types and training requirements. Often, the legislature asks for technical assistance from my unit to understand the professional development system, courses, and trainers. A lot of decisions are made based on what is in statute. So when a statute changes, I have to change our courses.

There are also different federal funding streams that come to our unit. The law tells us what we need to do with that money. Some funding for federal initiatives passes through state governments to grantees. Some work we accomplish in house. Whatever the case, we need to do the work and document it, and then it is audited both at the state and federal level.

Sometimes, federal funding has a broader description because it is distributed nationwide, and things look different in Alabama versus Alaska, for example. So the federal government says, “Here is what the money is for; you figure out how to do the work in Minnesota.” In those cases, we put on our thinking caps, come up with our best plan, and execute the plan, often through a grant contract. We monitor the work and report back to the federal government regularly: What did we do? What did it cost? What change did we accomplish?

Does the legislature consult you about legislation or changes to legislation that they are considering?

Yes, they often ask for fiscal notes, data, and technical perspectives. They might ask, “How much would it cost to implement this? How could we make this happen in a certain framework?” Sometimes they request data around the people we serve and how we serve them. They want to get a sense of the potential impact if they change something. Who will be affected? Who will not be affected? Sometimes they are considering putting forward a new policy, so they ask for statistics that give them a fuller picture of a proposal’s effects and how it will be carried out.

What do you do in your free time (assuming that you have any free time!)?

I’m a Girl Scout leader. My daughter, who is twelve, has been in Girl Scouts since first grade. I enjoy being outdoors and doing activities like archery and kayaking. I also like to travel—when we don’t have a pandemic! When we’re at home, we enjoy our two rescue cats.

Did you catch Alyssa Meuwissen on KSTP?

January 3, 2022

Research Associate Alyssa Meuwissen, PhD, appeared on Minnesota Live to discuss the challenges that children (and adults) have experienced in adapting to in-person school and activities after months of social distancing early on in the pandemic.

Watch the video.

Meuwissen compared our rusty social skills to a muscle that needs strengthening through practice. One way for parents and caregivers to help children practice these skills is to engage in pretend play with them. Adults can help children act out social scenarios with dolls and puppets, trying out different ways to respond, for example when meeting someone for the first time or asking another child to play.

Joy, meaning, and belonging through community: a Q & A with TARSS RBPD Specialist Rowie Lund

December 13, 2021

This fall, we welcomed a new staff member, Rowie Lund, to the TARSS team. Lund’s professional background includes more than 20 years in the early childhood sector. In this Q & A she talks about her career path and her new role as the TARSS relationship-based professional development (RBPD) specialist.

What was the educational and career journey that led to your current role at CEED?

RL: I began my child care career as a camp counselor at YMCA Camp Icaghowan while I was in college. After getting my BA in psychology, I worked with younger children in a pre-K camp and a K–1 after-school program in Lincoln, Massachusetts, eventually finding my niche in early childhood. While we were living near Boston, I also had the opportunity to study flute and film scoring at Berklee College of Music, a lifelong dream of mine! While I decided not to pursue a music career, music has been an integral part of my teaching.

Some highlights of my career include teaching enrichment lessons at KinderCare, leading parent-child music classes, and expanding child care capacity as a center director in Wisconsin and Minnesota. In 2017, I became a Parent Aware Quality Coach for Carver and Scott Counties. During my time there, I spearheaded a new learning community and found a new spark for supporting and mentoring adult learners. The early childhood field is so demanding. Adults deserve the same care and attentiveness that we offer our students. I am very excited to be a part of the TARSS team at CEED, where I can continue to learn and grow while supporting adults in the field.

What are you most excited about in your new role as TARSS RBPD specialist?

We are launching new online learning communities for trainers and RBPD specialists in Minnesota. I am excited to offer this chance for trainers and coaches to connect with each other and grow (in both numbers and capacity). The feeling of belonging to a community is so regenerative and essential. I am hopeful that people in these learning communities will form new friendships and collaborations, get more joy and meaning from their work, and feel supported in continuing their important jobs.

What is something that most people don’t know about the early childhood sector?

Most people do not understand how badly early childhood education needs public investment to survive. Early childhood educators are expected to stay in the field out of the goodness of their hearts, even if it means low compensation and few or no benefits. Early childhood education is truly one of the most demanding professions in existence. Physically, you need to be active most of the day, which for some educators can be as long as 10–12 hours. Emotionally, you need to maintain your calm in chaotic, loud environments with very few breaks, especially if you are a family child care provider. Funding and public investment in early childhood are essential to keep our littlest learners safe and thriving, especially post-pandemic. The return on investment is seen in better outcomes for children which leads to improved communities and a better-educated workforce.

What are some of your interests and hobbies outside of work?

I have four children ages 1, 4, 8, and 11, so most of my free time is spent playing with my kids and helping with homework. When I do have the time, I enjoy writing songs, swimming, canoeing, reading, and scrapbooking. I also love to go out to live theater, dance, concerts, and musicals.

Reflective practice as “a journey with no final destination”: a Q & A with Tanika Eaves

December 7, 2021

We’re excited to share a Q & A with Tanika Eaves, PhD, LCSW, IMH-E®, assistant professor in the social work program at Fairfield University. Eaves is the author of our brand-new self-study module: A Trail Guide for Your Journey: Receiving Reflective Supervision. Here, she shares her thoughts on balancing the theory and practice of reflective supervision, on embracing the emotions that arise when working with young children, and on valuing the journey—rather than the destination.

Who do you see as the audience of this module? Who do you think would benefit from enrolling in this module?

TE: A Trail Guide for Your Journey is intended for infant and early childhood professionals who are new to reflective supervision and may be at the beginning of their journey in terms of experiencing a reflective supervisory relationship. The module would be beneficial for practitioners who are beginning to learn about reflective supervision and for supervisors who are beginning training in reflective supervision.

What reflections or realizations did you have while building the content for this module?

As a college instructor, I was accustomed to developing a semester’s worth of content for online courses. Creating a module intended to last a maximum of three hours challenged me to focus on the essentials and pare down module content.

