Skip to main menu Skip to content Skip to footer

The Child Mind Institute’s behavior service provides support to elementary school educators and caregivers with students in grades K-3 struggling with behavior and emotion regulation. Services include small-group instruction to help children learn social and emotional skills, individual student behavior plans, weekly teacher consultation and student observation, and family education. There may be between five and six students in each group, and groups are led by a Child Mind Institute clinician.

Who is eligible for this program?

Classroom teachers should identify students for the program based on students’ needs, their own desire to consult with a Child Mind Institute clinician, and parental engagement. Some signs that a student may benefit from participating may be that the child:

  • Doesn’t follow directions
  • Argues with peers or teachers
  • Has difficulty regulating emotions
  • Has trouble staying focused on classroom tasks/work
  • Has difficulty solving problems appropriately with peers
  • Has difficulty being flexible when things don’t go their way

Children referred for the program will be screened by Child Mind Institute staff to ensure appropriateness for the intervention. Please note that students who display frequent or severe aggression, property destruction, or elopement may not be a good fit for the small-group setting.

Detective Club Curriculum

The Child Mind Institute offers an 8-week, school-based behavioral and emotional skills group for children in grades K-3. The program is informed by the Incredible Years®, an evidence-based, small-group program targeting social-emotional learning, emotion regulation, and problem solving. Integral to the success of this group is weekly caregiver and teacher engagement to promote positive behaviors and skills use at home and at school. The group curriculum covers the following topics:

Session 1: Group Introduction & School Rules
Session 2: Feelings Identification
Session 3: Relaxation Skills
Session 4: Problem Solving
Session 5: Anger Management
Session 6: Helping, Sharing and Teamwork
Session 7: How to Talk With Friends
Session 8: Graduation

In addition to Detective Club, the behavior service intervention includes a teacher and caregiver component.

Teacher Coaching with the Detective Club Curriculum

A behavior service clinician will provide in-vivo support to the teachers of the Detective Club students in applying behavior management strategies in their classrooms. This collaborative and supportive coaching format runs simultaneously to the weeks of Detective Club. For example, teacher coaching may follow this format:

  • Two initial teacher planning meetings to establish rapport, provide initial feedback, and set goals.
  • Six 20-minute live coaching sessions which may include:
    • 5-minute observation during core instruction
    • Verbal and non-verbal prompting and praise to direct teacher use of skills with a focus on increases use of effective behavior management strategies
  • Feedback and support meetings depending on the teacher’s availability.

Caregiver Meeting with the Detective Club Curriculum

A behavior team clinician will provide four caregiver meeting opportunities throughout the Detective Club intervention. The content of each meeting will be the following:

  1. Introduction and Setting the Stage for Success at School
  2. The Power of Your Attention
  3. Implementing a Behavior Chart
  4. Post-Intervention Planning and Advocating for Your Child

The clinician will call to check in and ask caregivers in the group to complete forms to help measure progress.

Request service

Please follow these steps to help streamline the process to bring our behavior service to your school:

  1. Establish a consistent and responsive point of contact to coordinate the application process, scheduling, logistics, data collection, and caregiver communication.
  2. Send an email to SchoolandCommunity@childmind.org to schedule a partnership meeting.
  3. Once our team confirms partnership, swiftly provide appropriate student referrals and speak with legal guardians to obtain verbal consent.
  4. Provide a consistent, confidential time and meeting space for weekly student groups (one hour at a designated time each week).
  5. Have a consistent, engaged in-house mental health provider who will co-lead student groups for one hour each week.
  6. Provide time for teachers of students in the group to meet with the Child Mind Institute clinician on a weekly basis for 15-20 minutes.