General FAQs

Hello and welcome! Below you will find answers to frequently asked questions related to our team’s work. If you can’t find your question answered here, we invite you to contact us.

We also answer your questions more specific to the age groups we help support:

Infant/Toddler FAQs, Preschool FAQs, Adult FAQs

Q1. What age ranges do the DCRC resources span?

Our tools and resources are designed to promote resilience in and support the social and emotional development of young children (birth through 5 years old), and to help promote resilience in the adults caring for them.

Q2. Is the DECA offered electronically?

Yes; you can use the DECA on our web-based platform, called the e-DECA. Click here to learn more.

Q3. In what languages are the DCRC resources available?

Our resources are available in English, and many are also available in Spanish. Click here to see what we offer in Spanish.

Q4. Who typically completes the assessments (DECAs)?

The DECA may be completed by the child’s teacher/caregiver and parent/family member. The qualifications that an adult must have to complete an assessment include (1) knowing the child for a minimum of four weeks, and (2) spending sufficient time with the child over those four weeks to feel confident answering all of the questions on the assessment.

Q5. Is it recommended to obtain parental consent for administration of the assessments and analysis of it for evaluation purposes?

Programs and agencies should confirm that existing policies and procedures already in place for obtaining parental consent would cover the assessments. Often, parental consent is granted through a blanket letter at time of enrollment or at the beginning of each year, which lists and describes all of the assessment tools and evaluations to be conducted throughout the year. However, if the general consents don’t emcompass your intended use of the data, we believe it would be best practice to obtain consent. Click here for sample parental consent letters that can be adapted to meet your program’s needs.

Q6. Can our program use only the assessment tools and not the strategies and other planning resources?

Yes. The use of the assessment and strategy resources can be adapted to best meet a program’s specific needs. We recommend that assessment results lead to strategies and planning to promote children’s resilience. Our assessment and planning programs are designed to simplify that process. However, if programs choose to use the assessments in conjunction with other strategy resources, that is certainly appropriate. In addition, programs may choose to use our strategy resources independent of the assessments.

Q7. Does DCRC offer any resources for when children use behaviors that challenge us?

All of the strength-based assessment and strategy resources we offer are appropriate to support you when children use behaviors that challenge you. Our most popular and successful resource is FLIP IT. Click here to learn more.

Q8. What is the philosophy behind the creation of all the DCRC resources and professional development? Is it promoting healthy social and emotional skills; preventing challenging behaviors; or addressing challenging behaviors?

All of the above! Our philosophy/approach is centered around promoting social and emotional development in all children, as well as the protective factors and resilience of all children and the caring adults in their lives. Healthy social and emotional development, protective factors and resilience helps, in turn, to prevent challenging behaviors.

Q9. How do your assessments fit with other assessment instruments, curricula, and standards?

Our assessment and planning resources are designed to fit within existing systems, filling the gaps, to help promote healthy social and emotional development in young children. Our assessment and planning programs are not a curriculum, but provide strategies and planning activities that will enhance the overall quality of a program, as well as help build the protective factors of children and adults. A variety of crosswalks and alignments are available here.

Q10. What are the unique features of DCRC's assessment programs that make them the most appropriate choice for my program?

We offer not just nationally standardized, valid and reliable assessment tools, bu also entire systems of strategies and planning for children and classrooms. Teachers and parents can work together as partners to implement our assessment and planning process. Our assessment results are linked to strategies for both the school and home environment. Our tools can be used to monitor and measure outcomes for children, assisting programs to meet standards and, more importantly, making a difference in the lives of children and their families.

Q11. How can the DECA be used to measure outcomes for individual children, groups of children, and program evaluation and quality improvement purposes?

The value of the DECA is that it not only provides psychometrically-sound measures of within-child protective factors in individual children and groups of children, but it can also be used for progress-monitoring and program evaluation purposes. Progress-monitoring consists of administering an assessment, such as the DECA, multiple times throughout a school year in order to examine how children are responding to a particular intervention or program. The goal of progress-monitoring is to obtain feedback during the intervention or program so that the nature of intensity of the intervention or program can be adjusted to maximize the chance of a successful outcome. Progress-monitoring may occur multiple times over the year. In contrast, program evaluation refers to examining the progress or chance observed over a defined period of time, such as a school year, to determine overall program effectiveness. This document will provide guidance on using our assessment tool to both monitor the acquisition of protective factors of young children and to evaluate the impact of intervention.

Q12. Is training required to implement your assessment and planning programs?

No! Our resources provide information about how to properly implement in a variety of settings, so training is not required, nor is it completely necessary. That being said, we do offer a variety of training/professional development options for those programs that desire it. We offer many opportunities! Learn more here.

Q13. What implementation training/professional development options are available?

Our team offers a variety of professional development options. Learn more here, or you can reach out to our Director of Professional Development Debi Mahler at [email protected] or (610) 574-6141.

Q14. Do you offer professional development on other topics related to social and emotional of young children?

Yes! We provide professional development on a variety of topics related to the social and emotional development and resilience of young children (birth through 5 years old), as well as promoting resiilence in the adults who care for young children. Learn more here.

Q15. Our professional development budget is tight. What options are available for limited or no cost?

Check out our schedule of live free webinars here, and we also offer free on-demand webinars here. We also encourage you to keep an eye out for us at various conferences! Check out where we’ll be (and where we have been in the past) here. Additionally, we invite you to check out our YouTube channel with lots of great content.

Q16. Do you offer any train-the-trainer courses on your resources?

We offer virtual train-the-trainer courses for our FLIP IT content (challenging behaviors in young children), and for our Building Your Bounce content (adult resilience). Check out our Virtual Trainings Schedule to see when our next deliveries are. Want a train-the-trainer for just your team? Reach out to Director of Professional Development Debi Mahler at [email protected] or (610) 574-6141.

Q17. Are CEUs offered for any trainings?

CEUs may be offered for select trainings. Additional credits may be available depending upon your state and your college degree and/or licensing/certification. Reach out to Director of Professional Development Debi Mahler at [email protected] or (610) 574-6141 for more information.

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