I also felt the need to make content and material as engaging and digestible as possible for the intended audiences. Although it’s important for participants to understand the theory underlying reflective supervision, it’s equally important to illustrate its practical value. It was a refreshing shift for me as a reflective supervisor to use video, meditation, and multi-modal strategies to connect theory with practice. I also found myself being especially attentive to emotional content and the common stressors of infant and early childhood work. I wanted to normalize feelings that perhaps as practitioners we may unconsciously suppress.

What drew you to your field of study and the kind of work that you do?

I have always been interested in human behavior and development. I studied psychology as an undergraduate with an interest in neuroscience. After spending a semester volunteering for Head Start as part of a service learning course in child psychology, I became intrigued with early childhood development and influencing factors.

My first job after college as an infant/toddler teacher in a corporate child care center. Two years later, I began my master’s in social work at Rutgers University and was determined to integrate early childhood development with social work. While at Rutgers, I completed an interdisciplinary certificate program as an infant-child specialist with the educational psychology department to complement my MSW. My work as a social worker has always been specialized to serve the needs of infants, toddlers, young children, and families as a therapist; as a broker of services and resources; and as an advocate for changes in policies, practices, and service delivery systems that reflect the challenges facing families transitioning into parenthood in the 21st century.

In my second career as a faculty member and emerging researcher, I still work on behalf of young children and families. I strive to produce scholarship that both elevates the experiences of practitioners working with this population and challenges service delivery systems to enact positive change and advance equity and social justice for all young children and families.

What are the top three takeaways that you hope students come away with from this module?

Developing reflective practice is a journey and a process with no final destination;
The reflective supervisory relationship can ground our practice work and make us better practitioners; and
Accepting and embracing emotional complexity and the continuum of feelings associated with working with young children and families is essential. This must be supported in the workplace as well as in the supervisory relationship.

Are there any additional thoughts you would like to share?

It was an incredible privilege to develop this module and a great reminder that I am still learning and moving along in my own journey. I hope that participants in this module feel permission to “not know,” be curious, and make mistakes along their journey.

New CEED self-study module on receiving reflective supervison

November 23, 2021

We’ve added a 10th self-study module to our roster: A Trail Guide for Your Journey: Receiving Reflective Supervision. Like all of our self-study modules, A Trail Guide for Your Journey presents research-based content about reflective supervision. It is suitable for professionals in public-facing fields such as early childhood, mental health, health care, and social work. This module would also be of value to decision-makers who want to learn more about the benefits of reflective supervision and how best to implement a relationship-based professional development program for their team.

A Trail Guide for Your Journey covers the fundamentals of reflective supervision, outlining its purpose and benefits and detailing how both supervisors and supervisees can develop reflective skills. (For a brief introduction to reflective supervision, please see our free e-book, Reflective Supervision/Consultation: Preventing Burnout, Boosting Effectiveness, and Renewing Purpose for Frontline Workers.) The module explores ways in which people receiving reflective supervision can make the most of it by adopting a reflective stance. It also discusses strategies that practitioners can use on their own if they do not have access to reflective supervision.

Tanika Eaves Simpson, PhD, LCSW, IMH-E™, assistant professor of social work at Fairfield University, created our latest module. Eaves’ professional and academic background includes expertise in infant and early childhood mental health, early intervention, and public policy.

“We’re thrilled to offer this new module, which will help both frontline practitioners and administrators take full advantage of reflective principles and reflective supervision,” says Deborah Ottman, professional development coordinator. “Our self-study modules are self-contained, virtual learning experiences that take a few hours to complete. They’re designed for busy professionals who want easy access to the trustworthy, evidence-based content they expect from the University of Minnesota.”

November is a great time to explore A Trail Guide for Your Journey, as well as our nine other options, because we are offering a $10 promotional discount on registration through the end of the month.

Empowering those who support educators: a Q & A with Hannah Riddle de Rojas

October 19, 2021

In our latest staff Q & A, Hannah Riddle de Rojas, TARSS Project Manager, shares her goals for the Trainer and RBPD Specialist Support (TARSS) program and her reflections on the importance of early childhood.

What was the educational and career journey that led to your current role at CEED?

I’ve worked in the early childhood arena for about a decade. I’ve held a variety of positions including educator, center director, trainer, and adjunct faculty. I joined CEED in 2019 as part of the Early Childhood Program Quality team, conducting Parent Aware classroom observations using the CLASS® tool. At that time, I was a newly minted mom transitioning out of an operations role at SolBe Learning, an early childhood program that I co-founded in Boston, MA.

You recently took on a new position at CEED with the TARSS program. Can you talk a bit about your role as TARSS Project Manager.

I’m thrilled to be in the position to serve the trainer and relationship-based professional development (RBPD) community. I’ve been a trainer for the past seven years. I train in English and Spanish and have conducted trainings in most parts of the state. I believe that I can bring insight into this work that can strengthen the offerings of the TARSS program.

My role includes providing support to trainers and RBPD specialists who reach out to us via phone or email. Because this project is new at CEED, we are currently creating systems to support the workflow, especially as more team members join us. This means that I also do a lot of organizing and strategizing around what we need to accomplish in the next weeks, months, and years.

What is the difference between the work of trainers and the work of RBPD specialists?

Trainers offer classes to early education professionals on a variety of topics that are outlined in Minnesota’s Knowledge and Competency Framework. These classes serve to give educators new information, teach new skills, and help meet licensing and other requirements. RBPD specialists are coaches and mentors who have sustained relationships with educators. Through coaching and mentoring sessions, RBPD specialists support educators in reflecting on their teaching practice as well as identifying their strengths and opportunities for growth. CEED has expertise in providing training and RBPD support, so our team understands what both roles entail. In addition, CEED has evaluation expertise which can help guide the direction and development of supports to the field.

