When Delysia Riddick began college, she knew exactly what she wanted to do. As part of Virginia Commonwealth University’s inaugural dual-degree program in education, she earned a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies and a master’s degree in early and elementary education. “I knew I always wanted to be a teacher,” she says. “I was going to teach third grade. Maybe fourth.”

Those plans changed her sophomore year when she accepted a part-time position working with infants and toddlers at a local child care center. “I realized I had a soft spot for the infants and the younger children,” she says. “It filled my bucket!”

So did attending to the social and emotional health of children. After six years as a pre-K therapeutic instructor with the Henrico County Public Schools, Delysia joined Child Development Resources (CDR) in Williamsburg, Virginia, as an early childhood mental health consultant. Today, she is the organization’s sole early childhood mental health consultant for children birth to age 3. Her days are filled with in-person and virtual meetings with families, educators, and leaders around the state. She also heads the Equity Circle of the Virginia Association for the Education of Young Children (VAAEYC). Following are excerpts from a recent conversation.

You have a passion for the education and care of infants and toddlers. What draws you to them?

Giving voice to people who are really tiny makes me happy. I think an affinity for infants and toddlers is a special quality that not everyone possesses. A lot of people underestimate this age group. They don’t understand the power of listening and communicating back and forth with the youngest children. When I interact with a child, then see their reaction—“someone heard me; someone listened to me; someone cares!”—it never ceases to take my breath away.

Describe your work with CDR.

I work to empower caregivers—both families and early childhood educators— to know that they have a lot of influence on the trajectory of infants’ and toddlers’ social and emotional development. I work to give them the resources to help them feel secure: What can help them on the ground right now?

What is a typical day like for you?

I get referrals from program leaders, district leaders, and the CDR. I may work with families, classrooms, or individual teachers to offer resources for social and emotional supports. I typically start out by doing an initial screening, using a tool for understanding and supporting social and emotional growth in children birth to age 3. I assess the overall environment, then use those assessments to make a list of goals for coaching sessions. These could include introducing strategies for addressing challenging behaviors or managing stress and burnout as well as improving teacher-family communications. The sessions can be in-person, virtual, or hybrid.

It’s great to be out there and realize there are so many free and low-cost, research-based resources available for families and teachers that I never knew existed when I was in the classroom. I know these are the kinds of resources we need, particularly as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.

What are the challenges you see in your work?

Not a day goes by when I’m not having a conversation with providers about developmental behaviors, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve all been through something traumatic. Children are navigating big feelings. There’s more physicality and bigger emotions since COVID-19—with children and adults—that I’ve seen. I’m noticing more negative attention-seeking from the infants and toddlers I work with. I also see the adults surrounding a child trying to manage their own emotions. They may not be cognizant that even the youngest child is watching. It’s hard to provide a safety net for a little child when you are upset.

Children are resilient, but adults have to be the exemplars. I’m really trying to empower the adults I work with. We need to give grace to each other and support each other. We can all benefit from that.

The pandemic affected you in other ways too. What was a positive outcome?

I used the money I received from the American Rescue Plan to join NAEYC and its Virginia affiliate, VAAEYC! I started attending VAAEYC conferences in 2015. I kept all the resources and handouts from sessions; I took pictures; I had a whole system in place to make the most of these resources. In 2020, when everything shut down, it was the first time in my life that I didn’t have 20 young children who needed me all the time. It felt so strange to me, and I thought, “What can I do?” VAAEYC was the first organization I thought of because I had pulled from their resources so many times.

How has NAEYC membership benefited you?

I use all the NAEYC resources, particularly those having to do with equity. I know they’ve been vetted and have research behind them. I know NAEYC works with the best of the best, and I love that.

You lead VAAEYC’s Equity Circle. How did that come about?

In mid-2020, I joined in a call with the Equity Circle and immediately felt a sense of warmth and belonging despite the heavy, heavy topics we were discussing. I felt so at home. I’d finally found my people. Within a month or two, I assumed a leadership role. I had already gotten so much from VAAEYC—I just wanted to pay it back.

What is your goal for the Equity Circle?

Being able to listen without giving your input is such a valuable skill. Being able to say, “Huh. Maybe I don’t know everything. Maybe I don’t have all the answers.” We go on field trips to places that create a lot of big feelings (like the American Civil War Museum in Richmond). I want our members to take what they learn from those trips and from our calls and to create ripples around our community.

What’s next for you?

I want to empower other adults to be as confident as I am so that they can sit by a child and provide physical, social, and emotional safety for that child. No matter if my road changes, I still plan on being an advocate and a supporter of infant, toddler, and early childhood mental health and social and emotional development.

Photograph: courtesy of Delysia S. Riddick
Copyright © 2023 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. See Permissions and Reprints online at NAEYC.org/resources/permissions.

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