Early Childhood Education

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) defines “early
childhood” as occurring before the age of eight, and it is during this period that a child goes through
the most rapid phase of growth and development. Their brains develop faster than at any other
point in their lives, so these years are critical. The foundations for their social skills, self-esteem,
perception of the world and moral outlook are established during these years, as well as the
development of cognitive skills.

Early childhood education is encouraged for the healthy development and nurturing of all
these important foundations, and trends show that parents are increasingly recognizing this. In fact,
according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), enrollment in prekindergarten-
level education has risen from 96,000 to over 1 million in the last 30 years.

Early childhood education is not mandated by the United States Department of Education.
Elementary and secondary education is all that is legally required for students, though early
childhood education is doubtlessly an important and fundamental stage of learning.
WORKING WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

When deciding if early childhood education is right career choice for you, the first and
most important question to ask yourself is: Do I like working with children? If you can’t answer
yes, then this career may not be best for you. Working with children requires patience, dedication
and sensitivity. Trying to keep up with them can be exhausting, but if you’re up to the challenge,
it can also be extremely rewarding.

Young children are not like other students. Their needs are unique and you must be aware
of this. It is important to understand that you could be one of the first adults a young child has
interacted with outside of his or her own family. The separation from their parents in the beginning
can be difficult, and a teacher must help them through this transition. A child can become very
attached to you as a “substitute” for their parents, or they may shun you completely. Great teachers
are adaptable to the emotional reactions of their students. And when it comes to your students’
interactions with other children, this can be one of the first times they interact with children their
age. A teacher’s role often becomes that of mediator when children have problems sharing or
learning how to get along.

Furthermore, teachers in early education need to be creative and adaptive. They must think
outside their own mature perspective and be able to place themselves in their students’ shoes. What
motivates a very young child? How do you hold a toddler’s interest? How do you make learning
fun? These are all questions you will have to ask yourself. Lessons in early education classrooms
are very hands-on. They involve arts and crafts, storytelling, exercise, educational games and
more. You need to be fast on your feet and highly adaptable to continuously come up with new
ways to guide children through their early learning stages.
HOW CAN I BECOME AN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATOR?

As an aspiring early education teacher, you need to have the right temperament. Patience,
creativity, sensitivity, communication skills and ability to connect with children are arguably some
of the most important qualifications. However, you’re also expected to have the
proper schooling and credentials, and each state sets its own standards for what they expect
from qualified teachers. Before beginning your path to becoming an early childhood educator, you
should find out what the requirements are for your state or school where you want to teach.

Because teaching young children is such a highly specialized field, some schools require a
degree in early childhood education or child development. Many preschools set their minimum
requirement at an associate’s degree, and most Montessori schools require a Bachelor’s degree.
Having a Bachelor’s degree in early childhood education will generally qualify you to teach
through the third grade. Of course, having an advanced degree such as a master’s in education or
teaching in this field only improves your abilities, job prospects and opportunities for career
advancement.

Once you have attained your degree, you need to look into your state’s requirements to
earn your official teaching credential. The Council for Professional Recognition offers
the Childhood Development Associate (CDA) credential in different areas of early childhood
education. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education offers national
certification as well. Also, it is important to note that to teach at a Montessori school you must
complete a special Montessori teacher education program. Once you are certified, the most
important way to build your career is through experience. Many preschool and Montessori teachers
begin as teaching aids to gain practical classroom experience before becoming teachers.
WHERE CAN I TEACH?

Preschools

Preschool is not daycare, contrary to some general misconceptions. Whereas daycare is

often childcare without an emphasis on learning, preschool is a child’s first formal learning
environment. Preschool focuses on cognitive and social development by stimulating a child’s
curiosity and imagination. Children learn through sharing toys, taking turns, and interacting with
their teachers and each other. The classrooms themselves are very lively, brightly decorated with
posters of the alphabet, maps, number tables and student artwork. Classrooms must be interactive
and stimulating to foster an exciting learning environment. Teacher-student ratios are also closely
monitored to ensure close interactions, and class sizes are kept relatively small.

Despite increasing public interest in early childhood education, preschools are still
generally considered private schools. Many are funded by tuition and donations, and because the
government does not mandate preschool, it is considered an option for families. However, the
evidence of the lasting effects of preschool has prompted some government action.
The Department of Health and Human Services instituted the Head Start Program to provide early
childhood education to children from low-income families and promote their healthy development.

