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This webpage outlines various tools for students pursuing early childhood education and development courses. Scholars and learners can use these materials for study and reference purposes. Topics explored include play-based concepts, differentiated instructions, and supporting language learning.

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A page outlining helpful resources for students, teachers, families, & scholars.

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Developmentally appropriate practices are instructional approaches based on children’s learning and capabilities at different ages and developmental phases. Such strategies require careful and deliberate planning to help teachers meet and accommodate the needs, interests, and preferences of each child.

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Understand How Children Think

Before watching this video, read the text below. When instructed, watch the video from the beginning to end.

Developmentally appropriate practices are defined as teaching and learning experiences grounded in what we know about how children learn at different ages and stages of development. Based on understanding the characteristics of a "typically-developing" child and recognizing that children vary within that norm, these practices require careful and deliberate planning. You should find every opportunity to reach out to children in specific ways for each child.

Young children tend to be concrete thinkers. They cannot think in abstract ways. They need active, participatory learning that uses their senses. They need to touch, feel, and participate in experiences.

Young children are often egocentric thinkers. They tend to see the world strictly from their own perspective. Educators can help children move beyond their own perspective to understand, appreciate, and respond to others' perspectives.

Young children generally have centered thinking. They process one variable at a time. For example, they may see an object by its color, or by its shape, but usually not both at the same time. A good rule of thumb is "one step at a time." Rather than introducing two variables in a pattern (color and shape), the educator asks children to consider color first. In a later step, children can focus on a second variable.

Young children tend to confuse appearances (the way things look) with reality (the way things are). They might think their thumb is bigger than the moon, because the thumb can cover the moon.

In this video you'll see educators providing instruction based on what they know about how young children think. Their knowledge of what is typical development informs their planning, activities, conversation, and the pace of instruction. As you watch, look for effective strategies used by the educators in the video and jot down answers to these viewing questions in your Learning Log.

How do the educators help children learn about abstract ideas in concrete ways?

How do the educators respond to children's centered thinking as they introduce new ideas?

Review Why is it important to provide developmentally appropriate learning?

Children learn best when adults recognize their individual needs and interests.

Children are encouraged to explore what excites their curiosity. Like adults, children participate actively in activities that are interesting to them and inviting. Unlocking that curiosity is key to learning.

Young children learn best through a combination of explanation and experience.

What strategies can you use to teach to children's concrete way of thinking?

Encourage children to use their senses to feel, taste, see, and experience new things and concepts. Children learn best when they can feel a snakeskin to understand what the word scaly means, walk the distance to see the length of a dinosaur, or hold a turtle shell to measure its circumference.

Provide hands-on experiences to help children explore the world directly. Then extend the experience. For example:

Display real-life objects for children to explore using all their senses. (Hold the snakeskin. What does it feel like? What does it sound like when you move it? What does it smell like?)

Introduce sensory vocabulary. For instance, during a turtle shell exploration, introduce the words rough, smooth, light, dark, heavy, full, and empty. Then read and display picture books about turtles.

Encourage conversations and help inquisitive minds to test theories and hypotheses. (How can we tell how long the turtle is? How can we measure how round it is on top? What words can you think of that describe the snakeskin?)

How can you respond to children's centered thinking-their tendency to pay attention to one task at a time?

Give children simple directions, one step at a time. For example, rather than saying Let's make a snowflake pattern using all of these colors, break down instructions into smaller tasks.

Let's make a pattern. White, blue, white, blue. What comes next?

Yes, white. Then what comes after that?

Now let's say the pattern. White, blue, white, blue, white.

Reflect
Think about your own program as you answer these reflection questions in your Learning Log.

How do you assess the developmental needs of the individual children with whom you work?

What did you learn that you will put into practice in your learning environment?

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This site provides exciting, engaging media-rich learning opportunities for parents and educators of children ages 0-5. From detailed lesson plans to simple, everyday activities, you will find everything you need to help your children succeed.

