Original Posting 18.06.18

The Rochester Pyramid Model Summit 2018 is less than one month away. Have you registered yet? If not, there'e still time. The focus of this year's Summit is Promoting Social and Emotional Competence and Addressing Challenging Behaviors.

The Pyramid Model, also called the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL), is a conceptual framework of evidence-based practices for promoting young children’s social and emotional competence and for preventing and addressing challenging behavior. It teaches life-changing strategies for all who work with young children. Training on this model is offered through our partner, Children's Institute, and one of their partners, Rochester Childfirst Network, has spearheaded an initiative to host the first Pyramid Model Summit in our hometown of Rochester, NY.

The Summit, scheduled for July 12th & 13th will feature keynote speaker, Mary Louise Hemmeter, PhD. Dr. Hemmeter will speak to her work developing and understanding the effectiveness of a collaborative training model for supporting teachers. She has a special interest in addressing challenging behavior. Dr. Hemmeter is developing a model of program-wide behavior supports that is applicable to settings with young children with challenging behavior. This work is focused on designing and validating measures that can be used in a larger study examining the impact of this model on teacher behavior as well as child outcomes.

If you'd like to attend the Pyramid Model Summit, click here to register. The cost is $50/person for both days. To view the schedule for the Summit, click here and scroll down to view the program.

Original Posting 11.10.19

October is Emotional Wellness & Emotional Intelligence Awareness Month. We at COMET have noticed, and are celebrating, the increased awareness of the importance of social emotional learning (SEL) and the whole health of a child.

In support of these advancements we work with subject matter experts to maintain a library of instruments and assessments like the TCRS, DESSA, and SWYC, as well as, various answer sheets that assess social-emotional, social determinants, child development, and academic domains.

The COMET assessment library and our child-centric data system supplies organizations with the tools to assist them in their missions to improve the lives of children. Most recently COMET has started seeing successes in the Community Collaborative cross-domain initiatives with our partners that are including a SEL component to create healthier communities for future generations. 

Our non-profit partner, Children’s Institute is using play to asses SEL via their Primary Project program. Primary Project is a national evidence-based program that helps children in Pre-K through third grade adjust to school, gain confidence, social skills, and focus on learning. Through play, Primary Project addresses children’s school adjustment difficulties and increases their chances for success.

 “Having all the data, results from all the various screenings, in one place makes a tremendous difference” Kim Avery, Early Care and Education Specialist at Children’s Institute. After the initial SEL play assessment, results are recorded in the COMET system where each outcome has a defined action plan.

The GROW-Rochester Collaborative has included SEL assessments into their work prescreening three-year-olds. This initiative integrates comprehensive screenings to identify if there are any needs in hearing, vision, dental health, language and speech, cognitive and social emotional development with case/service management and referrals.

Emotional Wellness and Intelligence are essential to the success of a whole child health mission and we at COMET are looking forward to the amazing work that our partners are doing to ensure that children have the necessary knowledge and life-skills to be successful.