Trainers and RBPD specialists have a uniquely powerful role in the field of early education. Many early educators come into the field with little formal preparation for the complicated work that they do. Trainers and RBPD specialists are often able to introduce insights and knowledge that empower educators and facilitate their growth. My dream is that the TARSS program aids trainers and RBPD specialists in claiming that power and seeing their impact.

What do you wish more people knew about early childhood?

I wish more people were well-informed about the society-wide benefits of collectively investing in our children. There is magic that happens when children are in truly high-quality environments—and the benefits of those early experiences ripple through society. So often, I feel that our national conversation misses or minimizes the importance of the early years. Despite that, research in the fields of both neuroscience and economics supports the idea that there is no better time than early childhood to invest resources in a human being.

Did becoming a parent change your perception of the early childhood field?

Becoming a parent hasn’t shifted my perception of the field. Instead, it has helped me to better empathize with the issues that face families—for example, finding affordable child care or navigating the differences between how we raise our children and the expectations of child care programs.

What are some of your interests and hobbies outside of work?

I spend a lot of time with my little one, Bruno. I also love to bake. I make tequeños (a Venezuelan snack) and some type of dessert weekly. It could be chocolate chip cookies, banana muffins, brownies, cheesecake, or tiramisu—YUM!

Alyssa Meuwissen and colleagues awarded multiyear grant for new reflective supervision study

October 19, 2021

Research Associate Alyssa Meuwissen, PhD, is part of a team that won a multiyear grant from the Sauer Foundation. Meuwissen will lead a study to evaluate the impact of a reflective consultation-plus-training model of professional development on child welfare workers. She is working closely with Kristin Johnson, LGSW, IMH-E® Infant Family Specialist, of KayJay Consulting, LLC, and Jessica Hoeper, LISW, IMH-E® Infant Family Specialist, of Ray of Hope, LLC, to design and implement the project.

Reflective supervision, also known as reflective consultation, is a mode of relationship-based professional development. It is widely used in the field of infant and early childhood mental health, where research has shown it can help prevent burnout and improve workers’ effectiveness. Child welfare workers are also at great risk of experiencing secondary trauma and burnout. The Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare conducted a 2016 Child Welfare Workforce Stabilization Survey of child welfare professionals in Minnesota and found that 83% of respondents had experienced secondary traumatic stress. The survey also revealed that 53% of respondents had actively sought employment outside of their current position within the previous year, and 22% intended to do so within the following year. In addition to being costly for agencies, high workforce turnover affects outcomes for families and children.

Meuwissen’s new study will explore how child welfare professionals—and as a result, the people with whom they work—can best reap the benefits of reflective supervision. This work builds on a previous study done by Meuwissen and her colleague Mary Harrison, PhD, LICSW, IMH-E®. While a few child welfare agencies in Minnesota have implemented reflective consultation (several of them working with Teya Dahle, MSW, LICSW, IMH-E®, who is also consulting on this project), the practice has not become widespread.

Reflective supervision consists of regular meetings between a trained supervisor or outside consultant and a supervisee or group of supervisees. Conversations in these sessions focus on supervisees’ emotions and perspectives. They explore supervisees’ relationships with the people whom they serve and with colleagues. These conversations also take into account the viewpoints and relationships of the adults and children with whom supervisees work. Reflective supervision sessions emphasize building on strengths and managing challenges. The sessions are a safe place for frontline workers to process the distressing emotions that arise in their work.

For this study, the project team will work with the staff of a county social service agency in Minnesota. Johnson and Hoeper will provide reflective consultation to both the agency’s supervisors and its child protection workers. Training on topics related to mindfulness, coping, and stress will also be integrated into the reflective consultation model.

“There are really two parts to implementing the reflective supervision program at this agency,” explains Meuwissen. “The first part is to build a culture of awareness and support of reflective supervision. To do so, we’ll provide evidence-based training about the effectiveness of reflective supervision.”

In this way, people at all levels of the agency will understand the value of reflective consultation, increasing organization-wide support for this model of professional development.

“Second, our experienced consultants will meet regularly with both agency supervisors and child protection workers,” Meuwissen says. “Supervisors will receive reflective consultation for one hour a month. Child welfare workers will attend monthly sessions that begin with 15–30 minutes of training and skill-building activities. They’ll learn strategies such as mindfulness and diaphragmatic breathing that will help them to identify and manage the emotions associated with their work. Following these activities, workers will break into small groups for an hour of group reflective consultation.”

Reflective consultants Johnson and Hoeper will make adjustments to training and reflective supervision sessions based on feedback from participants. Participants will have multiple opportunities to share their thoughts both in person and anonymously through surveys.

“We’ll gather data every step of the way,” says Meuwissen. “The data will help us in two ways. First, we’ll be able to make informed adjustments to optimize our program while it’s happening. Second, we’ll discover whether this is a feasible and effective program model for a child welfare agency.”

At the close of the program, which will span about a year and a half, Meuwissen and her colleagues will conduct interviews with each participant to understand their overall perceptions of the program. Finally, Meuwissen will present the study’s findings and recommendations to participants and collect further feedback from them. She will incorporate this feedback into the study’s conclusions, which she will publish as a report as well as disseminate as a podcast.

“We want to know from participants: did this experience reduce their secondary traumatic stress and burnout?” says Meuwissen. “Did it increase their empathy, perspective-taking, and reflectiveness when they worked with clients?”

Meuwissen hopes that this study will demonstrate the benefits of reflective supervision for child protection workers®benefits that also flow to those with whom they work.

“Our goal with this project is to support child welfare workers so that they can better support children and families,” she says.

CEED, Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare launch new podcast

October 7, 2021

Early Development and Child Welfare is a new podcast series co-created by CEED and our colleagues at the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW). The series of 10 episodes covers a range of important aspects of child development and child welfare work. Subscribe for free with your favorite podcast app or listen on CASCW’s website.

“Infant mental health practitioners, social workers, and early childhood educators will find these podcasts useful and informative,” says Stacy Gehringer, MSW, LICSW, director of outreach at CASCW. “This content is also highly relevant for justice system workers like judges, guardians ad litem, and case managers. These child welfare professionals are asked to make recommendations for children and families, yet they may need more information on the basics of attachment or child development.”

