Children between the ages of birth and 5 years rely on adults for care, social-emotional relationships, safety, positive resilience building, and coregulation. Childcare workers and teachers may lack the educational background or access to the highly skilled continuing education of current evidence-based practice for mind, brain, and education connections (Whitebook et al., 2018). Occupational therapy (OT) practitioners traditionally support children with developmental delays or diagnoses and their specific caregivers through early intervention services. A comprehensive literature search showed limited documented and studied instances of using OT to support all children by supporting the childcare industry through education, training, and coaching (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2020; Bazyk et al., 2009; Jasmin et al., 2017; Marsh & Mathur, 2020; Shepley & Grisham-Brown, 2019).
Knowledge sharing, interaction modeling, and coaching about topics such as self-regulation, emotional regulation, sensory processing, and trauma-informed interactions—and how these concepts interrelate—offer childcare providers and teachers support within the natural environments of their classrooms. The OT Coaching of the Childcare Provider in Early Childhood Mental Wellness is a professional development training and coaching program that aims to do that. Occupational therapists with advanced knowledge and experience in infant and early childhood mental health and wellness will deliver knowledge, education, coaching, and reflexive practices. This allows childcare providers with limited time and resources to advance their sensitive and responsive caregiving for the 6 million U.S. children in childcare. The program’s underpinnings are grounded in the action learning theory, coaching model, and situational learning theory (Cho & Egan, 2009; Revans, 2011; Rush & Sheldon, 2013). The program’s module-series topics are drawn from various theoretical frameworks, including mind–brain education science, the sensory-processing model, and sensory integration theory (Kuypers, 2011; Lane et al., 2019; Martini et al., 2016; Williams & Shellenberger, 1996).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/47909 |
| Date | 04 January 2024 |
| Creators | Shetzler, Candace L. |
| Contributors | Patel, Neeha, Jacobs, Karen |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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