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Learning & Development
A great deal of learning
takes place in a quality child care program. An environment rich
with tools for discovery, interactions with other children, and
child-directed play create a strong foundation for further learning.
Social
and Emotional Development
Child care may provide
a child's first experience with diversity, and present new opportunities.
- Children meet and
form friendships with members of other ethnic and racial groups,
and peers with different abilities
- They practice social
skills such as sharing, taking turns, and listening.
Approaches
Toward Learning
Children learn to make
sense of the world as they explore freely and use all their senses.
- Self-directed activities
allow children to develop skills at their own pace
- As they learn to
control materials such as modeling clay, blocks, or paints,
children become active learners
- Learning cause and
effect and self control, and developing a sense of mastery lay
a foundation for internal motivation
- To develop their
attention spans children need time to engage fully in things
that capture and hold their attention
- Pretend play fosters
visualization skills as children imagine themselves as other
people in other situations
Language
Development
Social interactions among
children of varying ages and stages of development encourage early
literacy skills.
- Babbling between
toddlers imitates the intonation and rhythm of adult conversation
and reinforces language development
- Conversation with
older children and adults adds new language, and provides more
structure, form and content.
- Listening to read-aloud
books and sharing family stories promote literacy
- Singing (and dancing)
and poetry introduce other forms of literacy, as well as melody,
rhythm . . . and fun
- Stories that children
make up and act out in pretend play lead into story telling,
writing, and reading.
Cognition
and General Knowledge
As children explore their
world in a secure environment they learn to:
- Compare and contrast
size, distance, and volume
- Recognize alike
and different
- Express spatial
relationships: beside, on top of, behind, between
- Predict the next
item in a pattern and use logical thinking
- Follow patterns
in manners and rules, such as please and thank you
- Talk about events
in the past, present and future
Physical
Well-Being and Motor Development
Play, and the growth and
development it provides, is a major element of quality child care.
- Play fosters physical
and emotional well being
- Free-play and group
activities promote large motor development
- Puzzles, drawing
and painting, and play dough encourage small motor development
- Appropriate snacks
and a structure that children count on enhance physical well-being
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