The Pyramid Model for Promoting Social-Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children

The National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations describes the Pyramid Model as “a conceptual framework of evidence-based practices for promoting young children’s healthy social and emotional development.” It’s used by both families and professionals and is “based on over a decade of evaluation data.” Modeled after a “tiered public health approach” to providing supports to children and families, the Pyramid Model is built on a foundation of an effective workforce, meaning professionals who are able to “adopt and sustain these evidence-based practices.”

This Pyramid Model poster we’ve provided here describes three tiers of intervention, looking first at the base of the pyramid, then moving upward:

Universal Promotion: “Universal supports for all children through nurturing and responsive relationships and high-quality environments.” This includes practices that support the social and emotional development of all children.
Secondary Prevention: “Prevention . . . represents practices that are targeted social emotional strategies to prevent problems,” including “targets supports to children at risk for challenging behavior.”
Tertiary Intervention: “Practices related to individualized intensive interventions” provided to “a very small number of children with persistent challenges.”

Hang this poster in a prominent place where it can remind you of the model. If you’d like to learn more about the Pyramid Model, visit the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations and check out all they have to offer. Leave us a comment and share how you see this approach fitting into your day-to-day work with children and families.

The ICC-Recommended Early Start Personnel Manual (ESPM) describes core knowledge and role-specific competencies needed for early intervention service provision, incorporating current research and evidence in the field of early intervention. To access the ESPM, click here.

This resource is related to the following ESPM knowledge-level competencies:

Core Knowledge (CK):
- CK2: The role of primary social and emotional relationships as the foundation for early learning.
Individualized Family Service Plan Development and Review (IFSP-DR):
- IFSP-DR5 (EIS): Understands the rationale for the identification and selection of intervention strategies used in everyday routines, relationships, activities places, and partnerships for early intervention activities (or justification of the extent to which some outcomes cannot be achieved in a natural environment).
Individualized Family Service Plan Development and Review (IFSP-i):
- IFSP-i2 (EIS): Understands the individual nature of child learning styles and the importance of adapting intervention strategies.
- IFSP-i3 (EIS): Knows generic and specific evidence-based early intervention strategies to support all areas of development.
- IFSP-i6 (EIS): Understand the need for developmentally appropriate strategies, . . . adaptations, assistive technologies, and other supports that maximize the child’s learning opportunities.
- IFSP-i11 (EIS): Knows strategies that support parents in adapting the natural environment to meet infant/toddler developmental needs.