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Early Childhood Education vs. Elementary Education

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Early Childhood Education vs. Elementary Education

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Early Childhood Education vs. Elementary Education

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In this article, the author determines the distinctions between these two sectors, Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education. The comparison between the two is based on education requirements, career salary, job outlook, skills required, and work environment.

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When you love kids, it's tough to choose between a group of adorable, wide-eyed toddlers and more independent, clever (and equally adorable) elementary students. Choosing a degree that leads to the career of your dreams is a big decision. It's not something anyone should take lightly.

If you know you enjoy working with children and have a passion for improving the future of our society, education is a field that will allow you to do both. But how can you narrow down options?

Early childhood education (ECE) focuses on the academic, social and cognitive skills that develop in children from birth through preschool. Elementary education refers to the primary education that comes after preschool but before middle school (typically kindergarten through fifth or sixth grade.)

There are definite distinctions between the two sectors that are important to understand. We're here to help you make an informed decision about early childhood education versus elementary education. We combined government information, real-time job market data and expert insight to provide you a side-by-side comparison below.

Keep reading to see which option is the best fit for you!

ECE vs. elementary education: skills needed

To start, it's helpful to understand what knowledge and proficiencies are needed to succeed in each position. This will help you start to gauge where your skills and interests lie.

Early childhood education

We used real-time job analysis software to examine more than 70,000 preschool jobs posted over the past year. ¹ The data helped us identify the ten most desired skills employers are seeking in prospective preschool teachers:

In addition to the skills above, there are some important personality traits that many successful ECE teachers share. Patience is near the top of the list, as it's difficult wrangling a group of hyper toddlers or trying to decipher a broken sentence when one is trying to relay a message. The ability to think creatively is important as well, to devise fun, unique ways to teach a lesson.

"The primary personal attribute that differentiates a preschool teacher from an elementary school teacher is being extremely high energy," says art and music educator Sabrina Peña Young. Young speaks from experience teaching ECE, elementary and all ages through post-secondary. She emphasizes that being physically expressive in the classroom is particularly important for ECE teachers.

"My ability to dance, sing and sometimes just make a fool of myself as I enjoy the music keeps their attention, engages them and lets them see that even adults can have fun," Young adds.

Elementary education

We conducted a similar search of nearly 70,000 elementary teacher jobs posted over the past year to analyze the ten skills employers were seeking most ²:

Lesson planning

Mathematics

Collaboration

Staff development

Scheduling

Curriculum development

Workshops

First aid

Community relations

Decision making

You'll notice there is some overlap in the skills needed for ECE versus elementary education, which should be expected. When teaching this older group of students, there is more organization and collaboration involved with other teachers. There is also more of an emphasis on the strategy and logic of the curriculum.

"When I teach elementary school students, organization and energy go hand-in-hand," Young says. But because older children have a higher attention span and better verbal communication, Young focuses less on kinetic activities and more on engaging multiple learning styles.

Teaching elementary still demands energy, Young points out, but a different kind of energy. "The focus is more on engaging the students in a variety of activities that include learning key concepts and course objectives."

ECE vs. elementary education: required education

Don't be intimidated if you don't feel comfortable with all of the skills included above. Both teaching specialties have training and education requirements to help equip you in all of these areas.

Early childhood education

The degree requirements for ECE depend on the school and your role in the classroom. You can land a job in a childcare center or as an assistant teacher by earning an ECE certificate. If you hope to become a preschool teacher, the most common requirement is an associate degree.

Elementary education

Earning a bachelor's degree along with state licensure is the most typical route for aspiring elementary educators. But if you're looking to teach at a private school, you don't necessarily need state licensure. If you hold a degree other than education, such as math or science, you can become an elementary teacher after passing an alternative teacher certification exam. You will also likely need references.