A pair of headphones on a yellow background

The podcast format was chosen for its ability to deliver information in bite-sized segments that can be accessed while on the go. Both CASCW and CEED offer in-person and online professional development opportunities; however, the professionals who make up the podcast’s likely audience are often busy to the point of being overstretched.

“Practitioners want and need access to the latest research and best practices, but they don’t always have time to download, print, and read literature, or to sign up for an intensive course or training,” says Gehringer. “We hope that listeners can catch an episode in the car driving to or from visits with families, or perhaps listen while taking a walk.”

She adds that episodes can also be used as learning tools for child welfare units to spur discussion both within teams and with community members.

“These podcasts are a great resource for professionals who work directly with children and families, such as child care providers, educators and social workers,” says Ann Bailey, PhD, director of CEED. “They also cover core aspects of child development in a way that’s accessible for people who, perhaps, work with families only occasionally but still find they want to be better informed about the research and science of early childhood.”

Gehringer notes that several themes resurface again and again throughout the 10 podcast episodes. These themes include building relationships and understanding the cycle of rupture and repair; describing developmental, cultural, and infant mental health lenses for use in different fields; self-assessment and critical thinking; and parallel process, a fundamental principle of reflective supervision.

“We ask parents to establish trust and foundational feelings of belonging and dignity with their children,” Gehringer explains, speaking about the concept of parallel process. “We, as child welfare workers, need to do the same with parents and families in order for them to make progress, believe we are supporting them in their parenting endeavors, and ultimately heal.”

Frontline workers, in turn, depend on their supervisors to provide reflective spaces where workers can “process all the trauma in front of them so that they can better connect with parents and families,” says Gehringer. She points out that child welfare and social workers, as well as people who work with families and children in other contexts, experience high rates of secondary trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout.

Early Development and Child Welfare recognizes this reality while underscoring the vital importance of this work.

“We do this work to keep families together, intact, and healthy, and to build resilience and healthy attachment,” says Gehringer. “This podcast series is really nice for regrounding people in the ‘why’ of the work.”

Early Development and Child Welfare is supported in part by the Minnesota Department of Human Service Children and Family Services Division. An audio introduction to the series and the first episode, “Attachment and foundations of self-regulation,” are available right now. Additional episodes will be released twice a week.

Episode titles and topics will be:

Attachment and foundations of self-regulation

Faith Eidson, LMSW, interviews Marva Lewis, PhD, to discuss the impact of early caregiving relationships on a child’s ability to self-regulate.

The effects of stress biology and toxic stress

Kristin Johnson, MSW, interviews Salam Soliman, PsyD, to discuss the effect that elevated levels of stress have on the developing brain and how child welfare workers might help mitigate stress levels through providing resources to at-risk families.

Applying a cultural lens to child welfare work

Tanika Eaves Simpson, PhD, and Amittia Parker, PhD candidate, LMSW, MPA explore the importance of being able to acknowledge and engage with diverse cultures in the child welfare field.

Applying a developmental lens to child welfare work

Christine Cole, LCSW, IMH-E, interviews Kristin Irrer, IMH-E, to discuss how recognizing the various developmental needs of children is crucial for child welfare workers in order to appropriately engage with youth and families

The importance and process of early childhood screening

Kate Waltour, MSW, LISW, talks with Anna Paulson, MEd, and Janell Schilman to discuss the referral and evaluation process when there are concerns about a child’s development and when screening is required through the Child Protection and Treatment Act (CAPTA).

Embedding knowledge into practice: CEED’s Supporting Early Social and Emotional Development Credential

Faith Eidson, LMSW, interviews Kim Eckel, the founder of Footbridge for Families, about the process for obtaining SESED Credential and how the program has impacted their approach to Child Welfare

Cultural perspectives from child welfare workers: A panel

Tanika Eaves Simpson, PhD, interviews Andrea Penick, LMSW, and Cassandra Thomas, LMSW, to discuss how their unique cultural perspective(s) influence their work in child welfare.

Applying an infant mental health lens to child welfare work

Faith Eidson, LMSW, talks with Sarah Shea, PhD, about how using an Infant Mental Health (IMH) framework in Child Welfare work can benefit young children and their caregiver(s).

Early brain development

Christine Cole, LCSW, IMH-E, and Kathleen Thomas, PhD, delve into the topic of early brain development and it’s reliance on adult interaction.

Applying a neuroscience lens to child welfare work

Kristin Johnson, MSW, interviews Daniel Berry, EdD, to explore the interactions between genetics and the environment on a child’s brain development.

Making things easy for people who work hard: a Q & A with Professional Development Coordinator Deborah Ottman

September 21, 2021

Deborah Ottman, MA, oversees CEED’s online courses and self-study modules. She shares what makes our professional development special and puts her finger on a couple of ways in which adult learners differ from traditional full-time students.

What was the educational and career path that led you to your role at CEED?

Deborah Ottman: I earned a BA in communications with a minor in fine arts and Spanish from Cardinal Stritch University and an MA in communications from Marquette University in Milwaukee. After graduate school, I taught English as a second language to adult Spanish speakers in Miami, and discovered that I loved teaching adults. This experience led to a position with a professional development program at the University of Detroit Mercy, where I worked with professionals from all over the world. These were pre-internet times, so the cross-cultural learning that is now so easy for us to access really had to be achieved through direct experience. In my work, that meant anything from reading through McDonald’s employee handbooks with my students in Miami to taking them grocery shopping in Detroit! In both these positions, I appreciated the chance to gain insight into the immigrant experience.

After moving to Minnesota, I worked at the PACER Center, a nonprofit whose mission is to support children and young adults with disabilities as well as their families. I worked on a federally-funded project helping Title I schools engage authentically with families to support children’s academic success. I also worked with these families to support their skills in advocating for their children to help them be successful in school. Being a mom of three young boys myself, I had a particular interest in working with and on behalf of families with young children. Simultaneously, I started providing professional development for public school teachers and administrators, as well as creating large training events for parents.

