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Essential Practices
¡ The Whole Child—An Integrated Approach
While the division of learning into domains is necessary to organize the guidelines, learning for the young child is not isolated by domains, but occurs across areas. Because the domains are interconnected, and because children learn by constructing new knowledge from existing knowledge, early childhood professionals and families must approach the Early Childhood Learning Guidelines with an interdisciplinary and constructivist perspective. The design of the learning environment and curriculum should consider and support the development of the whole child—intellectually, physically, socially, and emotionally.
In high quality early learning environments, both learning and assessment are successfully integrated across several domains at the same time. For example, a science project may also build literacy, numeracy, communication, and social skills as children document and track their experimentation and observations.
Early education practitioners are encouraged to approach the Early Childhood Learning Guidelines from a multidisciplinary perspective when designing their curriculum and planning activities. Young children engaged in active learning will integrate knowledge and skills across domains.
For All Children
One of the most important considerations in the development of the Early Childhood Learning Guidelines was ensuring that it would apply to all children from three years of age to their entrance into kindergarten. These Learning Guidelines present goals and a continuum for what all children—including young children with unique learning needs and those with disabilities—should be able to do. Children develop at different rates and have different physical, emotional, and intellectual abilities. The early learning environment should incorporate appropriate adaptations to meet the needs of each individual child and enable them to achieve to the maximum level of their abilities.
In order to provide young children with age-appropriate opportunities to develop the attitudes, skills, and knowledge for school and life success, early childhood professionals have an important responsibility to design environments, curriculum, and assessment and to adjust their teaching practices to meet the needs of a diverse group of children. It is critical for the early childhood professional to implement a comprehensive, individualized approach to observing, assessing, and planning for each child and his/her unique needs, culture, and abilities.
In today’s diverse communities, young children have varied family, cultural, and linguistic experiences. Children whose home language is other than English face the challenge of experiencing an early childhood learning environment that may not be consistent with their home culture and language. As early childhood professionals work to incorporate practices that support all of the Early Childhood Learning Guidelines, they should demonstrate a respect for and appreciation of the language skills, knowledge, and culture that the young child learning English brings to the early childhood environment, while encouraging the development of the child’s home language.
Children with diagnosed disabilities have rights under federal and state special education law, including the right to a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive setting and access to the general education curriculum. A continuum of services and supports, and appropriate adaptations and modifications to the environment, materials, and teaching approaches are necessary to ensure that all learners, including young children with disabilities, can demonstrate what they know and can do. In working with a child with disabilities, as with all children, the early childhood professional should demonstrate an ability to design alternative ways for each child to best meet the expectations, using information based on each child’s way of attending, organizing information, communicating and interacting.
Learning Happens Within Relationships
Young children’s social and emotional development is the foundation for their cognitive development. Children learn best in an environment where their psychological needs are being met because they feel safe, valued as unique individuals, while they are actively engaged in acquiring new skills and knowledge. Early learning is enhanced by curiosity, creativity, independence, cooperativeness, and persistence.
Children are dependent upon their interactions with peers and adults to construct a sense of self and to view themselves as learners. Early childhood practitioners are aware of the importance of children developing a strong and positive self-concept as well as appropriate self-control and growth in their awareness of their responsibilities when interacting with others. Children are more likely to do well in school when they have a positive sense of personal well-being, developed through consistent caring relationships in their early years. Children also do better in school settings when they have the social skills and behaviors that enable them to development meaningful relationships with adults and peers.
Experiential Learning
Children are active learners. Children learn through experiences with people, objects and things in their world. Experiences through play, knowledge, curiosity and sense of wonder are foundations for children’s learning. The early childhood environment should provide opportunities for children to explore materials and engage in concrete activities and to interact with peers and adults to construct their own understanding about the world around them. The best foundation for later learning is provided when children have multiple and varied opportunities to interact with their environment.
Play, as noted on page 1, is the vehicle for learning and development across domains. It is a dynamic process that allows children to practice skills they will need later in life. Early childhood practitioners are encouraged to create environments that support meaningful play as the key medium for learning.
Intentionality
The Early Childhood Learning Guidelines provide a common framework for developmentally appropriate expectations for children ages three and four. Individual early childhood practitioners can develop curriculum and plan assessment appropriate to their setting and related to the expectations. They are not locked into a set curriculum but rather can design activities within any number of topics that will give children opportunities to meet the indicators individually and at their own pace. The indicators can be used to help early childhood practitioners define what they want young children to know and be able to do. Learning activities can then be designed to help children reach the expectations.
Partnerships with Families
The early childhood practitioner is most effective when young children are viewed in the context of their families and culture. It is within the family that children’s attitudes toward learning and their understanding of the world begin. The language and culture that children bring with them to the early learning environment is the prism through which they view the world around them and through which they interpret and learn. Through ongoing communication with families, early childhood professionals expand on what children are learning in the home and support the development of families as equal partners in the child’s education. Viewing families with respect and equality fosters and maximizes cooperative involvement critical to the child’s school success.
The Early Childhood Learning Guidelines are intended for families, as well as practitioners. Families can draw on the domains and indicators to guide them as they support their child’s development at home and partner with practitioners.
Assessment
These Learning Results are just one part of ensuring high-quality early childhood learning environments for children in the State of Maine. The implementation of research-based,
appropriately applied child assessment is also critical to ensuring quality. Multiple approaches to assessment (e.g., portfolios, observation and narratives) provide professionals and families with the information they need to individualize their work with children and to adapt curriculum and daily activities to meet the needs and abilities of each child. It is essential that each early childhood learning environment and its professionals carefully design systems and multiple approaches—including alternative approaches adapted to children with disabilities— to assessing children to obtain information that enhances teaching strategies and curriculum.
Implementation and Resources
Implementation of the Early Childhood Learning Guidelines may vary, as each early education setting is unique. Early childhood professionals and families will establish their own unique approach to such issues as curriculum development, child assessment, planning, child observation, professional development, and designing the learning environment.