Pyramid Model Overview

Tiers

The Pyramid Model builds upon a tiered public health approach to providing universal supports to all children to promote wellness, targeted services to those who need more support, and intensive services to those who need them.

Pyramid Model Diagram

Intervention which is comprised of practices related to individualized intensive interventions. The tertiary level of the Pyramid Model describes the need to provide individualized and intensive interventions to the very small number of children with persistent challenges.

  • Individualized Intensive Interventions
    • Family-centered, comprehensive interventions
    • Assessment-based
    • Skill-building

Prevention which represents practices that are targeted social emotional strategies to prevent problems. The prevention level includes the provision of targeted supports to children at risk of challenging behavior.

  • Targeted Social Emotional Supports
    •  Explicit instruction and support
    • Self-regulation, expressing and understanding emotions, developing social relationships and problem-solving

Universal supports for all children through nurturing and responsive relationships and high quality environments. At the universal level we include the practices needed to ensure the promotion of the social development of all children.

  • High Quality Environments
    • Inclusive early care and education environments
    • Supportive home environments
  • Nurturing and Responsive Relationships
    • Essential to healthy social development
    • Includes relationships with children, families and team members

The model is supported at the foundation by an effective workforce.
The foundation for all of the practices in the Pyramid Model are the systems and policies necessary to ensure a workforce able to adopt and sustain these evidence-based practices.

Now let’s take a look at what the research shows us.