Embedding Trauma-Informed Strategies Within a Multitiered System of Supports: A Framework for Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Program-wide Positive Behavior Supports (PW-PBIS) is a data-driven multitiered model of service delivery in which young children receive increasingly intensive supports to address their social–emotional and behavioral needs. PW-PBIS implementation in early childhood education has consistently been found effective for preventing a variety of undesirable outcomes while also promoting young children’s social–emotional and behavioral functioning. However, the literature examining the PW-PBIS model has often overlooked the impact of early adversity and trauma as factors on young children’s outcomes. Emerging studies have begun proposing a trauma-informed lens be implemented in early childhood education; however, the PW-PBIS model lacks clear guidelines on how to adapt interventions and supports at each tier to be trauma-informed. Therefore, using a trauma-informed lens, this paper aims to offer evidence-guided approaches to adapt the PW-PBIS framework. Practical trauma-informed adaptations of specific interventions and supports at each PW-PBIS tier will be described. Further, a data-based case example will be presented and discussed to illustrate the utility of a trauma-informed PW-PBIS model. The goals of this paper are to advise practitioners on how PW-PBIS can be adapted to be trauma-informed while also serving as a call to action for researchers to empirically investigate this model.