NV TACSEI—Nevada Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention

Nevada was selected as one of only two states in 2010 to partner with the Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention (TACSEI). The purpose of this partnership is to build our state capacity to develop, implement and sustain a comprehensive system of training and technical assistance for supporting social emotional competence and addressing challenging behaviors in young children at-risk for or with identified developmental delays in Nevada. A primary goal of this partnership is to enhance the ability of the early care and education (ECE) workforce to address the social, emotional and behavioral needs of all young children birth to 5-years. This will be done by embedding Pyramid Model training into existing Nevada ECE professional development initiatives.

The Pyramid Model promotes evidence-based practices that support positive social emotional skills for young children, such as recognizing emotions in self and others, learning rules and expectations, self-regulation, and positive social interactions with peers. Research confirms a strong link between social emotional competence in young children and later school success. It also shows the negative consequences of untreated behavior problems including risk for school failure, delinquency in adolescence, and adult incarceration.

To achieve the broad goal of implementing a comprehensive system of training and technical assistance to support children’s social emotional competence, TACSEI staff worked with Nevada on the following activities:

Convened a statewide interagency early childhood leadership team to develop policies and procedures to implement, evaluate, and sustain this initiative.

Identified and trained a Master Cadre of trainers and coaches to build the capacity of the ECE workforce to implement the Pyramid Model with fidelity.

Identified and provided support to  five programs to serve as model demonstration sites to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Pyramid Model and practices; Head Start of Northeastern Nevada, Washoe Tribe Head Start of California & Nevada, UNR Early Head Start, WCSD Inclusive Pre-K, and Community College of Southern Nevada ECE Lab School.

For more information about the Nevada TACSEI initiative or to find out how you can support this effort contact Janice Lee at janicelee@unr.edu or Diane Branson at dbranson@health.nv.gov.