Project Areas

"The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children."

—Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Early Childhood

The Florida Center for Inclusive Communities is providing leadership in a variety of local and national research, training, and program development efforts in early childhood. The following faculty leaders provide contributions to the field of early childhood: Kwang-Sun Blair, Shelley Clarke, Glen Dunlap, Lise Fox, Rochelle Lentini, Mary Lindsey, Diane Powell, and Bobbie Vaughn. FCIC offers a large array of resources to inform early childhood education and intervention and support the adoption of evidence-based practices. These resources include:

Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children (TACSEI)
The National Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children is a five-year grant from the US Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) that establishes a national center for improving the social, emotional, and behavioral functioning of young children with or at risk for developmental delays or disabilities.

Principal Investigators Drs. Lise Fox and Glen Dunlap Both Fox and Dunlap are nationally recognized for the development of an early intervention model used for promoting social-emotional competence, known as the Pyramid Model. This model, which has been widely endorsed throughout the United States, will serve as the unifying structure for Center training, technical assistance, dissemination and evaluation activities. The framework includes four levels of practice to address the needs of all children, including children with persistent challenging behavior. The center will work across service systems and age groups, to test effective models across and then replicate it in new states with a focus on supporting the social development of young children who receive early intervention services through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

The Center will promote the social development of young children and improve early intervention results by providing training and technical assistance, guiding and evaluating model demonstrations, and disseminating information on effective practices. During the next five years, Center staff will:

Leverage resources by conducting collaborative training and technical assistance with relevant national centers and organizations
Develop, train and coordinate a cadre of trainers and coaches that are competent to deliver training and support on evidence-based practices and the Pyramid Model of Prevention and Intervention
Maintain ongoing communication with family consumers and ensure their input into all Center products and practices
Coordinate efforts with other federally funded TA Centers to maximize effects.
Establish ongoing evaluation systems for all major Center functions and make course corrections as needed
Maintain a website that offers up-to-date information for multiple consumers: parents, providers, administrators, policy makers, and provides web-based TA and training opportunities.

For additional information, contact or fox@fmhi.usf.edu.

Teaching Tools was developed to provide teachers with strategies and resources to develop positive behavior support strategies for young children who are having challenging behavior in preschool settings. Teaching tools offers expert guidance on strategies to use and materials for making supports. Faculty members with the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities are available to provide workshops on how to use Teaching Tools. For more information, contact Bobbie Vaughn at vaughn@fmhi.usf.edu.

The Positive Beginnings training modules provide higher education faculty and professional development personnel with material that can be used to teach early educators, interventionists, and related service personnel about the use of Positive Behavior Support (PBS) with young children and their families. The content of the modules provides a comprehensive curriculum in Positive Behavior Support in 6, three-hour modules. These modules are available for purchase at minimal cost ($15). Faculty members with the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities are available to provide “train-the-trainers” workshops on the adoption of the materials. For more information, contact Lise Fox at fox@fmhi.usf.edu.

The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning is a national center focused on strengthening the capacity of child care and Head Start programs to improve the social and emotional outcomes of young children. The Center provides a wealth of materials including training modules, a DVD overview on the teaching pyramid model for promoting social competence and addressing challenging behavior, what works briefs, and an array of practical strategies.

The Program-Wide PBS project was funded by the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County to support the program-wide adoption of the teaching pyramid model for supporting the development of young children’s social competence and addressing challenging behavior. This project provides training and support to selected early childhood programs in Hillsborough County and monthly workshops open to the community. For information on the program, contact Rochelle Lentini at lentini@fmhi.usf.edu.

A Classroom-Wide Model for Promoting Young Children’s Social-Emotional Competence and Addressing Challenging Behavior is funded by the Institute for Education Science to study the potential efficacy of a classroom-wide model of behavioral support. This study is the first experimental evaluation of the use of a three-tiered prevention model for promoting the social competence of young children with disabilities. For more information on the program, contact Lise Fox at fox@fmhi.usf.edu.

The Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters This is a home-based, early intervention/school readiness program that helps educationally disadvantaged parents provide educational enrichment for their preschool children aged 3-5. Funded by the State of Florida, the Florida HIPPY Training and Technical Assistance Center, housed at USF, serves as the state office. The role of the state office is to work in collaboration with HIPPY USA's national office to provide training, technical support, and guidance to all HIPPY programs in the state of Florida.