Professional Development for Those Supporting Infants/Toddlers

Devereux offers nationally standardized screening and assessment tools that link results to strategies aimed at promoting young children’s resilience. Professional development options are available that explore best practices and implementation of the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA) for Infants/Toddlers Program, designed for children 4 weeks up to 36 months. In these sessions, participants will learn:

• Skills for effective observation, assessment, and strategic planning for both the care and home settings
• Strategies that promote high quality environments for all children as well as strategies that support individual children with social and emotional needs
• Creative solutions that encourage family involvement in efforts to strengthen children’s healthy social and emotional development

Professional Development Options

• One-Day DECA for Infants/Toddlers Program Overview Training
• Two-Day DECA for Infants/Toddlers Program Implementation Training
• One-Day DECA for Infants/Toddlers Program Refresher Training
• One-Day DECA for Infants/Toddlers Program for the Home Visitor
• One-Day DECA for Infants/Toddlers Program Strategies Training (for those programs who have received training and are looking to strengthen skills in using assessment results for planning)
• DECA Birth through Five Overview and Implementation Training sessions also available

The Two-Day DECA Program for Infants and Toddlers (DECA-I/T) Local Program Mentor (LPM) Training will help prepare participants to return to their local programs and offer technical assistance and workshops on the DECA-I/T Program. This training is highly interactive, with the expectation that participants will present a training workshop or mentoring plan to the group. This training is limited to 25 participants in order to maximize the opportunity for interactive discussion. In these sessions, participants will learn:

• Essential key messages of the DECA-I/T Program and ways to communicate these messages with program staff
• Skills for training and mentoring others around DECA-I/T Program implementation
• Strategies for effective troubleshooting with program staff and participants around DECA-I/T Program implementation

Available Options

• Two-Day Session
• Three-Day DECA Birth through Five Local Program Mentor Session

*In order to attend LPM training, participants need to have attended the DECA Program basic implementation training conducted by a certified trainer.

The quality of service that adults provide to children and families is directly impacted by the manner in which they care for themselves. This training is designed to explore the importance of taking care of and promoting the social and emotional health of the caregiver. Participants will learn:

• How the social and emotional well-being of the adult has an impact on their ability to care for children
• Specific, simple, inexpensive strategies to reduce stress and promote the adult’s social and emotional health

Half-day, Full-day, Conference, and Keynote sessions available

• Screening, assessment and evaluation
• Observation of young children
• Promoting quality in the early learning environment
• Parent involvement in promoting the social and emotional health of infants and toddlers
• Using the DECA-I/T Program for home visitors
• Using the DECA-I/T Program for children in the child welfare system
• How the DECA-I/T Program can meet Early Head Start Performance Standards
• Customized workshops and trainings to meet your program’s needs