October 2, 2023
The Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA) Program for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers is designed specifically to screen, assess, and strengthen children’s social and emotional competencies. The core of the program is the DECA, a nationally standardized, strength-based, reliable, and valid measure of social and emotional competencies in children from four weeks of age through five years old (up to sixth birthday). Both parents and teachers can complete the DECA, and research-based strategies are used to guide the planning process for both home and school.
Since the first publication of the DECA in 1999, Head Start programs across the country have used the DECA Program resources to meet several key Head Start Performance Standards and, ultimately, to improve the quality of services. Here are those resources, along with the performance standards they can help you meet…
The DECA / DECA Program overall can help you meet the following performance standards, and what’s better, you can use the DECA using our web-based system called the e-DECA!
- 1302.31 Teaching and the learning environment
- 1302.33 Child screenings and assessments
- 1302.34 Parent and family engagement in education and child development services
- 1302.45 Child mental health and social and emotional well-being
- 1302.17 Prohibition on expulsion
- 1302.52 Family partnership services
- 1302.93 Staff health and wellness
- 1302.102 Achieving program goals
Promoting Resilience in Preschoolers is a guide that provides teachers with research-based strategies and tips to enhance children’s social and emotional health, as well as hundreds of tips for improving the overall quality of preschool programs. This resource can help you meet the following standards.
- 1302.31 Teaching and the learning environment
- 1302.17 Prohibition on expulsion
The Infant and Toddler Strategies Guide provides research-based, simple, easy-to-use social and emotional strategies for the home and childcare setting. With hundreds of strategies, organized into five chapters, this guide is a wonderful reference for any caregiver who is interested in promoting the social and emotional health of infants and toddlers. Included are reproducible forms and checklists to help programs reflect on overall social and emotional quality of early care and education settings. This resource can help you meet the following standard.
- 1302.31 Teaching and the learning environment
Promoting Resilience For Now and Forever in Preschoolers and Promoting Resilience For Now and Forever in Infants/Toddlers are guides that support families in understanding what social and emotional infants and toddlers is, how to recognize key behaviors, and how to support children’s social and emotional health in the home setting in simple ways every day! These resources can help you meet the following standards.
- 1302.31 Teaching and the learning environment
- 1302.34 Parent and family engagement in education and child development services
- 1302.52 Family partnership services
The Reflective Checklists for Preschool Teaching Practices and CARE Reflective Checklists for Infant/Toddler Settings are designed to help teachers/caregivers reflect upon and intentionally use practices to promote young children’s social and emotional health. These resources can help you meet the following standard.
- 1302.31 Teaching and the learning environment
FLIP IT! Transforming Challenging Behavior: FLIP IT is a strategy that offers a simple, kind, strength-based, commonsense, and effective four step process to address children’s day-to-day challenging behavior. The four steps are embodied in the FLIP mnemonic which stands for F – Feelings, L – Limits, I – Inquiries and P – Prompts. FLIP IT is nothing new, but transforms best practice into a strategy that is easy to remember, applicable in a variety of challenging situations and portable. You can purchase the FLIP IT book and/or the FLIP IT Online Course. This resource can help you meet the following standard.
- 1302.17 Prohibition on expulsion
DCRC Professional Development: We have built a national reputation for providing dynamic, motivational, high-quality professional development services to programs and communities across the United States and internationally. Comprised of an expert team of professionals, our trainers can provide professional development on the DECA Program for Infants/Toddlers and/or Preschoolers, or deliver sessions on our other resources and critical topics related to the social and emotional health and resilience of children, and the adults who care for them. Check out our schedule of virtual trainings and our schedule of free webinars. You can also request custom training for just your team. This resource can help you meet the following standards.
- 1302.92 Training and professional development
- 1302.93 Staff health and wellness
Devereux Adult Resilience Survey (DARS) and Building Your Bounce: Simple Strategies for a Resilient You: The DARS is a 23-item reflective checklist that provides adults with information about their personal strengths. Each item on the DARS relates to thoughts and behaviors that have been shown to support resilience. The DARS is incorporated into Building Your Bounce: Simple Strategies for a Resilient You, an adult resilience journal and strategies guide. While the ideas in this resource are simple and straightforward, they can make a very positive impact on caregivers’ lives. These resources can help you meet the following standard.
- 1302.93 Staff health and wellness
For more information, feel free to access our DECA Program & Head Start Performance Standards Alignment Tool. We also invite you to check out the page of our website dedicated specifially for Head Start and Early Head Start professionals.