I started working at CEED in 2012. My role here is an especially good fit because I’m able to bring together my experience in adult education, working with diverse populations, and event planning with my interest in early childhood.

What do you think sets apart CEED’s professional development opportunities? Why should people choose our courses, modules, or trainings?

There are several things that set us apart. First, we are housed within the Institute of Child Development, a remarkable academic department within a Research I university. Our online courses and our self-study modules present high-quality content that is grounded in evidence. Our instructors and module authors are real-world professionals working in the fields they teach. We also offer training, both in-person and online, in research-based classroom assessment tools such as the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS®), Desired Results Developmental Profile (2015), and COR Advantage. The academic rigor that we bring to adult education is really important.

Also, CEED is cross-disciplinary. Our work is grounded in the study of infant and early childhood mental health—another way of talking about social and emotional development. This means, for example, that we look not just at children’s behaviors, but at what those behaviors may be communicating. As another example, we recognize that children don’t develop in isolation; they develop in the context of their caregiving environment and culture. So we take a “two generation” approach to working with families; our participants build skills and knowledge to support children by supporting the important adults in those children’s lives. Additionally, CEED is home to the Reflective Practice Center (RPC). Using a reflective approach helps practitioners work more effectively with children and families and even with their colleagues. With a research center devoted to reflective practice here at CEED, we naturally incorporate reflective principles into our professional development.

We offer all of this research-based content wrapped up in formats that are based on best practices for adult learning. Our goal is to make things easy for people who work hard all day—teachers, social workers, health care workers, administrators, and many others. These are professionals whose main job is not to be a student. Their main job is to work with children and families.

How do working professionals’ educational needs differ from those of full-time students?

One of the more profound starting differences is that full-time students don’t have as much autonomy in choosing what they are going to learn. One thing that we know about adult learners is that they need to know “what’s in it for me.” That’s the starting point. They need to see and feel that what they’re learning can be applied to their job.

Another difference between a traditional student and an adult learner is that the older we get, the fuller our lives become. We have many demands on us: jobs, families, volunteer pursuits, even interests and hobbies. We can’t meet in a classroom three times a week during the middle of the day for an hour and a half. Professional development needs to be accessible and flexible. That’s where virtual learning environments provide great opportunities.

I mentioned earlier that in the pre-internet age, it was more difficult to come by cross-cultural experiences. The advent of the internet has also opened up new possibilities for professional development. You can access our online courses and modules from anywhere, at any time. I find it inspiring that we are able to meet learners where they are—both geographically and in terms of their level of knowledge and skill.

What are some of the ways in which you’ve continued to adapt the professional development options at CEED in response to learners’ needs?

In 2021, we offered our annual Minnesota Early Intervention Summer Institute as a virtual event for the very first time. We were able to provide two days of intensive, innovative professional development to more than 200 early childhood practitioners from Minnesota and beyond. People who normally would not be able to travel to this event, including people from outside our region, were able to participate. Again, we’re really fortunate to be housed within the University of Minnesota, which allows us to access both the best that technology has to offer and also skilled support staff who are experts on using that technology.

Another big change to our professional development offerings is our latest addition–our self-study modules. These explore reflective topics in ways that work for people who are just beginning their reflective journey as well as for those with a more extensive background in reflective practice. I like to recommend Wondering with purpose: reflection in any setting as a starting point for people who don’t have prior knowledge of reflective practice.

The modules take around three hours to complete, but if a participant can only spend half an hour at a time on the module, that’s okay. The modules are structured so they can pick up where they left off later. We give participants access to the module for a whole year. They can take their time, revisit content, and make sure that they get what they hoped to gain out of it.

Going back to adult learning theory, this is a difference between adult learners and traditional students. Adults are going to choose what they want to learn. In our professional development offerings, we give them the basics of what we feel they must know so that we can say, “Yes, you’ve learned this content to a baseline level of satisfaction.” However, when professionals choose to call upon what they learned, it’s entirely up to them how they do that.

What are some of your hobbies and interests outside of work?

I’m in a book club that has been going strong for 20 years! Right now, we’re reading The Power by Naomi Alderman, which was on President Obama’s reading list a few years back.

I’m also a pretty big-time gardener. I have a vegetable garden, trees and shrubs, and perennial beds. This year, my shade garden is doing well with a native cardinal flower that’s a magnet for hummingbirds as well as some new coral bells and a beautiful plot of jack-in-the-pulpit. I’ve been working on incorporating plants that are native to Minnesota and don’t require a lot of extra water or other resources. These plants also sustain our native insects and birds. It’s fun to see a plant vibrating because there are so many honey bees on it. One thing I love about gardening is that it connects us to nature’s life cycle in such an elemental way. It doesn’t really matter what you’re raising or the size of the plot that you tend–gardening is an inherently hopeful activity.

Cook awarded grant to study new ways to motivate teachers to implement research-based practices in classrooms

September 14, 2021

Professor Clayton Cook, OLPD, is co-PI on a recently-awarded $3.8 million, four-year grant from the Institute of Education Sciences: “Initial Efficacy Trial of a Group-Based Implementation Strategy Designed to Increase Teacher Delivery of Evidence-Based Prevention Programs.”

“Students cannot benefit from effective practices they do not receive,” Cook states. “For a variety of valid reasons, many teachers are ambivalent about adopting new practices, even when provided with training and follow-up coaching. The end result is low implementation and maintenance of the status quo, with many students not accessing higher-quality experiences.”

Cook and his research team will focus on implementation of effective practices around teacher motivation, with the explicit aim to test a group-based, motivationally-focused support designed to increase the yield of training and coaching on the successful implementation of effective practices.

“Ultimately, we are trying to learn how best to create professional learning experiences for teachers around learning and implementing new practices that produce important and more equitable outcomes for students. We approach this work with the assumption that without successful implementation, the high quality practices that students need will not be received.”

Cook, whose previous faculty home was in the Department of Education Psychology in CEHD, recently transferred to OLPD, where he will join faculty in the Education Policy and Leadership program track.

