Project PLAY

Classroom

Consultants work with teachers to improve the care offered to all children in their classrooms by helping identify attitudes, believes, practices, and classroom conditions that might undermine quality relationships between teachers and children.

Child Specific

When a specific child’s behavior concerns parents or teachers, the PLAY consultant helps them understand, assess and address the child’s needs by developing an individualized plan.

Program-Level

Directors and other program leaders are supported by PLAY consultants to make changes in their child care practices and policies to benefit all children and adults in their settings.

Promote Stable, Quality Care

Science tells us children have better outcomes when they attend high quality child care. This is especially true of vulnerable children, like those in child protective services. Healthy growth and development in early childhood is dependent on nurturing relationships with stable adults.

Foster Care Facts

In Arkansas, over 3,000 children under the age of six are in foster care. Most of these children also attend child care. Unfortunately, most do not attend quality-rated child care, and many experience multiple switches in child care arrangements.

How We Help

Project PLAY strives to increase the percentage of children in quality child care, to decrease switches in child care placement, and to improve communication between important grown-ups caring for foster children.

• We prioritize services for centers serving children in foster care.
• We educate case workers, foster parents, courts, and CASA volunteers on the importance high quality, stable child care.
• We provide materials for use by child care providers, such as
  • Children in Foster Care Brief (PDF)
  • Meeting the Special Needs of Foster Children (PDF)
    • A brief that provides teachers information on with children who have experienced trauma, including classroom strategies to support their social-emotional development.
  • Child Care and Child Welfare Partnership Toolkit (PDF)
    • Includes an Information Exchange Guide to “jump-start” the sharing of information between child care provider and family service worker.

Consultation Works!

Based on real data collected in Arkansas, the benefits of our consultation are proven to be effective.

Teachers

• 74% reported learning new strategies for dealing with behavior problems.
• 87% reported good relationships with their Project PLAY consultants.
• Objective observers found that teachers were significantly more positive and engaged with children after consultation.

Children

• 57% decrease in physically aggressive behavior
• 40% decrease in children exhibiting “clinical level” behavior problems.
• Significant decrease in teacher-reported behavior problems.
• Significant increase in teacher-reported social skills.

Published Results

• Project PLAY Annual Report 2018-2019
• Project PLAY Annual Report 2017-2018
• Project PLAY Annual Report 2013-2014

Conners-Burrow, N. A., Whiteside-Mansell, L., Mckelvey, L., Virmani, E. A. and Sockwell, L. (2012), Improved classroom quality and child behavior in an Arkansas early childhood mental health consultation pilot project. Infant Ment. Health J., 33: 256–264. doi: 10.1002/imhj.21335 Link to Abstract

Conners-Burrow, N., McKelvey, L., Sockwell, L., Harman Ehrentraut, J., Adams, S. and Whiteside-Mansell, L. (2013), Beginning to “Unpack” Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation: Types of Consultation Services and Their Impact on Teachers. Infant Ment. Health J., 34: 280–289. doi: 10.1002/imhj.21387 Link to Abstract