ECE vs. elementary education: job outlook

Now you're familiar with what you need to know and the credentials you'll need to be qualified. You're probably curious now about the job growth and earning potential for each secter. ³

Early childhood education

Employment for preschool teachers is expected to increase seven percent through 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This is about as fast as the average for all occupations. While the preschool-age population is expected to increase, their overall share of the population will likely remain constant, which explains the steady growth projection. The BLS adds that acquiring a degree will likely increase your job prospects for these positions.

Elementary education

The BLS projects kindergarten and elementary school jobs to grow at a steady rate of six percent through 2024. Since education is often intertwined with districts and state governance, certain states have better employment opportunities than others. To see where your state falls, see Employment for Elementary School Teachers by State.

The BLS predicts more opportunities for elementary teachers with degrees and certifications. Job prospects also increase in urban and rural school districts compared to suburban school districts.

ECE vs. elementary education: career salary

Early childhood education

The median annual salary for a preschool teacher in 2014 was $28,120, according to the BLS. ³ But a more accurate figure for potential salary comes at the state level. Check this state-by-state salary breakdown from the BLS for a more realistic estimate for your area.

Elementary education

The median salary for an elementary school teacher in 2014 was $54,120, as reported by the BLS. ³ Once again, this figure varies widely by state and should be balanced against other factors (such as cost of living or relocating.)

The difference in salaries between ECE and elementary education career paths is likely due to the additional experience and licensure required to be an elementary teacher, along with the lack of national standardization in preschools. However, if the push for Universal Pre-K becomes a reality, the outlook and salary for preschool teachers could change dramatically.

Which is right for you?

Helping teach and empower the next generation is rewarding at any level. In comparing early childhood education versus elementary education, each has its own unique pros and cons. We laid out the information for you, but we can't make the decision for you.

The best choice for you truly comes down to preference and personality. If you find yourself curious about other career option in the education industry, download a complimentary copy of our Education Career Guide.

¹ Burning-Glass.com (analysis of 73,421 preschool teacher job postings, Apr. 01, 2015 - Mar. 31, 2016)
² Burning-Glass.com (analysis of 69, 655 elementary teacher job postings, Apr. 01, 2015 - Mar. 31, 2016)
³ Salary data represents national, averaged earnings for the occupations listed and includes workers at all levels of education and experience. This data does not represent starting salaries and employment conditions in your area may vary.

*Graduates of Early Childhood Education programs at Rasmussen University are not eligible for licensure as a teacher in an elementary or secondary school. A Bachelor's degree and a state teaching license are typically required to work as a teacher in public and private school settings.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was originally published in June 2013. It has since been updated to reflect information relevant to 2016.

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early childhood education vs elementary education

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Early Childhood Education vs. Elementary Education: Which Environment is Right for You?

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Choosing a degree that leads to the career of your dreams is a big decision for many - and not something to take lightly. The degree you decide on c

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Early Learning and Developmental Standards

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Early Learning and Developmental Standards

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Learning standards describe children's skills, knowledge, and capabilities at each developmental level.
This website explores standards and benchmarks that mirror what a child in a developmental progression should know and can do at a specific age range.

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Children grow and develop at their own pace. Monitoring their developmental progress helps determine whether they have reached certain milestones. Parents and teachers can use this resource to gain more knowledge about developmental milestones, positive parenting tips, and developmental monitoring and screening.

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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Developmental milestones are things most children can do by a certain age

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How Is Child Care Regulated to Ensure Children’s Health and Safety?

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How Is Child Care Regulated to Ensure Children’s Health and Safety?

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A student can use this webpage to learn about childcare regulations that promote Children’s Health and Safety. This page contains articles about child care licensing, staff background checks, staff qualifications and required training, health and safety requirements, ratios and group sizes, and monitoring and inspections.

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Be Inspired by the Blog & Classroom Resources

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Be Inspired by the Blog & Classroom Resources

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Community Playthings presents informative resources about play-based learning. One can capitalize on their free staff tools for early childhood educators and administrators. The written resources focus on many topics, such as modifying the classroom environment, the importance of free play, play in special education, playful learning, and risk-taking.