CEED to provide professional development for trainers and coaches through State of Minnesota grant

July 14, 2021

CEED is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Child Care Services Division of the Minnesota Department of Human Services. CEED was awarded a contract to provide support for trainers and relationship-based professional development (RBPD) specialists who work with child care providers throughout the state of Minnesota. Through the Trainer And RBPD Specialist Support (TARSS) program, CEED will support the needs of trainers and RBPD specialists throughout the state by continuing to implement what is already working well within the current training and mentoring system, bringing innovative and culturally-responsive ideas to enhance this system, and evaluating the process and impact of these activities to inform future programmatic decisions.

Two smiling adults converse while sitting on a sofa in a preschool classroom

“We’re excited to be able to build upon the existing system and enhance support for child care trainers and RBPD specialists through the TARSS program,” said Ann Bailey, PhD, director of CEED. “We know that early childhood is a critical time in human development. Educators of young children are doing extremely important work and need more support. This support must include access to high-quality, usable content; training; coaching; and mentoring that leads to improved outcomes for young children. We look forward to drawing upon CEED’s 45 years of research and practical experience to maintain a highly-qualified and diverse support system for all trainers and RBPD specialists.”

The TARSS program is grounded in best practice for early childhood trainers and RBPD specialists. Research shows that these two related yet distinct disciplines have a meaningful impact on early childhood educators. Professional development opportunities for trainers and RBPD specialists will span a variety of formats, such as in-person and online events, along with opportunities for ongoing coaching and mentoring. The TARSS team aims to use innovative technologies to build communities which support peer learning. These technologies will also make coaching and mentoring services more accessible and customized for each professional’s schedule.

Trainers and RBPD specialists can access TARSS support from CEED staff by emailing tarss@umn.edu or calling 612-624-5708. Hours of operation are 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; we will respond to calls and emails within one business day.

Reflecting on complexity: Q & A with module author Tracy Schreifels

July 6, 2021

Tracy Schreifels, MS, LMFT, IMH-E® (IV), is a therapist, reflective consultant, and executive director of Ellison Center, a non-profit early childhood mental health agency in the St. Cloud area. Schreifels teaches in the marriage and family therapy program at St. Cloud State University and is the co-chair of the Advisory Board for the Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health – Infant and Early Childhood Division. In addition to teaching CEED online courses, Schreifels authored two of CEED’s self-study modules: A Guide for the Guide: The “How” of Reflective Supervision and The Plot Thickens: Reflective Supervision for Groups. In this Q & A, she discusses The Plot Thickens.

Who do you see as the audience for this module? Who do you think would benefit from enrolling in it?

Tracy Schreifels: This module is designed for professionals who are preparing to lead group reflective supervision sessions either as consultants or supervisors. In order to provide reflective supervision, professionals should have a solid foundational understanding of the principles of infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH). They themselves should also be receiving ongoing reflective supervision.

This module would also work well for those who are looking to expand their skills. I would recommend it to professionals who have been providing individual reflective supervision and wish to add group offerings. I’d also recommend it to those who are looking for some new tools or ideas to try out when providing reflective supervision in this format.

Could you share some of the reflections or realizations you had while building the content for this module?

I always enjoy getting back into the literature around the dynamic and growing field of IECMH. As I explored the content and topics for this module, I found myself reflecting on my methods for starting reflective supervision with the groups I provide it to. Creating this module helped me be more intentional and aware of why I operate the way I do.

Putting together the module was also an opportunity to to reflect on how I learned to provide group reflective supervision and how much the field has changed since then. When I was being mentored on providing reflective supervision, there wasn’t much research on the topic that we could use to guide the process. It’s amazing how much the field has grown in the past 10 years! In addition, I found that the group formation process can be informed by evidence from the field of parent education. It’s astounding to me how all kinds of disciplines are needed to support this important work!

What drew you to the work of reflective practice and reflective supervision?

I was drawn into this field by amazing mentors. I have always had a passion for working with young children, and that guided me to get a degree in child and family studies. With that educational background, I worked as a preschool teacher as well as with caregivers and children. Along the way, the agency I was working for as a teacher brought in a reflective consultant to support us in our work. I looked forward to our monthly sessions, but when the grant funding ended, so did our reflective practice. I decided to go back to school to earn my master’s degree in marriage and family therapy, and I knew that I would specialize in IECMH.

What are the top three takeaways that you hope students come away with from your module?

First, I want students to be able to hold in mind the differences and similarities associated with group and individual reflective supervision. While the same foundation is used for both, the execution can be very different. Being able to process those similarities and differences can help us be more intentional in our approaches and better able to hold the perspectives of reflective supervision participants.

Second, reflecting on reflecting is essential. That is something I hope students take away from this module. I want students to consider the impact of group development. This field is founded on developmental principles, and those principles can inform group reflective supervision as well.

Third, I hope that students feel a sense of confidence after completing this module, so that they can step in to address concerns that arise in the group delivery model of reflective supervision. Holding in mind each participant, the group dynamics, and the work they are reflecting on is complex. This module was designed to help practitioners reflect on those complexities.

Are there any additional thoughts you would like to share?

We are never done learning. Professionals need the supportive relationships that develop in reflective supervision to support them and the children and families they work with as well. I hope that participants enjoy the content and allow themselves to reflect and process as they work through it.

Q & A with Program Quality Specialist Margarita Milenova, PhD

June 22, 2021

Margarita Milenova, PhD, joined CEED as a program quality specialist in 2013. She works on early childhood program quality projects and trains early childhood professionals on the Desired Results Developmental Profile© (DRDP [2015]) and the COR Advantage® assessment tools. Milenova has special expertise in authentic assessment. In this Q & A, she talks about the advantages of different assessment tools and offers tips for early childhood professionals to use them effectively.

How did you become interested in early childhood education?

Margarita Milenova: My interest in learning about young children was sparked during my senior year in high school in Bulgaria when I enrolled in the prep program for assistant teachers. This was a year-round program that focused on early childhood education and psychology, combining academic classes with an extended practicum in child care centers.