Montessori Schools

Montessori schools are institutions centered around the Montessori method of learning.
This method, founded by Dr. Maria Montessori over a hundred years ago, emphasizes the
curiosity, creativeness and self-motivation of the child and stresses independence. This “child
centered” approach to education differs from traditional methods in several major ways. Perhaps
the most notable feature of Montessori schools is the classroom itself, where multiple age groups
learn within one environment. Children in Montessori classrooms range from ages two and up,
with no distinction in education levels. Thus, an eight-year-old learns side-by-side with a three-
year-old to simulate a real-life social environment and promote peer learning. Younger children
learn from the older ones, while the older children are able to practice teaching things they already
know.

Montessori classrooms are also designed to foster independence and exploratory learning.
In these classrooms, students are given the freedom to chose what to learn and to set their own
pace. The classrooms have multiple interactive spaces, each dedicated to a different academic area,
such as language arts, math and science. Children are encouraged to explore these areas in the
order that most interests them, and they often end up working closely with other students to explore
these areas together. Despite the autonomy, teachers in Montessori schools are by no means
passive or uninvolved. Rather, the teachers work alongside students, guiding them through their
exploration of the classroom, answering questions and facilitating group work. They are highly
involved in this self-motivated learning process. The American Montessori Society provides a
very detailed Introduction to Montessori schools that further illustrates the methods and pedagogy
of this innovative approach.

Montessori institutions are private schools, and are therefore not funded by the
government. Their teachers are also not subject to national teacher certification and licensure
standards, though they are required to have at least a Bachelor’s (preferably in child development
or early childhood education) and complete a special teacher education program.

Kindergartens

Kindergarten is usually seen as the beginning of formal education, and it is fully integrated
into the elementary school system. Kindergarten is public education and subject to state law
(therefore, kindergarten teachers must be properly licensed and certified), though it is not
mandatory in every state. Children enter kindergarten during ages five to six, and many states do
not begin mandating education until age seven. However, whether it is mandatory or not, it is still
highly encouraged. Though kindergarten is more formal, it still qualifies as early childhood
education because students are under eight years old. They are still developing at a rapid pace, and
kindergarten is important to easing their transition into elementary school.

Kindergarten focuses heavily on social development and peer-to-peer interactions, though

there is greater emphasis on fundamental academics than there is in preschool. In preschool
children learn how to count, but in kindergarten they begin learning about adding and subtracting.
They learned colors, and now learn how to blend those colors to make new ones. And whereas in
preschool they learned the alphabet, kindergarten teaches them how to spell and string basic words
into simple sentences. Basically, kindergarten lays the groundwork for their formal education by
introducing new concepts that develop into the different academic subjects they will learn
throughout the rest of their educational career.
EARLY LEARNING

During the first few years of life, a child learns a lot about themselves and the world around
them, and parents are their first teachers. Parents teach them how to speak, how to walk, how to
feed themselves. They teach them the alphabet, shapes and colors, and even how to count and spell
very simple words. But for healthy development, children need active stimulation and interaction
with others. This is where early childhood education is the most beneficial. It is in these classrooms
where children apply what their parents have taught them to a practical setting and have their first
interactions with people outside of their family. Beginning with children as young as two, teachers
guide them through an important transition and oversee their adjustment. Early childhood
education focuses on “learning through play” by providing a hands-on, interactive atmosphere
where children learn about themselves through playing with other children. As a teacher of young
children, you become somewhat of a surrogate parent, their first source of guidance in playing
with others and forming friendships. You teach them how to share, how to take turns, how to have
manners--lessons that stay with them and evolve with each crucial phase of their life.

Children this young also have more physical demands than older students. Many
preschools incorporate a nap time into their schedule or are on half-day schedules to accommodate
a child’s exhaustion after a long morning of playing and learning. Snack time is also built into
these schedules, which serve as a great opportunity to teach your students table manners. Teaching
young children requires nothing short of complete devotion and perseverance. It can be a daunting
task, but to a truly committed teacher, it is worth the effort.

There is much debate over what is covered by an ideal preschool curriculum, but in
actuality, early childhood is a period of such tremendous growth and curiosity that it is hard to
decide exactly what, and when, a child needs to learn. Many preschool curricula establish the
teacher as a guide, allowing children to discover for themselves while the teacher leads them
through the process. Much research goes into preschool curricula, and organizations such as
the National Institute for Early Education Research and the National Association for the Education
of Young Childrenstrive to preserve and advance the education of some of our country’s youngest
students, as well as increase awareness about the importance of early childhood education.
 Early childhood is a crucial stage of life in terms of a child's physical, intellectual,
emotional and social development. Growth of mental and physical abilities progress at an
astounding rate and a very high proportion of learning takes place from birth to age six. It is a time
when children particularly need high quality personal care and learning experiences.

