Heartland Head Starts recognizes the importance of developing Social Emotional skills to fully prepare children for kindergarten. Our program emphasizes the development of Social/Emotional skills in the classroom using the Second Step Curriculum. The curriculum focuses on building skills such as self-regulation and executive-function skills that help children learn and skills to manage their feelings, make friends, and solve problems. Our Preschool and Early Head start classrooms both utilize Conscious Discipline practices that help children to manage their thoughts, feelings, and behavior’s. The Ages and Stages: Social/Emotional screening is used to monitor the social development of your child to ensure that your child is on track with their development. Heartland Head Start is also partners with Illinois State University to contract four School Psychology Doctoral Students to provide advanced support and interventions in each of our classrooms for those children in need to ensure their success.