About Resilience in Preschoolers 

Since everyone faces adversity at some point in life, DCRC’s mission is to promote protective factors and strengthen resilience for all children and the adults who care for them. Promoting resilience involves reducing risk factors and strengthening protective factors at the environmental, familial and within- levels.

DCRC Promotes Protective Factors

In Preschoolers, DCRC promotes the following protective factors through assessment and strategies for the home and school settings:

• Attachment/Relationships: refers to the child’s ability to promote and maintain mutual, positive connections with other children and significant adults.
• Initiative: the child’s ability to use independent thought and action to meet his or her needs.
• Self-Regulation: the child’s ability to to express emotions and manage behaviors in healthy ways.

Promoting Resilience In Preschoolers

Through assessment and planning DCRC’s Preschool Initiative focuses on promoting the health and well-being of children ages three through five.

The Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for Preschoolers (DECA-P2; LeBuffe & Naglieri, 2012) was recently revised. The primary purpose of this assessment tool is to promote a strength-based approach to social and emotional learning in preschool-aged children. The DECA-P2 is a 37-item, strength based assessment, normed on a nationally representative sample.

The DECA-P2 is completed by families (parents, grandparents, foster parents) and early care and education professionals (teachers, child care providers). The DECA-P2 measures three social and emotional constructs, screens for behavioral concerns, and provides scale and total scores.

The DECA Preschool Program, Second Edition Helps Programs Meet Various Standards

In addition to helping preschools, child care, NAEYC accredited programs, and Head Start programs document that children’s needs are being met, the DECA-P2 can help in strengthening the social and emotional development of all children with more intentionality and individualization. Specifically, the DECA-P2 provides detailed information on children’s social and emotional strengths and needs by scale and even by item.

By aggregating individual data, the teacher can also gain insights into common areas of strengths and needs for the classroom as a whole. The results can then inform an early childhood program or Head Start Program to be more intentional, perhaps stressing certain social and emotional skills or providing additional opportunities for practice and feedback by integrating emphasis on social and emotional skills.

For more information about this resource designed to support early care and education professionals and families promote social and emotional health in preschool children, see the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for Preschoolers (DECA-P2) and accompanying resources and professional development.