This experience motivated me to continue my journey at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, where I earned a master’s degree and a doctoral degree in early childhood education with a minor in special education. I was still curious to learn more and wanted to give back to the field, so I accepted a faculty position at the Department of Preschool and Elementary Education at Sofia University. After moving to the US, I had the opportunity to work as an early childhood teacher, as well as a director and teacher at the Bulgarian School in Minnesota supporting bilingual children and their families. These experiences across cultures were evidence of the fundamental importance of high-quality early childhood education.

Your work involves training early childhood educators to use the DRDP (2015)and COR Advantage® assessment tools. Can you describe how these tools work?

Authentic formative assessments help educators determine where each child is developmentally, so they can plan enriching learning opportunities for children, make changes in the physical environment, and provide the necessary support. Assessments like the DRDP (2015) and COR Advantage® provide a great way to communicate with families about children’s development and can also be used for accountability purposes.

The assessment tools that I train educators to use are both reliable and valid authentic assessments. They look at all the important areas of child development. The assessments unfold as cycles of observation, documentation of behaviors and skills, reflection on the collected data, planning, and implementing. These steps are performed by caregivers who are familiar with the children. They’re performed in natural settings while children play and interact with peers or explore independently. These are the hallmarks of “authentic” assessments. It’s important to highlight that these are not test-like assessments where children are invited to do specific tasks or choose the correct answer.

What advice on using assessment tools such as the DRDP (2015) and the COR Advantage® do you have for early childhood professionals?

One important piece of information for Minnesota-based caregivers is that DRDP (2015) and COR Advantage® are on the list of approved assessments for Parent Aware, which is Minnesota’s voluntary quality rating and improvement system for early childhood programs. Both assessments may also be used by participants in the Kindergarten Entry Profile Initiative, which is a voluntary program offered by the Minnesota Department of Education. Another advantage of these assessments is that they are strengths-based and grounded in research. That means the focus is on what children can do, not on what they cannot do. I also like to emphasize that valid authentic assessments can yield very useful information. When programs use them as intended, teachers and caregivers can collect data that will help them make well-informed decisions about supporting children.

Sometimes it might look overwhelming to do all the different steps that authentic assessments call for (i.e., observe in various settings, write notes, snap photos, take videos, fill in forms and records, etc.). Working on it as a team with other caregivers can help make it more manageable. In fact, it’s actually preferable to have those observations in different settings—at the playground, at the sand table, in the dramatic play area, etc.—so you can be confident that a child is at a particular developmental level.

Another tip is using technology to store and organize data collected through observation. There are some free apps available to make this easier for teachers. For instance, the DRDP Portfolio app and the Teaching Strategies® GOLD® app allow educators to save and quickly review the evidence they have collected. They can determine where a child is developmentally and share data with teachers and administrators, special education teachers, and families, all within these apps.

As someone who speaks more than one language, what are your thoughts about assessment for children who are bilingual or speak a different language at home from the one that is spoken in their early childhood program?

I believe that early childhood educators are very important partners for parents when we think about language development and how to support young children. When educators take the time to find out what language is spoken in the child’s home, it can really make a difference in relationship-building and instructional strategies. A child speaking a language other than English at home sometimes might appear to be falling behind their monolingual peers. In reality, however, this child might be able to fully participate in pretend play, with elaborate exchanges with a friend speaking Bulgarian or Tagalog, for instance. It’s important to have an open mind and avoid the assumption that having trouble expressing oneself in English equates to a lack of knowledge or understanding of concepts.

Authentic assessments can help educators take a holistic look at a child’s language development. As just one example, DRDP (2015) has a set of four English language development measures. These measures look at how a child is progressing in English. Crucially, however, each of these measures also takes into account the child’s development in their home language. The rest of the DRDP (2015) assessment can be completed based on a child’s use of their home language or based on alternative ways of communicating.

No matter which assessment tool an educator is using, it can be really helpful to work with an interpreter, a cultural liaison, and a child’s parents when assessing multilingual children. They can help educators gain a better understanding of where the child is developmentally. It is not always easy to find interpreters and cultural liaisons, but connecting with cultural institutions representing different communities can be an option.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Living in Minnesota has given me plenty of opportunities to enjoy the outdoors at a level that is new for me! I enjoy paddle boarding in the summer and cross-country skiing during the snowy months.

“This work is hard, and it should be”: Q & A with Mindy Kronenberg

June 8, 2021

Mindy Kronenberg, PhD, IMH-E®, is a clinical psychologist who specializes in infant mental health and the assessment and treatment of trauma across the lifespan. Kronenberg has worked in settings such as state agencies, schools, Head Start programs, dependency courts, and child welfare agencies. In this Q & A, Kronenberg talks about how she developed the self-study module Holding the Baby in Mind—When We Are Dysregulated Ourselves.

Who do you see as the audience of your module?

Mindy Kronenberg: This module is aimed at people who work with infants and young children and their families. The concept of “holding the baby in mind,” or keeping the baby or child’s perspective in mind when working with a family, is central to infant mental health (IMH) work. However, our capacity to hold the baby in mind is affected by our own stress. This module addresses an issue that is at the heart of infant mental health, leaning into the often painful emotions of the families with whom we work. Holding the baby in mind while self-regulating remains challenging for IMH practitioners regardless of the stage of their career. That’s why this module is relevant for practitioners at any point in their career.

My guess is that not all of the videos and articles I’ve chosen for the module will be brand-new to all participants. However, I’ve organized the module in a way that I hope will stimulate new ways of thinking about the content.

What are the top three takeaways that you hope students come away with from your module?

The first takeaway is that this work is hard, and it should be. The fact that we feel challenged and sometimes experience strong emotions can mean that we are fully connecting with a family. Making this connection is part of what leads to effective work.

Second, IMH work requires a strong foundation of knowledge as well as a learning mindset. In order to focus on relationships, hold the baby in mind, and be fully present with a family, we need to master core IMH competencies. I hope that this module helps practitioners consider how they can hold the baby in mind when they are dysregulated. I also hope that the ideas presented here stimulate their curiosity to seek more information.