Education begins from the moment the child is brought home from the hospital and continues on
when the child starts to attend playgroups and kindergartens. The learning capabilities of humans
continue for the rest of their lives but not at the intensity that is demonstrated in the preschool
years. With this in mind, babies and toddlers need positive early learning experiences to help their
intellectual, social and emotional development and this lays the foundation for later school success.

First Three Years

During the first three years parents will be the main influence in the child’s learning
experience and education. What parents do and expose their children to have a vast impact on the
development of the child. Parents sometimes forget that an interested parent can have a tremendous
impact on a child’s education at any age. If the parents choose to participate in a Mothers and
Toddlers group or child-care arrangements, including family babysitting or center-based child
care, these all have the potential to provide high-quality, individualized, responsive, and
stimulating experiences that will influence the child’s learning experience. With this in mind, a
child in a negative environment could also result in negative effects as well. This fact makes it
essential that the environment that the child is placed in during these early years be as positive and
intellectually stimulating as possible. Very strong relationships are imbedded in everyday routines
that familiar caregivers provide. It is the primary caregiver that a child learns to trust and looks to
for security and care.

Speech development is one of the first tools that a child will demonstrate in his/her lifelong
education. Wordlessly at first, infants and toddlers begin to recognize familiar objects and to
formulate the laws that systematically govern their properties. With encouragement through books
and interaction, toddlers soon pick up vocabulary.
 It is really useful to understand how language unfolds.
The first words that toddlers learn are normally the names
of familiar people and objects around them. Then they
learn words that stand for actions. Only then do they start
to have the words that describe their world, that are about
ideas. This development is usually in the second part of
the second year of life. A parent or caregiver can have a
vast impact on a child’s speech development by the
amount of time that is spent talking with and reading to a
child.

Every caregiver can, in culturally appropriate ways, help

infants and toddlers grow in language and literacy.
Caregivers need presence, time, words, print, and
intention to share language and literacy with infants and toddlers. All five qualities are important
but it is intention that can turn a physical act like putting away toys or lining up at preschool into
a delightful learning experience. Even a trip to the grocery store can be turned into a vocabulary
lesson about colors and the names of fruits.

Importance of play

Child development experts agree that play is very important in the learning and emotional
development of all children. Play is multi-faceted. Although it should be a fun experience for the
child, often many skills can be learned through play. Play helps children learn relationship and
social skills, and develop values and ethics, Play should always be considered an essential part of
a child’s early education.

Functional play helps children to develop motor and practice skills. This kind of play is
normally done with toys or objects that are stackable, can be filled with water or sand or playing
outdoors. Water play or sand play is a favorite amongst pre-school children and a valuable teaching
tool. This type of play can make up about 50% of the type of play that toddlers through 3year-old
children practice.
 Constructive play is
characterized by building or creating
something. Toys that encourage this type
of play are simple puzzles, building
blocks, easy craft activities, and puppets.
Normally 4 or 5 year old children enjoy
this type of play, but it continues to be
enjoyable into the first and second grades
of school.

Hands and fingers are the best first art tools. Soon they will manage thick paint brushes,
wedges of sponge, wax crayons, and thick chalks. It is advised to avoid rushing a child into making
something in particular. Letting them do what they want encourages individuality and decision
making. Toddlers also enjoy play dough because they can get hands and fingers in it for poking,
rolling, and shaping. This type of play develops thinking and reasoning skills, problem solving,
and creativity.

Pretend play allows children to express themselves and events in their lives. Normally a
child will transform themselves or a play object into someone or something else. This type of play
is popular with children in preschool and kindergarten and it tends to fade out as they enter primary
school. Pretend play helps children process emotions and events in their lives, practice social skills,
learn values, develop language skills, and develop a rich imagination. Because of the important
skills that are developed through this type of play, efforts should be made to encourage children to
pretend.

Playing games that have a definite structure or rules do not become dominant until children
start to enter elementary school. Board games, simple card games, ball games or skipping games
that have specific rules will teach children cooperation, mutual understanding, and logical
thinking.

