Services for Professionals

Some years, a teacher lands a "perfect storm" of personalities in his/her classroom which created behavior management challenges beyond anything previously experienced.

Sometimes, directors’ best attempts at “match-making” don’t work out so well, and two teachers are put together who struggle to communicate and work together effectively.

Other years, teachers change age groups and feel a little adrift trying to adjust their approach to the developmental level of their students. For example, a veteran pre-k teacher needs to bring her language way down, add many more visuals, cut the length of group activities, and provide a steady stream of sensory-based activities and materials if she finds herself teaching 2 year-olds one year.

Other times, there may be a classroom that chronically struggles to employ best practices and needs more support or a fresh voice to provide guidance.

In any of these scenarios, Child Development Consultants can work with teachers to improve their classroom management skills, use more developmentally appropriate practices, and create a more positive, “user-friendly” environment for the children in their care.

Child Development Consultants deploy a range of strategies when providing classroom consultants including: conversations with written reports, modeling of techniques, and meeting with teachers to develop goals and identify teachers' professional strengths and areas of growth.

Child Development Consultants are certified providers of continuing education for continuing education for childcare providers in the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia. All workshops include a PowerPoint presentation, handout, and interactive activities.

Please see the attached list for workshop titles. Click HERE for List of Workshops.

Child Development Consultants are available to provide parent education workshops and informal get-togethers or Q&As on a variety of topics. Parent workshops may be more formal and prepared, with a PowerPoint presentation and handout, or they may be casual and simple, such as a brown-bag lunch with a general Q&A, or coffee and drop-in chats with consultants about separation anxiety, for example.

Any of the staff development workshops may be modified for parents, or contact Child Development Consultants to set up a format and program that best meets your needs.

This is a service that consultants provide when it has been determined that a child would be most successful in his classroom environment with 1-on-1 adult support.

While Child Development Consultants do not provide shadows, our team may train them once they have been identified. Training includes modeling appropriate techniques, explaining best practices and potential pitfalls to the shadow, observing and providing specific feedback to the shadow, and identifying individualized strategies that may help the child be as successful as possible given his unique set of strengths and challenges.

Shadow training occurs over several visits so that the consultant can note progress and address challenges that may be developing, and the shadow has the opportunity to ask questions and receive feedback about particular situations that may have come up since the last time they met.

Visits from the Friendship Lady: Amy Freedman is a speech-language therapist who is also known as The Friendship Lady. She leads students in activities, songs and conversations promoting friendship. The children work in pairs to practice essential friendship skills such as listening to a friend's request, responding appropriately and using kind words. The teachers use and reinforce these strategies in the classroom. After each lesson a note with additional friendship activities is sent home to parents.