The early childhood education workforce includes more than teachers. From mental health consultants to program directors, these professionals support children, and their families.
Working through federally funded programs, such as Early Intervention, these professionals provide services ranging in homes as well as education and care settings. It often requires intensive relationship management, and their work can take an emotional toll.
Teaching families and caregivers new strategies for relating to children requires sensitivity.
A child at the Christina Kent Early Childhood Center in Albuquerque, NM. Photo Credit: Tara Memarian, Project ECHO.
Active Listening
“Through ECHO, I learn strategies for asking questions, being curious about their child’s development, and then, through case studies, I learn how to take all of that information and reflect on it in a way that parents can use it,” says Kaydee Porras, an ECHO participant and developmental specialist with Las Cruces-based Aprendamos Family of Services. “We all come together because we do the same thing, but we have different approaches that we can learn from.”
Porras participates in the Reflective Practice in Early Care and Education New Mexico ECHO Program, which provides direct support, community, and education to New Mexico’s early childhood professionals. Together, they learn how to approach situations in a rigorous, reflective manner. And, in a profession with high levels of burnout, providers learn to practice neutrality toward their feelings, especially in difficult situations, such as suspected child abuse or volatile parental relationships.
Launched in 2022 with the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department, today this ECHO program has participants from 18 counties. In 2024, they added a version of the ECHO program* conducted exclusively in Spanish, to facilitate discussions for providers who prefer to talk about their feelings in their native language.
Intentional Pauses
“Reflective practice emphasizes what we call ‘the consultative stance’ or the importance of breathing and making sure someone is ready for a recommendation before you provide it. It has helped me not react too quickly,” says Aurora Alvarez.
Alvarez works with the state’s Social Emotional and Early Development Initiative to decrease expulsion and suspensions in early childhood centers. Meeting with 18 educators weekly, in addition to classroom observation periods, the Reflective Practice ECHO has helped Alvarez pay attention to the issues at hand in an often-chaotic classroom.
Ultimately, the program aims to ensure that more early childhood professionals have the structure for reflective practice as well as a supportive community.
“The families we work with are so incredibly varied. It’s a lot to take in and pack up; it’s a lot to unload. The Reflective Practice ECHO gives us space to digest our experiences, and to make sure we all get to learn from more experiences than just our own,” says Mary Becker, director of Early Childhood Services for the nonprofit organization LifeROOTS. She has been working with children in Albuquerque since 1996, and has found the ECHO program so valuable, she has attended every program since its launch.
To learn more about the Reflective Practice in Early Care and Education New Mexico ECHO Program, email the program team.
We would like to thank the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department for funding this ECHO program; as well as the Hub team co-facilitators: Liz Martinez and Leandra Lomosad-Anderson, and the Spanish-language ECHO program facilitator Olga Alvara.
*Práctica Reflexiva en Atención Infantil Temprana y Educación NM ECHO Program