About SEEDS (Strategies for Enhancing Early Developmental Success)
SEEDS is an integrated series of trauma-informed programs to support professionals and parents/caregivers who care for young children.
SEEDS programs equip adults with the knowledge and skills needed to build nurturing relationships with young children that will allow them to develop self-regulation skills.
While especially suited to children who have experienced early adversities, SEEDS emphasizes skills that can be utilized with all children. SEEDS is research-based, focusing on skills rooted in attachment theory and found to be predictive of children’s emotional and social wellbeing, school readiness, and long-term school success.
SEEDS Programs Include
Sprouts PD is a four-part series that focuses on utilizing trauma-informed practices to co-regulate effectively with young children by recognizing, understanding, and responding to their cues in hot and cool moments. Facilitator resources and participant materials are available in English, Spanish, and Korean. A parent/caregiver version of this program (“Sprouts for Parents and Caregivers”) is available in English, and the Spanish-language version is in development.
Learn more on the Wellbeing For LA Learning Center.
SEEDS PD is a six-session series that promotes key skills foundational to young children’s school readiness and well-being, including emotion regulation, behavioral control, and executive functioning. The program also focuses on building home-school connections, and empowering parents to become more engaged in their children’s learning experiences.
Facilitator Training prepares professionals to implement our programs in the community with a professional/provider audience or a parent/caregiver audience. Community-based facilitators review the research basis for Sprouts/SEEDS, practice facilitating session activities, and explore best practices for leading in-person and/or virtual trainings. After Facilitator Training, facilitators continue to receive implementation support through the Sprouts/SEEDS Facilitator Learning Center and Connection Cafés. The Facilitator Learning Center offers online access to digital files of session guides, slide decks, and handouts for providers and parents/caregivers, as well as how-to videos. Connection Cafés are monthly opportunities for live consultation and collaboration with both the UCLA-based SEEDS team and other facilitators in the community. We highly encourage participation in Connection Cafés because the structure and ongoing relationships promote facilitators’ ability to implement our programs effectively, confidently, and with fidelity.
The online space is available exclusively to professionals after completing Sprouts PD or SEEDS PD. The Learning Community provides an opportunity for professionals to seek consultation from the UCLA-based SEEDS team, collaborate with other members to customize SEEDS skills to their own settings, problem-solve challenges, and share resources. Members can also access a robust library of handouts, activity guides, and videos, many of which are available in English and Spanish.
This interactive, self-paced, online course, available through the DMH + UCLA Wellbeing for LA Learning Center, introduces how early childhood trauma may impact young children’s relationships, behaviors, emotions, and thinking processes. In each video-based module, participants join four early childhood professionals as they learn and apply trauma-informed skills to build strong relationships with young children and promote their readiness to learn. Participants are then able to apply these same trauma-informed skills in their own work with young children. The course takes 90-120 minutes to complete.
In addition, Growing Foundational Skills in Early Childhood Discussion Guides are available for each module in the course. These can help organizational leaders and coaches/consultants/trainers conduct brief professional development sessions in the context of team meetings.
The SEEDS Team offers many services that can be leveraged to support organizations and agencies of any size. We offer private consultation packages on topics including developing comprehensive evaluation protocols, integrating hands-on learning into staff meetings and trainings, and creating a professional environment that embeds early childhood trauma-informed care practices into each and every staff person’s role.
We offer customized learning pathways that allow agencies to standardize professional development at the team- or organization-level. We typically include elements of live (in-person or virtual) trainings, video-based online coursework, and self-study that comprise a pathway in which staff work both independently and in teams. At the completion of their learning pathway, participants earn a customized certificate of completion from UCLA and their host agency.
We offer talks and presentations to groups and conferences of any size. From 10 to 1000 attendees, the SEEDS team has a track record of delivering engaging talks in which participants leave with skills they can immediately put into practice. We leverage hands-on activities, small group discussions, and professional wellbeing practices during each presentation. Topics include promoting executive functioning in young children, fostering self-regulation in early childhood settings, leveraging nature-based activities to promote well-being in children and adults, utilizing a family-centered approach to building school readiness, and enhancing your agency’s professional development trainings through play.
Please contact us to learn more about these services and their costs.