Unpacking the Pyramid Model: A Practical Guide for Preschool Teachers

For more than a decade, the widely used Pyramid Model for Promoting Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children has been helping early educators use research‐based practices to boost social‐emotional development. Now there’s a practical guide that makes it easier than ever to implement this highly effective framework in preschool classrooms.

Created by the Pyramid Model developers and experts with extensive training experience, this is the first book to provide a comprehensive, step‐by‐step overview of the Pyramid Model for children ages 2–5. Early childhood educators will get a complete overview of the framework, plus in‐depth guidance, evidence‐based strategies, and helpful checklists for implementing all tiers of the Pyramid Model: universal, targeted, and individualized.

Ideal for use in teacher trainings, preservice methods courses, and individual professional development, Unpacking the Pyramid Model will give current and future educators the foundational skills they need to promote positive behavior and build all young children’s social‐emotional competence.

Learn how to use the Pyramid Model to:

• Construct a positive classroom environment that supports access and engagement for all students
• Develop predictable schedules and routines that maximize participation and learning
• Clearly define and teach behavior expectations and rules
• Deliver intentional, explicit instruction in social‐emotional competence
• Support smooth and streamlined transitions that prevent challenging behavior
• Create a culture of friendship and actively teach children friendship skills
• Teach children about emotions and help them develop a “feeling vocabulary”
• Give children the skills they need to solve interpersonal problems appropriately
• Provide individualized support for children with persistent challenging behavior

See more resources on supporting children's social-emotional competence with the Pyramid Model.

Shawna Harbin is a doctoral student at the University of Washington where she studies early childhood special education. Prior to returning to graduate school, Shawna worked for several years as a special educator in early intervention and preschool settings. Shawna’s areas of interest include social-emotional learning for young children, family coaching, and equitable partnerships between professionals and families in early childhood special education.

Abby Hodges is a doctoral student at the University of Denver where she studies Child, Family, and School Psychology. Abby is a graduate research assistant at the Positive Early Learning Experiences Center where she assists with a number of projects including research and assistance with implementation of the LEAP Model, Pyramid Model, and Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children. Abby’s professional and research interests include the assessment and treatment of challenging behavior in young children and collaborating with teachers and caregivers to implement interventions with fidelity.

Amy Hunter is Assistant Professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Child and Human Development. Currently, Amy oversees the mental health section of the Head Start National Center on Early Childhood Health and Wellness. Amy is also faculty on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration-funded National Center of Excellence on Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation.

Previously, Amy served in many positions at ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families, including as Director of Program Operations for the Early Head Start National Resource Center and Project Director for the Infant Toddler Center on the Social Emotional Foundations of Early Learning project. For 20 years, Amy has been involved in early childhood mental health, including providing training and technical assistance on early childhood mental health consultation to individuals and groups around the country.

Dr. Kinder is Research Associate at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She coordinates a variety of research studies focused on the Pyramid Model and practice-based coaching. Dr. Kinder has worked for more than 15 years in public and lab school settings in a variety of roles, including associate director, coach, and teacher. Her professional interests include inclusive education, embedded instruction, building collaborative partnerships, and supporting coaches in the field.

Jarrah Korba currently is serving children with disabilities through a behavior analysis clinic. Jarrah holds a master’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Jarrah’s focuses include challenging behavior and autism.

Rochelle Lentini is a consultant and trainer. In 2006–2018, she directed the University of South Florida’s Program-Wide Positive Behavior Support project. She is a Pyramid Model Consortium faculty member and one of the first innovators to contribute to the design of the Pyramid Model. In addition, Rochelle is CEO of the Purple Playas Foundation, a non-profit providing hope to children with chronic illness. Her primary areas of interest are in Positive Behavior Support, early childhood education, inclusion, practice-based coaching, raising a child with chronic illness, and family-centered supports.

Dr. Milam is Assistant Professor in the Department of Education at York College of Pennsylvania. She received her doctoral degree in Early Childhood Special Education from Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Pokorski is an early childhood special educator and Board Certified Behavior Analyst whose work focuses on improving the lives of young children with disabilities and their caregivers. Her research targets interventions that foster foundational skill development—such as adaptive and social skills—and prevent and address challenging behavior in this population.

