Principles of Child Development

Child Develop Holistically

Aesthetic appreciating the grace of another players movements, enjoying the rhythm of the game. Affective coping with the disappointment of being out, accepting compliments and criticism from other players, expressing anger over a disputed call.

 Cognitive figuring out the sequence in which the game is played, determining how many children can fit in the space available, remembering who has had a chance to be it and who has not, analyzing the best angle for hitting a fleeing player. Language determining what scripts to use to get into or out of the game, using words to describe the rules, responding to the teachers directions.

 Physical catching, dodging, and throwing the ball; developing stamina. Social negotiating the rules of the game, signaling others about a desire to have a turn, making way for a new player, working out disagreements over boundaries and teams.

Child Development Occurs in an Orderly Sequence

Implications
1. Educators read about development and observe young children carefully so they are familiar with relevant developmental sequences in every domain. 2. Practitioners use their knowledge of developmental sequences to determine reasonable expectations for individual children.

3. Teachers use their understanding of child development to determine what new understandings or behaviors might logically expand childrens current levels of functioning. This enables them to challenge youngsters appropriately in the classroom. 4. Teachers avoid unduly pressuring children to accelerate their progress through certain developmental sequences such as those associated with spelling, number recognition, or handwriting.

Child Development Proceeds at Varying Rates Within and Among Children

Implications
1. Teachers expect that children in early education classrooms will exhibit a wide range of abilities. 2. Early childhood professionals avoid focusing on a single index (eg. IQ, reading test score, childs ability to draw a person, etc.) as a measure of childrens overall potential or achievement.

2. Early childhood professionals avoid focusing on a single index (eg. IQ, reading test score, childs ability to draw a person, etc.) as a measure of childrens overall potential or achievement. 3. Teachers carefully observe children to discover patterns of behavior for each child within various developmental domains. They use this knowledge to individualize their instruction rather than expecting all children to learn the same thing in the same way at the same time.

4. Educators create daily schedules in which children have opportunities to pursue activities at their own pace. Children are seldom required to rotate from activity to activity on a predetermined schedule. Practitioners adjust or change their plans to meet the current needs of individuals in the group. 5. Developmental norms are not used as rigid standards against which children are labeled ahead or behind others in the group.

6. Classroom activities are designed to encompass multiple learning objectives, not just one. These allow children more than one opportunity to be challenged and to experience success. 7. Teachers repeat activities more than once during the year so that children can gain different benefits from the activity according to their changing needs and capabilities.

8. Practitioners document childrens individual patterns of progress. They keep continuous records based on observations of childrens movement from one phase of a developmental sequence another.

Development Has Both Cumulative and Delayed Effects

Implications
1. Professionals consider the long-range implications of their practices as well as short-term outcomes. When current strategies undermine long-term goals, they are revised in favor of the long term. In this way, teachers are careful to ensure that their methods support their goals.

2. Researchers conduct longitudinal studies of childrens learning. Program evaluators assess childrens progress and program effectiveness over time. 3. Developmentally appropriate practices are explained to parents, colleagues, and decision makers in terms of how they support childrens learning over the life span.

Childrens Learning is influenced by the Environment

Implications
1. Teachers and administrators highlight the importance of the environment on learning by making sure that the program facility is safe and secure and complies with the legal requirements of the appropriate licensing or accrediting agency.

2. Early childhood programs are structured to ensure that childrens biological and physical needs are addressed. For instance, children may use the toilet whenever they need to, they may rest when they are tired, and they receive snacks and meals as appropriate. Classrooms and outdoor areas offer ample space for safe, unencumbered movement. Adequate ventilation is provided, and room temperatures are maintained at a comfortable level. Childrens wet or soiled clothing is changed promptly.

3. A daily schedule is established that is relatively stable and predictable to children. Changes in routine are explained in advance so that children can anticipate what will happen. 4. Educators design activities, transitions, and routines in keeping with childrens attention span, physical development , and needs for activity, social interaction, and attention from caring adults.

