Over the years researchers have found the necessity to develop theories of behavior that are specific to family settings. These theories have been developed by people with a variety of areas of emphasis, from family therapists to gerontologists to child development specialists. In this chapter we will briefly discuss six such theories: Bioecological Model, Family Systems, Functionalism, Conflict Theory, Symbolic Interactionism, and Psychological Perspectives.

Welcome to Child Growth and Development. This text is a presentation of how and why children grow, develop, and learn. We will look at how we change physically over time from conception through adolescence. We examine cognitive change, or how our ability to think and remember changes over the first 20 years or so of life. And we will look at how our emotions, psychological state, and social relationships change throughout childhood and adolescence.

As authors, we chose the subject for this book because of what early childhood teacher candidates told us about their confusion between the theory they were taught in college methods classes, and, the teaching practices they often experienced during the Practicum field placement. We became interested in this subject because the teacher candidates were questioning, as good teacher candidates do, a troubling disconnect between early childhood theory and associated practice in classrooms. We were motivated to write this book because we wanted to share our model of professional development, designed to support both pre-service teacher candidates and, in-service educators together, during the Practicum field placement. Our lead author secured a grant to investigate these concerns and to implement a new professional development model designed to overcome them. The substance of this book reminds all of us, that in early childhood education, educators’ change through professional development, for improved practice that benefits children’s learning, is a constant.

The ELC professional development model was designed to improve the quality of teacher candidates’ Practicum field placements and align teaching in field placements with Learning Standards used in the teacher education program.

Teams of four educators from varied settings worked in a Practicum placement setting for one semester to improve their teaching and align it with Learning Standards. An action research approach improved teaching challenges teams faced. Research articles were read to improve teams’ teaching challenges by implementing one agreed strategy. Teams video-recorded, assessed, and reflected on the impact of the strategy on their teaching, on teacher candidates’ learning and on children’s learning.

This text compiles six case studies from this model to illustrate how teaching challenges were improved. Appropriate for practiced educators as well as educators in training, this text provides a real world look into applying Learning Standards in early childhood classrooms.

This textbook, Early Childhood Literacy: Engaging and Empowering Emergent Readers and Writers Birth-Age 5, outlines the connection between different areas of language and literacy and describes strategies for supporting development and promoting instruction. Early literacy includes reading, writing, and language development. Writing includes any early writing attempts and pre-writing behaviors just as reading includes any early reading attempts and recognition of symbols and sounds. Language also includes listening and speaking (oral language) and the use of gestures and signs to communicate. The term oral language is commonly used to describe early language development separately from reading and writing. This text assumes oral language is a component of language and embraces the broader term to underscore the communication practices outside of listening and speaking. For example, some children use sign language or a picture board. For these reasons, the textbook will focus on language development in its totality, including oral language. This textbook is focused on birth to age 5 because early literacy development is crucial for future learning and development.

Welcome to learning about how to effectively plan curriculum for young children. This textbook will address:

Developing curriculum through the planning cycle
Theories that inform what we know about how children learn and the best ways for teachers to support learning
The three components of developmentally appropriate practice
Importance and value of play and intentional teaching
Different models of curriculum
Process of lesson planning (documenting planned experiences for children)
Physical, temporal, and social environments that set the stage for children’s learning
Appropriate guidance techniques to support children’s behaviors as the self-regulation abilities mature.
Planning for preschool-aged children in specific domains including
Physical development
Language and literacy
Math
Science
Creative (the visual and performing arts)
Diversity (social science and history)
Health and safety
How curriculum planning for infants and toddlers is different from planning for older children
Supporting school-aged children’s learning and development in out-of-school time through curriculum planning
Making children’s learning visible through documentation and assessment

Early childhood is a critical time in development. Many outcomes, both positive and negative, have their beginnings in these years. It is vital that children’s health and safety be protected. High-quality early care and education programs can play a valuable role in improving outcomes
for children.

Which comes first assessment or instruction? Have you ever wondered about the relationship between assessment and instruction?At the end of this module, participants will be able to decompose or deconstruct content standards, apply high-quality assessment designs to appreciate the differences of each learner,  and create sound reasoning to employ a wide range of information and communication technology to meet the needs of K-6 grade learners.