Ron Roybal currently is working at the University of Denver for the Morgridge College of Education after 15 years at the University of Colorado at Denver. His responsibilities have included the LEAP USA and LEAP Outreach projects, the Professional Development in Autism project, the Colorado Autism Project, the Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children, and Social Emotional Foundations of Early Learning. He presents at national challenging behavior conferences and professional development/staff development days around the country. Prior to being an educational consultant, Ron was a teacher in an early childhood inclusive classroom for students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing students.

Dr. Santos’s research focuses on young children with disabilities and their families in the context of early intervention and early childhood special education services. She is interested in developing an understanding of the ecologic influence of families and culture on parents and professionals in facilitating young children’s development and learning. Through her research, teaching, and public service activities, Dr. Santos aims to make a positive impact on the lives of children with disabilities and their families by enhancing the practices of professionals who work directly with these children and families. Her prior experiences as a preschool teacher, special educator, and administrator in inclusive settings have greatly influenced her work in academia.

Robert M. Corso, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Pyramid Model Consortium and a Senior Research Associate at Vanderbilt University. Previously, he served as Project Coordinator for the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning. Additionally, he was on the leadership team for the National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning and served as Principal Investigator for the Head Start Disability Services Quality Improvement Center.

Dr. Artman-Meeker is an associate professor of early childhood special education at the University of Washington (UW) and Director of Research at the UW Haring Center for Inclusive Education. She has led state, local, and national training on preventing challenging behavior and promoting social skills. Her training, product development, and scholarship focus on the diverse teachers, children, and families in urban and rural communities served by Head Start, Early Head Start, and military child care. Her main area of research is effective and efficient forms of professional development for early educators.

Mary Louise Hemmeter, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University. Her research focuses on effective instruction, social-emotional development, challenging behavior, and on coaching teachers.

She has been a principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on numerous projects funded by the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. Through her work on the National Center on Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning and Institute of Education Sciences (IES)–funded research projects, she was involved in the development of the Pyramid Model for Supporting Social Emotional Competence in Young Children and practice-based coaching, a model for supporting teachers in implementing effective practices.

She is currently the PI on on an IES–funded development project on programwide supports for implementing the Pyramid Model, a co-PI on an IES developmental project on implementing the Pyramid Model in infant–toddler settings, and a co-PI on an IES efficacy study examining approaches to supporting teachers in implementing embedded instructions.

She is a co-author on the Connect4Learning Early Childhood Curriculum and the Teaching Pyramid Observation Tool (TPOT™). She was a coeditor of the Journal of Early Intervention and President of the Council for Exceptional Children’s Division for Early Childhood (DEC). She received the Merle B. Karnes Service to the Division Award and the Mary McEvoy Service to the Field Award.

Dr. Michaelene M. Ostrosky is Grayce Wicall Gauthier Professor of Education and Head of the Department of Special Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She has been involved in research and dissemination on the inclusion of children with disabilities, social-emotional competence, and challenging behavior.

Through her work on the national Center on the Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning she was involved in the development of the Pyramid Model for Supporting Social Emotional Competence in Young Children. Professor Ostrosky is a former editor of Young Exceptional Children (YEC) and the co-editor of several YEC monographs. She co-authored the Making Friends book (2016), which supports the acceptance of individuals with disabilities, and The Project Approach for All Learners (2018).

Professor Ostrosky has been recognized for her professional accomplishments with honors such as UIUC University Scholar, Goldstick Family Scholar, College of Education Senior Scholar, and the Division of Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children’s Award for Mentoring.

Dr. Lise Fox is a professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, and is Co-Director of the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities: A University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. Dr. Fox is one of the developers of the Pyramid Model for Promoting Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children and has authored 95 books, book chapters, and articles. She has developed and managed numerous technical assistance, research, model demonstration, and personnel preparation projects in the areas of early childhood special education, state capacity building, implementation of the Pyramid Model, preventing and addressing challenging behavior, and Positive Behavior Support. She is the director of the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations.

Jaclyn (Jackie) D. Joseph, Ph.D., BCBA-D, is Executive Director at the Rise School of Denver, Colorado. Dr. Joseph has been involved in research and technical assistance for the LEAP Model, Pyramid Model, Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children, and Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Families. Dr. Joseph’s professional and research interests include young children with challenging behavior and interventions for improving their social-emotional competence. She also is dedicated to promoting and advocating for high-quality inclusive early care and education opportunities for all young children, and especially for her determined, strong, and amazing little girl who has a rare genetic syndrome.

Dr. Quesenberry is Professor at Illinois State University in the School of Teaching and Learning. Dr. Quesenberry has more than 20 years of experience working in the field of early childhood special education. She received her doctorate in Early Childhood Special Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007. Her research interests include young children’s social-emotional development, educators’ professional development, and early childhood policy.

