Over 63% of children in the United States between the ages of birth and five years spend time in child care every week. Child care providers caring for these children report that challenging behaviors are one of the greatest challenges they face when working with children. Addressing these challenging behaviors in the early years is essential for promoting school readiness and healthy social emotional development. Early childhood mental health consultation has been shown to improve teacher skills and self-efficacy, leading to a decrease in challenging behaviors and promotion of social emotional development in the child care setting. In order to create an environment for children which is supportive at all levels behaviors in the home must also be incorporated into the work of the early childhood mental health consultant. This project will explore best practices for early mental health consultants working in the child care and home environments and provide a guide for consistent, evidence based application of behavior management techniques to be utilized by early childhood mental health consultants.
