Cognitive development involves complex processes of thinking, problem solving, understanding, and learning that begin prenatally and continue throughout life. It involves acquiring and using knowledge, skills, and experiences to build mental models called schemas to manage and understand information. Cognitive development is shaped through interaction with one's environment and experiences that are hands-on, language-rich, allow for exploration and practice, and meet children's developmental readiness. Providing varied, stimulating yet unhurried interactions and experiences best supports children's cognitive growth.
We have a responsibility to carry out the promise of Early Head Start which includes preparing all children for later success in school and in life. It all starts here in the infant and toddler program. Come learn about real-life strategies you can put into action to enhance school readiness for infants and toddlers in your care and how to educate families about their role in the process.
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TABLE 2.2 Connecting Knowledge of Development and Learning to Teaching Practices
Principles of Child Development and Learning
Developmentally Appropriate Teaching Practices
Children develop holistically
• Teachers plan daily activities and routines to address aesthetic, emotional, cognitive, language, physical, and social development.
• Teachers integrate learning across the curriculum (e.g., mixing language, physical, and social; combining math, science, and reading).
Child development follows an orderly sequence
• Teachers use their knowledge of developmental sequences to gauge whether children are developing as expected, to determine reasonable expectations, and to plan next steps in the learning process.
Children develop at varying rates
• Teachers give children opportunities to pursue activities at their own pace.
• Teachers repeat activities more than once so children can participate according to changing needs and abilities.
• Teachers plan activities with multiple learning objectives to address the needs of more and less advanced learners.
Children learn best when they feel safe and secure
• Teachers develop nurturing relationships with children and remain with children long enough so children can easily identify a specific adult from whom to seek help, comfort, attention, and guidance.
• Daily routines are predictable. Changes in routine are explained in advance so children can anticipate what will happen.
• There is two-way communication between teachers and families, and families are welcome in the program.
• Children have access to images, objects, and activities that reflect their home experiences.
• The early childhood environment complies with all safety requirements.
• Adults use positive discipline to enhance children’s self-esteem, self-control, and problem-solving abilities.
• Teachers address aggression and bullying calmly, firmly, and proactively.
Children are active learners
• Activities, transitions, and routines respect children’s attention span, need for activity and need for social interaction. Inactive segments of the day are short.
• Children participate in gross motor activities every day.
Children learn through a combination of physical experience, social experience, and reflection
• Adults encourage children to explore and investigate. They pose questions, offer information, and challenge children’s thinking.
• Children have many chances to document and reflect on their ideas.
Children learn through mastery and challenge
• Practitioners simplify, maintain, or extend activities in response to children’s functioning and comprehension.
Children’s learning profiles vary
• Teachers present the same information in more than one modality (seeing, hearing, touching) and through different types of activities.
• Children have opportunities to play on their own and with others; indoors and outdoors; with natural and manufactured materials.
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The essence of quality childcare…when a teacher recogn.docxmehek4
The essence of quality childcare…
when a teacher recognizes and accepts
where a child is
academically, socially and culturally
and teaches them through play
allowing them to engage in learning.
Quality Care Overview
What does QUALITY mean?
• How good or bad something is
• A characteristic or feature that someone or
something has
• Something that can be noticed as a part of a
person or thing
• A high level of value or excellence
Why is Quality Childcare
important?
What is Quality Childcare?
We will emphasize a high level of
value or excellence in maintaining
standards, best practices and
attitudes that support the
development of children in our care.
The state regulates quality based on the following aspect:
• Ratio: The number of children per adult in a home or classroom
• Group Size: The total number of children
• Health: Policies and practices around illness, immunization, nutrition,
cleanliness, and preventing the spread of germs
• Safety: Practices to make sure the environment is safe, both indoors
and outdoors. This includes practices around First Aid and Infant and
Child CPR training for staff, fire precautions, criminal background
checks
• Training, education and experience of the provider: Assures that
providers are knowledgeable in child development and other related
topics
Quality care is more than
just following regulations,
it is embracing the
individual, developmental, and academic
needs of children;
meanwhile respecting parents as their
primary educators.
Research has shown that building positive relationships with
children and their families, plus providing safe developmentally
appropriate learning environments produces long lasting
positive effects on children’s cognitive and social development.