Dr. Jessica K. Hardy is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Hardy received her doctorate in early childhood special education from Vanderbilt University and her M.Ed. and BA from the University of Florida. She taught in Portland, Oregon, as a Head Start teacher and an early childhood special education teacher. Dr. Hardy’s primary research interests are evidence-based instructional practices and early childhood coaching and professional development.

Phillip Strain, Ph.D., is James C. Kennedy Endowed Chair in Urban Education at the Morgridge College of Education and Director of the Positive Early Learning Experiences Center at the University of Denver. Dr. Strain is the author of more than 300 professional papers that have focused on young children with autism, prevention of challenging behavior, and inclusion practices. In his 4 decades in the field, he has been a teacher, early intervention program administrator, and university professor. Dr. Strain’s research on challenging behavior and autism has received more than $80 million dollars in grant support, and this work has garnered multiple career achievement awards.

Elizabeth A. Steed, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Early Childhood Education program at the University of Colorado Denver. Prior to being a professor, Dr. Steed was an early interventionist and special education teacher in a variety of home‑based and community‑based settings. Now, she teaches graduate and doctoral courses and conducts research on promoting the social‑emotional competence of all young children, including children with disabilities, children with early mental health issues, and children who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD). Her research aims to address long‑standing disparities in access to high‑quality inclusive early childhood education and early mental health supports for marginalized child populations. Dr. Steed has been the PI or Co‑PI on numerous grants, including research grants and personnel preparation grants to build future leaders and researchers in early childhood intervention. She has also been a consultant for the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations, the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center, and the World Bank.

Dr. Erin Barton is an international educational consultant and Faculty for the Pyramid Model Consortium. She has worked in the field of education for over thirty years in many different capacities including as a special education teacher, family coach, and university professor. She has developed the training materials and coaching tools for supporting the use of evidence‐based practices in natural and inclusive settings.

She is a Board‐Certified Behavior Analyst and directs research projects related to evidence‐based practices for young children, policies and practices that support high quality inclusion, and effective professional development systems. Dr. Barton is an active scholar with over 120 publications in major journals, multiple chapters, and several textbooks related to evidence‐based practices. Dr. Barton serves on several editorial boards and is the Editor-in-Chief of Topics in Early Childhood Special Education. She has received many honors including the 2021 Peabody Faculty Excellence Award: Service to Students and 2020 Chancellor’s Faculty Fellow at Vanderbilt University. She also was honored with the 2019 Merle B. Karnes Award for Service to the Division for Early Childhood and the 2017 Distinguished Early Career Research Award from the Division for Research of the Council for Exceptional Children.

Angel Fettig, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. Dr. Fettig’s research focuses on supporting social-emotional development and reducing challenging behaviors for young children with or at risk for disabilities. Specifically, she examines factors that influence implementation and intervention fidelity for education professionals and caregivers in implementing evidence-based practices that reduce challenging behaviors.

Dr. Conroy is the Anita Zucker Endowed Professor, Professor of Special Education and Early Childhood Studies in the Department of Special Education, School Psychology, and Early Childhood Studies, and Co-Director of the Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies at the University of Florida. Dr. Conroy has extensive experience in conducting early intervention research with children who are at risk for or who have social and behavioral disabilities.

Dr. Joseph is the Bezos Family Distinguished Professor in Early Learning at the College of Education at the University of Washington, Seattle. She teaches courses, advises students, provides service and conducts research on topics related to early care and education.

Dr. Joseph has been involved in a number of research projects and training and technical assistance activities at the local, state and national levels related to child care quality, teacher preparation, and promoting children's social emotional development as well as preventing challenging behavior in early learning settings.

She is the Founding Executive Director of Cultivate Learning, and was the Principal Investigator and director of the Head Stat Center for Inclusion (Headstartinclusion.org) and Co‐PI of the National Center for Quality Teaching and Learning funded by the Office of Head Start. At Cultivate Learning she oversees the work of quality ratings in all licensed childcare and state prek programs in the state.

