- Understand How Children Think
- Recognize Children’s Strengths
- Develop Self-Regulated Learners
- Try It
- Wrap Up
- benchmarks: the standards by which something can be judged. Benchmark behaviors are those behaviors that are typical, and against which most behaviors can be measured
- developmentally appropriate practices: teaching and learning experiences grounded in the way in which we know that children learn, based on understanding the characteristics of a “typically-developing” child
- executive function: all the cognitive processes that help a child behave and think in an organized way
- self-regulated learners: children who have learned to manage strong emotions, control impulses, and stay on task with minimum distraction
- social competencies: skills needed for successful social interaction; in young children these include making simple decisions, interacting with others in productive ways, and being able to resolve conflicts in appropriate ways (by using their words and negotiating and not being aggressive)
Now you're ready to implement the best practices you’ve learned with the children in your program. Complete the second half of the Self-Assessment to discover how much your skills may have improved.
Congratulations! Whether your progress was subtle or dramatic, you've undoubtedly increased your understanding and strengthened your skills. But this is just the beginning—there are many ways to improve and support your children’s learning experience. Look for more informative self-paced tutorials in the Professional Development section of this website.
For a summary of best practice, download the Best Practices (PDF). To see the standards this module correlates to, download the Standards (PDF).