This includes:
developmentally appropriate curriculum
knowledgeable and well-trained teachers
comprehensive services that support the health, nutrition and
social well-being, in an environment that respects and supports
diversity
Employing effective practices in the
following stages of quality care
are essential for
every early childhood teacher.
Stages of Development
Children grow and develop at different rates. While their
pathways through childhood differ, most pass a set of
predictable milestones along the way.
The information presented here offers a map that can
help you follow a child's journey.
The map divides the developmental milestones
into four areas:
Physical Development
From the start, babies want to explore their
world. As they grow, children's determination to
master movement, balance, and fine-motor skills
remains intense.
Social and Emotional
Social and emotional milestones are often harder to
pinpoint than signs of physical development. This area
emphasizes many skills that increase self-awareness
and self-regulation. Research shows that social skills
and emotional development (ref lected in the ability to
pay at ...
Slides for seminar at SU team leaders conference on 10 January 2015. This covers, attachment, nurture and resilience followed by some background on collaborative learning (Vygotsky, Reggio Emilia, etc).
2. What is cognitive development?
• Cognition is the process of thinking.
• It involves a range of complex processes such as
acquiring and using knowledge and skills, problem
solving, decision making, planning, understanding,
reasoning using symbols, and creativity.
3. What is cognitive development?
• The complex process of cognitive development begins in
prenatally and continues throughout our lives.
• In the first five years of life children develop faster and
learn more than they will at any other stage of their lives
– this is the remarkable nature of human cognition!
4. What is cognitive development?
• By adulthood human beings have a huge database of
knowledge, experiences, values and attitudes.
• This database is in constant use.
5. Thinking
• Thinking involves the manipulation of mental models, of
actions, concepts, ideas, and events.
• Thinking and learning are developed
by actively engaging in the social
and physical environment.
6. Schemas
• These mental models are referred to as cognitive
schemas
• Schemas are essential in managing, sorting, storing, and
retrieving the vast quantities of information that is
received through all of the senses.
7. Schemas
• Like all other areas of development cognitive
development is an interactive process
• Children learn as they interact with
people and objects in their
environment.
8. Schemas
• Children need to concentrate on the
task and need time and opportunities
to practise until their skills become
automatic.
• Most activities involve a combination
and integration of many simple skills
into more complex behaviours.
9. Cognition and the carer
• Children learn better when their activities are self-
regulated and motivated by their genuine interest in an
activity.
• Children are more likely to achieve when adults offer
guidance and support without pressure to perform to a
predetermined standard.
10. Cognition and learning style
• Individual’s adopt a learning style which best suits their
personality and learning needs.
• This may include learning by observing others; learning
by direct instruction; learning by trial and error or
practicing alone.
11. Cognition and Language
• Language helps us express our thoughts and feelings.
• Children need language rich environments where carers
with good communication skills model, label, interact
verbally, question and discuss experiences.
• Good language skills enhance children’s cognitive
development
12. Cognition and variety
• Variety allows children to think and develop questions
about where, when, why and how things affect them and
fit into their current thinking.
• It is vital to provide some variety to encourage a child to
develop thinking and problem solving skills and to keep
them challenged and motivated.
13. Cognition and unhurried time
• In order to make
connections, reason and
understand, children need to
be given long periods of
uninterrupted time to play,
explore and experiment.
14. Cognition and readiness
• In relation to cognitive
development
readiness refers to
the child’s physical,
social, psychological
and intellectual
receptiveness to new
ideas and concepts.
15. Cognition and health
• In order to be mentally alert, a child also needs to be
physically healthy.
• Hungry, tired, distracted, uncomfortable, unsure or
anxious children are less likely to perform well
cognitively.
16. Cognition and interest
• New ideas or new concepts must be presented in a
context that is familiar to young children.
• New knowledge should be based on prior knowledge or
experience.
17. Cognition and quality experiences
• Young children perform best when experiences are
concrete and hands-on.
• Children need to be given repeated opportunities to
experiment and explore in order to fully understand new
concepts.
18. Cognition and quality Experiences
• Sensitive interactions with adults do more to promote
brain development than any toy, CD, or DVD.
• Preschools should deliver services that enable adults to
have rich interactions with children.
Editor's Notes
To assist in processing new information individuals draw on their data base of knowledge and skills.
Engagement in the social setting leads to the formation of values, beliefs, assumptions, expectations and associations