Glen Dunlap, Ph.D., has been involved with individuals with disabilities for more than 45 years and has served as a teacher, administrator, researcher, and university faculty member. He has directed numerous research and training projects and has been awarded dozens of federal and state grants to pursue this work. He has authored more than 250 articles and book chapters, co­edited numerous books, and served on 15 editorial boards. He was one of the founders of the Association for Positive Behavior Support, and served terms as treasurer and president of that organization. He is also the lead author on each of the books in the PTR series. Dr. Dunlap was a founding editor of the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions and served for 10 years as the editor of Topics in Early Childhood Special Education. Dr. Dunlap lives in Reno, NV and is affiliated with the University of Nevada, Reno.

Patricia Snyder, Ph.D., is a Professor and the David Lawrence Jr. Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Studies at the University of Florida. She is the founding director of the Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies. Dr. Snyder has worked for more than 40 years in the interdisciplinary field of early childhood studies. Her research interests focus on embedded instruction for early learning; social-emotional foundations of early learning; professional development, including practice-based coaching; and early childhood assessment and measurement.

Dr. Smith received her master's degree in early childhood special education and doctorate in special education and public policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her areas of interest include early childhood special education/early intervention policies, systems and program development; leadership and collaboration; and the scaling up of evidence-based practices.

Dr. Smith has held early childhood and early childhood special education positions for the past thirty five years including early childhood teacher, Executive Director of the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children; Policy Specialist, Council for Exceptional Children (CEC); and Program Specialist, Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education. She has served as a consultant on state and national early childhood policy, expert witness in right to treatment litigation, prepared and delivered legislative testimony to the Congress as well as state legislatures, and has worked with many parent and professional groups in their state policy efforts.

In an effort to help shape quality inclusive early childhood environments for all children, including those with special needs, she has worked closely for many years with NAEYC and other early childhood leadership organizations including serving on the NAEYC Commission to develop the current program accreditation criteria. Dr. Smith has authored over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, and 15 books and chapters one of which was the first book for administrators on preschool inclusion: The Administrator's Policy Handbook for Preschool Mainstreaming (1993). She also chaired the most recent effort to establish the DEC Recommended Practices in Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education to help guide the field in improving services for young children with special needs, their families and those who work with them.

She is currently Co-Principal Investigator of an OSEP funded doctoral program at UCD in early intervention and early childhood special education policy and collaborative leadership, and is involved in the OSEP funded national Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (ECTA). She is the recipient of several awards and honors.

Denise Perez Binder has been a member of the USF Pyramid Model research team since 2007. Currently, she is a training and technical assistance specialist with the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations, National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center. She has expertise in program-wide implementation of the Pyramid Model, Practice Based Coaching, and is a trainer for the TPOT™.

Dr. Bishop is Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Florida Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies. Dr. Bishop and her colleagues collaborate to provide evidence-based professional development to support families and preschool teachers to use Pyramid Model practices in everyday routines and activities to promote young children’s social-emotional development.

Eleanor Bold is a doctoral student in the Child, Family, and School Psychology program at the University of Denver (DU) and is a graduate research assistant in DU’s Positive Early Learning Experiences Center. Bold earned her bachelor’s degree from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. She spent several years working at the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy supporting the implementation and evaluation of multiple community-based programs before starting at DU. Eleanor is passionate about early intervention and education for all children.

Edward (Ted) Bovey was an original contributor to the development of the Pyramid Model preschool training modules. Ted continues to work on the development, research, and dissemination of Pyramid Model practices through the lens of Pyramid Model implementation in inclusive classrooms and with diverse populations.

Dr. Cheatham’s scholarship focuses on the provision of effective, appropriate, and equitable services for young children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. He has a particular interest in language diversity, including bilingualism for families and children considered at-risk and those who have disabilities.

Dr. Doubet has enjoyed more than 40 years in the early childhood field in a variety of capacities. Her most memorable experiences include working with parents, children, and care providers in multiple states and international settings. Currently, Dr. Doubet is a professor at Illinois State University, with a research focus on the social-emotional development of young children.

Dr. Ferro is Associate Professor in the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities at the University of South Florida. Her research is primarily focused on individualized interventions and prevention. Currently, Dr. Ferro provides training and technical assistance on implementing the Pyramid Model to statewide leadership teams, program coaches, and program-wide leadership teams for the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations.

Adrienne Golden is a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University and works with Dr. Mary Louise Hemmeter. Adrienne holds a master’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education from Vanderbilt University and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Prior to pursuing her doctorate, Adrienne taught for 6 years in inclusive preschool classrooms, where she implemented the Pyramid Model. Currently, Adrienne is researching sustainable models for coaching teachers on the implementation of Pyramid Model practices (e.g., reciprocal peer coaching).