Supporting Educators to Support Children with Maladaptive Behaviours within the Early Childhood Educational Context.

The intervention consists of a professional learning (PL) package, coupled with in-residence mentoring to embed practices into the everyday practices of early childhood educators. The intervention will be delivered by an early childhood teacher/researcher with over 20 years of experience teaching early childhood education and 7 years of experience in research. The professional learning will consist of 7 monthly face-to-face sessions of up to 5 hours each duration. The in-residence mentoring will occur in between PL sessions, for approximately 3 to 4 hours each. It is expected that the intervention will begin in late September 2022 and finish in April 2023. The PL will be facilitated with early childhood educators - the PL will be facilitated at their head office and the in-residence mentoring will be facilitated in their own early learning centres. The training modules will comprise of a PowerPoint presentation to share content, interactive activities and video clips to support participants learning. Goal setting and reflective practice will be key components throughout the training modules and in-residence mentoring. Participants will have asynchronous access to a Padlet for additional resources related to the module content. It is expected that each module will be presented twice in a one-week period to enable all participating educators to attend (relieving multiple educators from face-to-face teaching is currently limited due to workforce shortages). It is expected that each session will comprise of a maximum 6 participants and 1 facilitator. Attendance will be recorded. The professional learning has been designed specifically for this study. The professional learning will consist of the following topics: *Children's brains, behaviour and learning Key learning focuses on understanding brain development, with links to behaviour, learning and development made. participants will understand factors that shape brain development, as well as the sensitive and critical periods of influence. Educators will engage with content focused on the importance of quality environments and interactions for brain development. *The significance of relationships The key learning focus of this topic is why relationships matter, delving into attachment approaches and theories in educational contexts (e.g.: Circle of Security, Bowlby, Ainsworth), as well as indicators of poor attachment. Participants will be guided on relationships across various contexts - family, community, and place, as well as effective strategies for developing positive and responsive relationships with young children. This topic will address factors that impact attachment, as well as developing environments/relationships for safety, security and belonging. *Ways to understand children's behaviour Participants will look at contemporary developmental and ecological theories, as well as develop an understanding of risk and resilience. The Codes of Behaviour (Rappaport & Minahan, 2012) will be introduced, as will the Neuro-sequential Modle of Therapeutics (Dr Bruce Perry) and the work of Dr Daniel Seigel around the Windows of Tolerance, to develop a framework of understanding behaviour in young children. Participants will explore attitudes and beliefs about behaviour in educational contexts, and how to create common/shared language and purpose within teams and with families. *Children's self-regulation participants will develop a greater understanding of children's self-regulation and its developmental significance. This topic will offer approaches to support children's emotional regulation, thoughts and behaviours, as well as interventions and learning supports that can be implemented in an early years context. Conflict resolution processes will be a key aspect, as well as how to approach the assessment of children's self-regulation. *Social and emotional development This topic focuses on meeting the emotional needs of children in an educational context. Participants will gain an increased understanding of social and emotional development in the early years, with links to children's well-being. Educators will be introduced to personalised attunement, tailoring interactions to meet the emotional needs of individual children, as well as showing and developing empathy and emotional awareness. *Supporting children's behaviour Practical ideas on creating responsive and supportive learning environments will be the focus of this topic. participants will learn pre-emptive strategies to reduce the occurrence of challenging behaviours, differentiated pedagogy, language use, the need for daily routines, schedules, child's choice and intentional transitions, as well as tools and approaches to discover each child's individual needs. *Trauma and trauma-informed practice This topic will enable educators to recognise children's trauma histories and understand children's unique triggers and supports. It will address how to assess the environment, harm and re-traumatisation, with an emphasis on strength building and skill acquisition and building resilience. *Maladaptive behaviours and dysregulation This topic will delve further into the Windows of Tolerance, Neuro-Sequential Model of Therapeutics, with participants understanding the signs and signals of a changing state of arousal (hypo v's Hyperarousal). Key practical strategies and practices for supporting children will be explored. *Staff wellbeing The psychological and physiological components of well-being will be shared, as will the links between educator well-being and children's behaviour. We will delve into team well-being, and explore creating supportive and responsive work environments. Building educator resilience will be part of this topic, as well as supporting colleagues' well-being. *Working with families and communities to support children's behaviour This topic will look at how to build positive and responsive relationships with families, and how to approach collaboration and support regarding children's behaviour. Supports for the Home Learning Environment will be explored, with practices and activities being shared. *Programming and planning Participants will explore tools for planning, as well as assessing for challenging situations. Educators will understand how to develop individual learning and behaviour support plans that support practice to respond to children's behavioural and emotional regulation. Sustainable practices will be explored to ensure the knowledge and understanding gained in the intervention can continue to be implemented post-intervention. The mentoring sessions will be guided by the goals set by individual participants or service teams at the conclusion of each module. These goals will become the focus for the 3 hour mentoring session. The mentoring session will be a time where the mentor and mentees will work together to strengthen knowledge gained from the professional learning, putting this into practice during a regular work day. Guidance and advice will be provided as necessary, as well as fostering a reflective learning environment. The 3 to 4 hour mentoring session will take place on one day approximately 2 weeks after the professional learning session. Post mentoring session, the mentor will write field notes detailing the session, including which educators engaged in the session and the focus of the time spent together. Facilitators and challenges will be noted.