Early Childhood Programs

In an effort to maintain young children with emotional and behavioral problems in early childcare settings, TVC's Early Childhood Programs provide onsite consultation and training to parents and staff associated with childcare and Head Start programs throughout Tennessee. Program staff is also involved in state and national research to identify effective strategies for working with young children with challenging behaviors.

The TVC Early Childhood Consulting Program was established in 1996 with initial and continuing funding support from the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities.  The Program addresses needs associated with serious behavioral, developmental, and environmental barriers to effective learning.  Special emphasis is placed on those children at imminent risk of being dismissed from their child care setting.  The primary focus of the Early Childhood Consulting Program is the   dissemination of a variety of training and technical assistance service packages to staff and families associated with child care centers, Head Start programs, and Voluntary Pre-K programs across the three Grand Regions of Tennessee.

The Team Tennessee/CSEFEL State Partnership Initiative is funded in part by a grant from the Tennessee Department of Education to the TVC Early Childhood Consulting Program on behalf of Team Tennessee, a 12 member group composed of representatives from five state Departments (Education, Health, Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, Human Services, and Children’s Services),  Head Start, Tennessee Early Childhood Training Alliance, Child Care Resource and Referral, and state Institutions of Higher Education.  Tennessee is one of 11 states selected by the national Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) to foster and sustain the statewide, high fidelity use of the Pyramid Model for Promoting the Social and Emotional Development of Infants and Young Children through cross agency collaborative professional development efforts.

Better Together: The School Readiness Collaborative is funded by United Way of Metropolitan Nashville to address school readiness needs of young children at considerable risk for failure due to the effects of poverty, developmental disability and/or limited English language proficiency.  The TVC Early Childhood Consulting Program and Books From Birth of Middle Tennessee are co-lead agencies with First Steps, Inc. and The Arc of Davidson County as primary partners.  Eligible parents and caregivers receive training and support services based on the integrated roles of early language/literacy development, early social-emotional development and naturally occurring caregiver-child interactions in preparing children for school success.  The TVC Tennessee Parent Information and Resource Center (TPIRC) provides training and technical assistance support for replication of the Better Together model in other Tennessee communities.