The final takeaway is that we cannot do this work alone. We all need good reflective supervision or consultation. This type of reflective practice is not only beneficial to us, but it is beneficial to the families we serve.

Are there additional thoughts you would like to share?

While this is a self-study course, the module will be most beneficial if practitioners complete it together. We often think of the importance of regulation, learning, and exploration within relationships for infants, but the importance of relationships does not end with infancy. My hope is that, just like all IMH work, participants are able to complete this module in the context of relationships.

I’ve enjoyed putting this module together, and I hope you enjoy it as well!

The RIOS in practice: Part two of our Q & A with Michelle Dineen

May 21, 2021

Michelle Dineen, MSW, LICSW, IMH-E®, is a therapist and reflective consultant. In part one of our Q & A, she talked about what happens in a reflective supervision session and why it benefits participants. In this second installment, Dineen talks about how reflective supervisors and consultants use the Reflective Interaction Observation Scale (RIOS™), which was developed at CEED. Dineen teaches our online course, RIOS™ 1: Using the RIOS™ Framework for Reflective Supervision, and she authored the self-study module Wondering with Purpose: Reflection in Any Setting.

The RIOS was initially developed as a research tool, but reflective practitioners quickly started using it as a tool for training and practice. Can you talk about how the RIOS is used in reflective supervision sessions?

Michelle Dineen: I’ll give you my personal answer. Have you ever seen that image of pinning down a cloud? Describing reflective supervision can feel like that. What researchers at CEED did when they developed the RIOS was to answer the question: “What are we actually doing in reflective supervision?” What they found is that we’re actively listening and being curious. The RIOS framework helps the reflective supervisor or consultant to remain grounded while listening to a story. I think of the RIOS as a touchstone, something to think about when you’re getting lost, when you might have veered off. It’s a reminder to ask yourself: What am I curious about next? What am I not curious about?

So the RIOS was developed as a way to describe the content of a reflective supervision session. But practitioners can actively use it during reflective supervision to help guide the conversation.

Here is one way to think of reflective supervision. Picture six people sitting around a table with a 3D object in the middle of it. None of us can see the object from every angle. Each of us is seeing a different part of the thing. But if we all look at it at the same time and from our different perspectives, we are seeing the whole object.

One of the Essential Elements of reflective supervision identified by the RIOS is Holding the Baby or Child in Mind. What the RIOS does is to help us hold all of the pieces: the person who’s receiving services, the baby or child, and the provider who’s telling the story. It helps us build a whole picture of a family or a situation. It helps us know if we are seeing all the different parts of the 3D object. This is especially important since a reflective supervision session consists of two or more people talking about a third party.

This sounds like one of the differences between reflective supervision and therapy. When someone meets with a therapist, their own stories are the focus of the conversation. In contrast to that, in reflective supervision, the provider and the reflective supervisor are talking about someone who is not in the room with them.

Yes, when a client shares a personal story with their therapist, the therapist is curious about the person and their story. But the client has the answers. In a reflective session, the people in the room don’t have all the answers. We are still curious about the provider sitting with us who is sharing the story. As we know, they are part of the story. They’re helping that third party, and part of their work is to be curious about that third party.

It’s interesting that you use the word “curiosity” more than words like “empathy” or “compassion.”

When you’re curious, open, or challenging assumptions, it helps you to connect empathetically. The curious mindset leaves more space for understanding the other person–or just sitting with that person and not understanding. Research has found that a curious, wondering mind is a coping mechanism for stressful events. If a stressful thing happens, instead of holding onto the stress, the curious mind can actually say, “Okay, this is an adventure. I’m interested. What do I need to know?” We move towards action, curiosity, and wonder. That curiosity goes away sometimes when things are stressful or when someone hurts my feelings. Yet my job is still to be in a relationship with the other person, to get them what they need.

Let’s say I’m a home visitor working with a parent. The parent is yelling at me. If I’m able to maintain my curiosity about the person, I may ask, “What is the feeling that produced this behavior?” I may learn that they were verbally abused as a child. That starts to kick my empathy into gear. Now I understand that they’re playing out their attachment relationship with me, and if I act differently from their parent, then there’s potential for repairing that prior relationship. Later, when the parent interacts with their child, they may be able to use our relationship as a model sometimes, instead of only the relationship they had with their parents.

That’s an example of Parallel Process, one of the Essential Elements identified in the RIOS.

It’s one of the reasons why reflective supervision was born in the infant mental health field. Workers were trying to create these corrective relationships with clients who were becoming parents. But what if corrective relationships like that were available to everyone? If there are people who are curious and interested in me and in whatever I’m having trouble with, I can hold my feelings instead of acting them out.

This is why I believe this course, RIOS™ 1: Using the RIOS™ Framework for Reflective Supervision, can work for people in a range of professions. I think the same is true of the module Wondering with Purpose: Reflection in Any Setting. Take “Holding the Baby in Mind” and change “baby” to “person on the phone who needs housing” and “provider” to “person answering the phone.” The reflective provider will be more able to hold the boundary when someone is acting inappropriately. The provider will then be more able to give them another chance when they’re acting appropriately, rather than saying, “You can’t come back to my agency again.”

So that’s what opens up this course to anybody who’s interested in this reflective way of interacting with people. A big piece is practicing identifying a feeling in someone else and in yourself. Have you heard what Brené Brown has to say about empathy versus sympathy? Empathy acknowledges that maybe there are no solutions. Empathy means that when someone feels like they’re down in a hole, you just get down in the hole with them. It helps us get used to saying to a supervisor, “I am tapped out, frustrated, and angry.” And it helps the supervisor get used to saying: “Wow, I hear you.” Or: “I trust you to do what you need to do so you can get back to work.” That’s instead of saying: “Just get back to the phones.” Or: “Let me fix it.” There doesn’t need to be a genius fix, there just needs to be a space.

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