A playground can be a turned into a learning experience for a child. Although a playground
traditionally has certain elements, these elements may pose an unsafe surrounding for your child
if the equipment is not properly supervised or built of unsafe materials. A safe environment that
 allows gross motor activity is important for
children. The following elements have been found
to be unsafe in group care settings:

 Metal slides can cause burns when they are

exposed to direct sunlight. The intense sunlight in
a tropical climate heats metal to very high
temperatures.
 Enclosed tunnel slides make observation
difficult and can allow one climbing child above
the enclosed tunnel to fall on top of another at the
tunnel exit.
 Traditional seesaws can result in injuries
when one child unexpectedly jumps off.
 Spring mounted, rocking toys with very heavy animal seats can strike a child. (There are
acceptable, lighter weight rocking toy alternatives.)
 Swings, other than tire swings, can easy hit a waiting child and cause injury. Light weight
plastic seat swings pose a much lower chance hurting a child.
 Things to look for in a Preschool Curriculum

It is important that when considering an early education facility, caregivers and teacher in the
facility have knowledge of the cultural supports for the language and literacy learning of the
children and families they are serving. They need to have sufficient skills in guiding small groups
of children in order to give full attention to individual young children’s language and literacy
efforts. They need to be able to draw out shy children while they help very talkative ones begin to
listen to others as well as to speak. Caregivers or teachers need to arrange environments that are
symbol rich and interesting without being overwhelming to infants and toddlers. Even the simplest
exchange becomes a literacy lesson when it includes the warmth of a relationship coupled with
words, their concepts, and perhaps a graphic symbol.

To be effective, an early year’s curriculum needs to be carefully structured. In that structure,

there should be three strands: provision for the different starting points from which children
develop their learning, building on what they can already do; relevant and appropriate content
which matches the different levels of young children's needs; and planned and purposeful activity
which provides opportunities for teaching and learning both indoors and outdoors.

 If your child is between the ages of three and six and attends a preschool or kindergarten
program, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
suggests you look for these 10 signs to make sure your child is in a good classroom.
 Children spend most of their time playing and working with materials or other children.
They do not wander aimlessly and they are not expected to sit quietly for long periods of
time.
 Children have access to various activities throughout the day. Look for assorted building
blocks and other construction materials, props for pretend play, picture books, paints and
other art materials, and table toys such as matching games, pegboards, and puzzles. All the
children should not necessarily all be doing the same activity at the same time.
 Teachers work with individual children, small groups, and the whole group at different
times during the day. They do not spend all their time with the whole group.
 The classroom is decorated with children's original artwork, their own writing with
invented spelling, and stories dictated by children to teachers.
 Children learn numbers and the alphabet in the context of their everyday experiences. The
natural world of plants and animals and meaningful activities like cooking, taking
attendance or serving snack provide the basis for learning activities.
 Children work on projects and have long periods of time (at least one hour) to play and
explore. Worksheets are used little, if at all.
 Children have an opportunity to play outside every day. Outdoor play is never sacrificed
for more instructional time.
 Teachers read books to children individually or in small groups throughout the day, not
just at group story time.
 Curriculum is adapted for those who are ahead as well as those who need additional help.
Teachers recognize that children's different backgrounds and experiences mean that they
do not learn the same things at the same time in the same way.
  Children and their parents look forward to school. Parents feel secure about sending their
child to the program. Children are happy to attend; they do not cry regularly or complain
of feeling sick.

During the first three years older people will be a major impact on children's learning
experiences and education. What parents do and expose their children to have a broad impact on
child development. Parents sometimes forget that parents who are interested can have a
tremendous impact on children's education at any age. If parents choose to participate in Mothers
and Toddlers group or child care settings, including babysitting or child care center-based families,
these all have the potential to provide high-quality, individualized, responsive and stimulating
experience that will affect a child's learning experience. With this in mind, a child in a negative
environment can also lead to negative effects as well. This fact makes it important that the
environment that the child be placed in during the early years as positive and intellectually
stimulating as possible. a very strong relationship that is embedded in daily routine that provides
a familiar caregiver. This is the primary caregiver that a child learns to trust and look for security
and maintenance.

What is Early Childhood Education?

Early childhood education is a broad term used to describe any type of educational program
that serves children in their preschool years, before they are of legal age to enter kindergarten.
Early childhood education may consist of any number of activities and experiences designed to
aid in the cognitive and social development of preschoolers before they enter elementary school.

How and where early childhood education is provided can be very different from one state,
or even one program, to the next. Early childhood education programs may be designed for three-
, four-, or five-year olds, and they may be provided in childcare, daycare, nursery school,
preschool, or pre-kindergarten settings.

*Capella University’s Master of Science in Early Childhood Education program offers you
the chance to earn advanced teaching credentials through a flexible online format designed to work
with your schedule. Recognized by NAEYC and part of Capella’s NCATE-accredited professional
education unit, this program can align to your personal career goals by focusing on broad learning
theories, special education, or supervision in the pre-K setting.
 They may be located in center-based, home-based, or publicschool settings, and they may
be part-day, full-day or even year-round. They can also be privately run, operated by a local school
system, or operated by a federally funded program like Head Start.

