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Pyramid Model Trainings

The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL), a national resource center located at Vanderbilt University, designed Training Modules based on input gathered during focus groups with program administrators, trainers and technical assistance providers, early educators, and family members about the types and content of training that would be most useful in addressing the social-emotional needs of infants and young children. The content of the modules is consistent with evidence-based practices identified through a thorough review of the literature. These Training Modules are available on the CSEFEL website:

The Infant Toddler Training Modules can be found here.
The Preschool Training Modules can be found here.

Since becoming a Pyramid Model Partner state in 2009, Massachusetts has adapted the Training Modules in order to respond to the training priorities and needs of the early childhood professionals in the state. These CEU-bearing trainings are described briefly below:

  • Foundations of the CSEFEL Pyramid Model Training: a 15-hour, 6-session, CEU-bearing course that is an introduction to each level of the Pyramid Model and its use across age-groups. This training is appropriate for early education and care teachers, mental health consultants, program supervisors and administrators.
  • Using the Pyramid Model in the Classroom: a 6-hour, training focused on translating the CSEFEL Pyramid Model to real-life early childhood classroom practices. Designed to expand on themes from the Foundations of the CSEFEL Pyramid Model course, this training focuses on the classroom environment.
  • Top of the Pyramid Skills (TOPS): a 16-hour training providing instruction in the best practice use of the Pyramid Model Approach (CSEFEL) to Positive Behavior Support as an intensive intervention to address challenging behavior in young children.
  • Parents Interacting with Infants (PIWI): a 6-hour training providing a hands-on orientation to the use of the CSEFEL PIWI materials, providing companion parent/baby group and home-based approaches to CSEFEL’s comprehensive model for supporting social emotional growth and addressing challenging behavior.
  • Positive Family Solutions / Pre-K Parent Modules: a 6-hour training providing a hands-on orientation to the use of the Pyramid Model training modules for parents, providing a parent group curriculum and parent engagement resources as companions to the comprehensive Pyramid Model.
  • CSEFEL Pyramid Model Program-wide Implementation Training: a 6-hour training for Massachusetts programs with staff and leadership who have already participated in Train-the-Trainer, Train-the-Coaches and Foundations Training and who are ready to implement the Pyramid Model “to scale” in their agency, program and/or classrooms.
  • Pyramid Model Higher Education Institute: a one-day seminar, intended for full-time and adjunct ECE faculty from both two and four-year institutions of higher education, featuring strategies for incorporating information from the CSEFEL Pyramid Model into existing early childhood education coursework for children birth to six.

Other states and organizations across the country have adapted the Pyramid Model Materials. Here are some great examples:

FAMILY CHILD CARE MODULES – DEVELOPED BY IOWA
Here you’ll find data tools for system-wide analysis. This link also includes the modules and participant materials to help your trainers instruct your workforce on social-emotional enhancement in the classroom.

THE MAKE-AND-TAKE WORKSHOPS – DEVELOPED BY TACSEI
Make and Take Workshops are workshops designed to provide information on a focused topic with the opportunity to “make and take” materials back to the classroom. Practitioners who make materials to use are much more likely to implement the strategies in their classrooms. The Make and Take materials posted here are for experienced Pyramid Model trainers to use.