Blog – Page 14 – Dr. Thomasa Bond

Standards

Standards and accountability policies have grown over the years to include early childhood programs. There are national reports and public policy statements that have confirmed the need for standards within early childhood curriculums. Standards provide guidelines by which early childhood administrators and teachers can incorporate developmentally appropriate practices and standards into their curriculum. Early childhood standards when incorporated with a developmentally appropriate curricular are beneficial in the growth and development of young children. Standards in early childhood are necessary to evaluate where young children are developmentally based on their age. Standards should intertwine with the curriculum. Standards should be utilized to address both child directed and teacher lead activities. This will allow children the opportunity to learn through exploring their environment.

Standards should be utilized by teachers to provide an age appropriate learning environment for children in the areas of: social and emotional, physical growth, cognitive development, and language and literacy development (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009). Educators utilizing developmentally appropriate curriculum will provide opportunities for children to learn individual skills within the classroom environment and these skills will be developed through age appropriate activities.

Educators utilizing standards and curriculum should regularly assess the effectiveness of the teaching materials. This continuous assessment will assure that the developmental needs of the children are being addressed and that each child is provided with an adequate opportunity for growth and development. Therefore, it is crucial to incorporate an assessment tool to ensure that standards are instituted in a way that addresses the individual needs of each child in care.

Early childhood programs that incorporate standards into their curriculum for young children will provide readiness skills which are especially crucial in low income areas. Where standards are important and beneficial; early childhood teachers should only utilize standards as a guideline and not as a teaching tool.

Reference

Copple, C., & Bredekamp, S. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 3. (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Infant Primary Caregiver

The role of the primary caregiver is to function as the surrogate parent while the infants are in care. The State of Michigan defines the role of the primary caregiver as the individual directly responsible for the following: verbal and physical interactions, primary responses to the infant’s physical and emotional needs, and ongoing interaction with the parents regarding the infants experiences. Each infant should be assigned a primary caregiver with no more than four infants assigned to one caregiver.

This provides the infants with the opportunity to develop a bond with their individual caregiver. When infants are allowed the opportunity to bond with their primary caregiver they will develop appropriate attachments within their environment.

There should be daily communication between the parents and primary caregiver. This communication should include the infant’s behavior, eating patterns, development milestones and any changes in the child’s usual behavior. This communication will allow the parents and the caregivers the opportunity to notice changes in the child’s usual behavior which will assure that the infants are developing appropriately. Therefore, parents should not speak with the other caregiver in the classroom about their child’s daily activities.

Primary caregiver should have a work schedule that allows them to meet the parents at drop off or pick-up daily. The preferred way would be to rotate the schedule so that the primary caregiver was at the center at the start of the day for several days and at the end of the day on several days; because it is also important for the parents to develop a relationship with their child’s primary caregiver.

If you know of infant caregivers that are confused about the functions of a primary caregiver tell them the following: think of a primary caregiver as the relative or friend that would help with their child if they were not available and that would be the role of the primary caregiver.

Emergent Literacy

Children are eager to learn. When young children gain literacy skills they begin to formulate their opinions and thoughts of the world around them. Children’s emergent literacy skills are directly related to their ability to communicate effectively.

To promote emergent literacy within your program you should have:

1) Several activities that revolve around language arts, pre-reading, phonics and phonemic awareness and story time.

2) Rhyming and letter sequencing are also a part of the pre-reading skills.

3) Reading to the children and allowing them to develop their language, cognitive process and social activities through story-time, along with reviewing letters and sounds daily.

4) The children should name words that have the sound that the class is working on.

5) The students along with the teacher’s should spell words daily and first and last names as well as their classmate’s name.

6) Teachers should allow the students to locate objects in the room with the sound that they are working on.

7) The teacher should read aloud to the children and the children will recite the story.

8) The teacher will utilize paired reading where the children read to one another with adult supervision.

Create a literature rich environment for them to gain literacy skills.

Should Men Work with Young Children?

I say yes. They should! Children should have the opportunity to interact with men as well as women in the early childhood classroom. Men have a different approach and insight that women do not have and we are doing children a disservice when men are not recruited or encouraged to work within the early childhood field within the classroom. Men can model for children how to be a man and how to conduct themselves with others, both by modeling this behavior and by teaching the behavior. This is especially true for under privileged children because men can teach young children that are residing in single parent households headed by women how to be young men and how to respect themselves and others. Men working within the classroom maybe the only male figure that young children will have the opportunity to interact with on a regular basis.

How can we attract qualified men to the field?

Remove the stereotype that men working it the classroom will harm or molest the children. Women harm and molest children also. Hire and train qualified staff both male and female.

Remove the stereotype that women are better equipped to care for children; men are just as capable. With the proper training (which men and women need to be successful) men can provide appropriate care and supervision.

Promoting Diversity within the Early Childhood Classroom

Early childhood classrooms are becoming more diverse in various ways: Cultural, racial, physical, religious beliefs, linguistic (exposing children to various languages), and family dynamics to name a few. However, diversity is not always displayed and shared within the classroom.

At this point we as early childhood educators have to ask ourselves why our classrooms are not promoting diversity. Is it because we do not understand different cultures and races?

Why do you feel diversity is not being promoted consistently within the early childhood classrooms?

Diversity within early childhood programs can go a long way with reducing prejudice because children will gain knowledge of various cultures at a younger age. Knowledge and exposure are the true keys to reducing all forms of prejudice.

Early childhood educators should be active in exposing children to the various cultures within their center as well as cultures not represented at the center. When children come from various cultures and races the families have different child rearing practices. These have to be recognized in order to provide the best learning environment for the children. When you have a child that does not speak English you cannot assume that their language is delayed because they are not advancing with emergent literacy as well as the other children. Staff can also have the opportunity to learn about various cultural customs and parenting styles that will provide a greater understanding of the children and families that they provide service.

A classroom environment that is demonstrating respect for various cultures will provide at a minimal the following: A variety of materials portrayed in real and non-stereotypic ways. Racial and cultural pictures and artifacts will be displayed. Real items that can be found in the children’s home along with photos of the children and their families will be incorporated into the classroom.

Teachers will create an environment within the classroom where the students and families feel comfortable. Teachers will provide a variety of cultural materials. The children will be eager to explore their environment, while engaging and learning about different cultures. There should be a table with various materials from different cultures. The materials should be labeled with a description of each artifact. There will be images on a board of different cultures with matching artifacts that the students can match themselves and the board displaying various cultures is at the children’s eye level. If there is another language spoken in the home there should be items labels in both the child’s native language and English. There should be books that represent various cultures. Hands-on activities should be provided to the children to allow them the opportunity to learn and mature through their interaction.