Federal, State and Private Early Childhood Education Programs

One of the first early childhood education initiatives in the U.S. was the Head Start
program, which was created in 1965. This federally funded education initiative, which is funded
by the Department of Health and Human Services, provides children from low-socioeconomic
families or those who qualify under a specific at-risk category with free access to early childhood
education programs.

Many early childhood education programs in the U.S. now operate under the auspices of
Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Act. Local educational agencies may apply to state
agencies through Title I; those that are approved through the state are then funded with federal
money. The No Child Left Behind Act encourages the use of Title I funds for preschool programs.

The National Institute for Early Education Research reported that 28 percent of America’s
four-year-olds (or 1.4 million) were enrolled in a state-funded preschool program during the 2012-
13 school year, with 40 states and Washington D.C. all offering state-funded preschool programs.
State pre-k programs continue to be the primary program for four-year-olds in the majority of
states, with recent statistics showing that 85 percent of all four-year-olds enrolled in preschool
were enrolled in a program that receives state funds.

Georgia was the first state in the nation to introduce a statewide universal pre-k program,
which provides early childhood education to all four-year-olds in the state. Since then, New York,
Oklahoma, and Florida have followed suit.

Finally, early childhood education programs may be run by private for-profit companies,
by churches, or as part of a private school curriculum. It is common for these types of early
childhood education programs to be tuition-based.
The Elements of an Early Childhood Education Program

There has been much debate over the years about what type of program qualifies as simply
care and what type of program qualifies as education. Another concern of today’s early childhood
education programs is ensuring that they are of high quality.

The Early Education for All Campaign (www.strategiesforchildren.org), a coalition of

leaders who work to ensure that children in Massachusetts have access to high-quality early
education, recognizes early childhood education as “…warm, nurturing care and enriched learning
experiences designed to simulate a child’s development in all key developmental areas.”

The National Education Association recognizes that a high-quality early childhood

program includes five, critical components:

 Provides a well-rounded curriculum  Proper grouping practices

that supports all areas of development
 Addresses child health, nutrition, and
family needs as part of
comprehensive service network
 Assesses children to enhance student
learning and identify concerns
 Employs well-educated, adequately
paid teachers
 Provides small class sizes and low
teacher-child ratios
 The U.S. Department of Education
recognizes that the effectiveness of an
early childhood program is dependent
upon a number of factors:
 A quality staff
 An appropriate environment
 Consistent scheduling
 Parental involvement
 This federal agency also recognizes
additional characteristics of a high-
a quality early education program:
 A balance between individual, small
group, and large group activities
 A balanced schedule that does not
result in rushed or fatigued children
 A clear statement of goals and a
comprehensive philosophy that
addresses all areas of child
development
 A strong foundation in language
development, early literacy, and early
math
 Access to a safe, nurturing, and
stimulating environment, along with
the supervision and guidance of
competent, caring adults
  Engages children in purposeful  Balanced: The curriculum should
learning activities and play, which is provide a balance of play and
instructed by teachers who work from structured activities, including
lesson and activity plans teacher- and child-initiated
 Nutritious meals and snacks exploration.
 Teachers and staff who regularly  Based on a child’s developmental
communicate with parents and needs: Activities, materials, and
caregivers schedules should be appropriate to a
 Teachers who frequently check child’s age and support all
children’s progress developmental domains.
 The Early Education for All  Well-planned: The curriculum should
Campaign outlines the quality reflect current research on child
characteristics of high-quality early development and should include
childhood education curriculum and specific learning goals for children.
activities:  Preschool Teachers and their Role in
a High-Quality Preschool Program

According to the Early Childhood-Head Start Task Force (a joint effort between the U.S.
Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), preschool
teachers teach and nurture our youngest children. These early childhood educators help these
young learners become successful learners, readers, and writers. As such, preschool teachers play
an important role in the lives of preschoolers, some of whom may lack adequate experiences at
home. These professionals help children:

Become familiar with books and other printed materials

 Develop language abilities
 Increase their knowledge
 Learn letters and sounds
 Learn to count
 Recognize numbers
 Preschool teachers may use a number of strategies for teaching the above skills while
they nurture their students’ natural curiosity and their zest for learning. Preschool
teachers can accomplish their teaching goals by:
 Building children’s background knowledge and thinking skills
 Checking children’s progress
 Communicating with parents and caregivers
 Creating a learning environment for young children
 Helping children develop listening and speaking skills
 Reading aloud to children
 Teaching children about books
 Teaching children about letters
 Teaching children about numbers and counting
 Teaching children about print
 Teaching children about the sounds of spoken language