Learn about the Pyramid Model
What is the Pyramid Model?
The Pyramid Model for Promoting the Social and Emotional Development of Infants and Young Children is a conceptual framework of evidence-based practices developed by two national, federally-funded research and training centers: The Center for the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) and TACSEI. These centers’ faculty represent nationally recognized researchers and program developers in the areas of social skills and challenging behavior. Based on evaluation data over the last six years, the Pyramid Model has shown to be a sound framework for early care and education systems. Extensive training materials, videos, and print resources to help states, communities and programs implement the model have been developed.
What are the Parts of the Pyramid Model?
The Pyramid Model builds upon a tiered public health approach to providing universal supports to all children to promote wellness, targeted services to those who need more support, and intensive services to those who need them.
We depict our tiered approach as a pyramid with a:
- Yellow Foundation: The foundation for all of the practices in the pyramid are the systems and policies necessary to ensure a workforce able to adopt and sustain these evidence-based practices.
- Blue Tier : Universal supports for all children through nurturing and responsive relationships and high quality environments.
- Green Tier : Prevention which represents practices that are targeted social emotional strategies to prevent problems.
- Red Tier: Intervention which is comprised of practices related to individualized intensive interventions.
Pyramid Model Demonstration Sites
- Summary documents
- Effective practices in action
- Planning forms and procedures
- Assessing fidelity
Positive Behavior Support and the Pyramid Model
Lise will send paragraph describing relationship
Program-wide Adoption
Implementing Positive Behavior Supports within Local Systems
The adoption of a program-wide, tiered model of social emotional and behavior intervention is being promoted as an effective practice, but what does it take administratively to ensure fidelity of implementation? Lise Fox of TACSEI provides a brief description of a program-wide model and introduces Linda Broyles of the Southeast Kansas Community Action Program (SEK-CAP) who describes the administrative actions necessary for program-wide model adoption, implementation fidelity, and sustaining the effort over time. Linda Broyles is the Deputy Director of SEK-CAP, Inc. and the Director of Early Childhood Services and has championed the program-wide adoption of Positive Behavior Support within her regional Head Start program that is currently in its 7th year of implementation. (January, 2008)
Program-Wide Positive Behavior Support
This booklet provides a report on the program-wide implementation of the "Teaching Pyramid" within a Head Start Program. The Southeast Kansas Community Action Program (SEK-CAP) provides information on the implementation of the model and the outcomes for the children, families, teachers, and program.- Research to Practice: the Teaching Pyramid and Program-Wide Applications
Mary Louise Hemmeter
November, 2005
Practitioner Implementation Guides
Pyramid Model Resources
Pyramid Model Handout
This handout illustrates the various levels of the Pyramid Model in a format that is easy to print and ideal for distribution.
The Teaching Pyramid: A Model for Supporting Social Competence and Preventing Challenging Behavior in Young Children
Published in Young Children, July 2003
This article describes a conceptual framework for change that guides the work of TACSEI. Specifically, this model maps out how to proceed in a systematic fashion and helps us decide where immediate attention is it most necessary regarding children’s social emotional issues and challenging behavior.
Selected Recommend Practices Handouts
Videos
The video described below is available on DVD and can be ordered through CSEFEL by completing and submitting this order form.
Promoting Social Emotional Competence was designed to provide a foundation for understanding the Teaching Pyramid as a framework for promoting young children’s social and emotional development and preventing and addressing challenging behavior. This 22-minute video is a perfect way to be introduced to and become familiar with the pyramid framework and is available with both English and Spanish open captioning.
Presentations
- Pyramid Model Overview
This PowerPoint presentation with audio and captioning provides a comprehensive overview of the Pyramid Model for Promoting the Social and Emotional Development of Infants and Young Children. (September, 2008)
In order to view this file, you may need to download Adobe Flash Player.
Pyramid Text Transcript - The Teaching Pyramid: Evidence-based Practices for Supporting Young Children's Social Development and Addressing Challenging Behavior
Lise Fox
November, 2005
Camtasia Presentation of Pyramid Model Overview