5. Consistent adults supervision is provided so that children can readily identify a specific adult from whom to seek help, comfort, attention, and guidance. 6. Children are treated with warmth, respect, and caring (regardless of socioeconomic, cultural, ethic, or family background, appearance, behaviour, or any disabling condition).

7. Early childhood professionals use positive discipline techniques aimed at enhancing childrens self-esteem and self-control. 8. Practitioners create classroom environments that support and challenge childrens abilities.

Children Learn Through a Combination of Physical Experience, Social Interaction, and Reflection

Implications
1. Support learning by encouraging children to explore and act on the environment as well as by providing experiences that stimulate children to discover and construct knowledge for themselves. 2. Interact with children, posing questions, and introducing new elements to challenge childrens current thinking.

3. Provide daily opportunities for children to interact with their peers. 4. Offer information, ask questions, demonstrate, point out, and explain in an effort to help children acquire knowledge or skills they cannot discover on their own. 5. Provide experiences that enable children to link new information with what they already know and understand. 6. Give children opportunities to reflect on their experiences and help children develop strategies fro doing so.

Children Learn Through Play

Implications
1. Play is integrated into all curriculum domains. 2. A variety of props and other materials are available with which to play. 3. Adults are joyful and playful as they work with children and stimulate childrens play by modeling, taking roles, offering information, asking questions, playing with language, and avoiding interrupting the play when they are not needed.

4. The sound and activity levels within the classroom reflect the quality of childrens play-high quality play is often noisy and active.

The Project Approach

Projects begin with the selection of a topic

Principles of Effective Theme Teaching

(Cummings, 1989; Jalongo & Stamp, 1997; Kostelnik, Howe, et al.,1996)

1.Themes must be age appropriate, individually appropriate, and socio-culturally appropriate. 2.Themes should relate directly to childrens real-life experiences, building on what they know and what they want to know more about. 3.Each theme should represent a concept for children to investigate. The emphasis in a theme is on helping children build themerelated concepts, not on having children memorize isolated bits of information.

4. Every theme should be supported by a body of factual content that has been adequately researched by the teacher (s). 5. Themes should integrate content learning (social-conventional knowledge) with process learning (physical, logical mathematical, representational, meta-cognitive, and other processes related to each curricular domain). 6. Theme-related information should be conveyed to children through hands-on activities that involve active inquiry.

7. Theme-related activities should represent all six curricular domains and promote their integration. 8. In teaching the theme, the same content should be offered more than once and incorporated into different kinds of activities (exploratory, guided discovery, problem solving, discussions, cooperative learning, demonstrations, direct instruction, small-group and whole-group activities).

9. Themes should lend themselves to the eventual development of projects that are child initiated and child directed. 10. Themes should provide opportunities for children to document and reflect on what they have learned. 11. Themes should include ways to involve members of childrens families. 12. Each theme should be expanded or revised according to childrens demonstrated interests and understanding.

Essential Theme Criteria

1. Relevance of the topic to children. 2. Ability of the theme to involve children in hands-on activities. 3. Diversity and balance across the curriculum. 4. Availability of theme-related props. 5. Ability of the theme to inspire childinitiated projects.

Phase 1
Once a topic has been identified, the project enters Phase 1, Beginning the Project. The teacher determines what children already know about the topic and what they want to know. A childrens web is developed. Parents are alerted that a project is about to begin, and resources and materials are gathered.

Phase 2
In this phase, Developing the Project, the children do field work, interview experts, investigate real objects, and consult books and other research materials. Groups of children may investigate different aspects of the topic. For example, one group may do a survey of favorite ice-cream flavors. Another may study signs in the store. When the class visits an ice cream shop, children are prepared to gather information through asking prepared questions, sketching, photographing, and bringing back artifacts to study. Class discussions keep everyone aware of the progress of the groups. Topic webs are updated with new knowledge.

Phase 3
During Phase 3, Concluding the Project, the children tell the story of their project. There may be a parents night, demonstrations of play environments, class-made books, or an exhibit. A project lasts weeks or even months.