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sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), this library has resources for education research and education research and information. It contains specialized articles and tools for students, researchers, and all ERIC searchers.

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This professional journal is meant to advocate for children and educate early childhood experts who work with or are interested in infants, toddlers, and their families. It provides practical advice and professional development tools and keeps teachers updated on best practices and the latest knowledge about early childhood development.

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Home Our professional journal for early childhood experts who work with or have an interest in very young children and their families. Stay current on best practices and the latest knowledge about early childhood development. Access practical advice and professional development tools.

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A college student needs to explore these journal articles. They are peer-reviewed resources and combine research and practice. The articles will help students achieve educational excellence and get better grades in education-related assignments.

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Young Children is NAEYC’s award-winning, peer-reviewed journal focused on educating children from birth through third grade

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Best Websites for Early Childhood Education Research

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Best Websites for Early Childhood Education Research

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Early childhood education websites, such as NAEYC and Edutopia, advocate for young children, provide resources, and offer opportunities for professional development and networking to promote early learning. Through this blog page, the author tries to create knowledge about websites with helpful articles for early childhood research. Students can use such web resources to understand different developmental concepts, learn about childcare programs, and capitalize on various opportunities, including membership options and professional development schemes.

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Best Websites for Early Childhood Education Research

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Early childhood education websites, such as NAEYC and Edutopia, advocate for young children, provide resources, and offer opportunities for professional development and networking to promote early learning.

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How Childcare Studies Have Improved Lives

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How Childcare Studies Have Improved Lives

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Childcare studies provide essential insights into children's cognitive, emotional, and social development, enabling caregivers, educators, and policymakers to create nurturing and effective environments. Understanding the best childcare practices can have long-term implications, affecting individuals and societal well-being.

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Differentiated instruction involves varying instructional practices and creating adaptations to meet the needs of individual and diverse students. This article focuses on ways to apply differentiation approaches to help students learn various skills, including phonics, comprehension, fluency, word prediction, and story prediction.

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Differentiated instruction is based on the premise that instructional approaches should vary and be adapted in relation to individual and diverse students. This brief looks at how differentiation strategies applied to reading can be designed to help students learn a range of skills including, phonics, comprehension, fluency, word prediction, and story prediction.

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This brief explores child development and models applied to explain human development. Such theories include Freud's Psychosexual Developmental Theory, Erick Erikson's Psychosocial Developmental Theory, Erick Erikson's Psychosocial Developmental Theory, Bandura's Social Learning Theory, Attachment Theory, and Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development.

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Child development assignment help refers to the service offered to people needing assistance with early childhood development tasks, including projects, homework, essays, research proposals, newsletters, handouts, brochures, and infographics. This service incorporates components like child development homework answers, online tutoring, proofreading, editing, ECD revision, and writing help.

Doing early childhood development assignments requires students to have technical and theoretical knowledge about children's growth and developmental milestones. Due to these issues, many learners struggle to write impeccable ECD papers. This child development homework help service offers solutions for students with ECD assignments.

Getting child development assignment help from a trusted provider can sometimes be challenging, especially if you do not have a friend or classmate nearby. Luckily, this online homework-help community is eager to assist you at any moment. This website offers tutors who can help students with their assignments, whether they need assistance in child development subject or want solutions on how to hone their writing skills or work.

Child Development in the Early Childhood Stage

Child development denotes a sequence of physical, language, intellectual, social, and emotional changes that children undergo between birth and adulthood. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the early years of life are vital for healthy growth and development in children. Babies, infants, preschoolers, and school-age kids experience healthy development when adults meet their social, emotional, and educational needs. They require love, safe environments, childcare services, support, sleep, proper nutrition, and play opportunities to achieve positive developmental outcomes.

Early childhood refers to the period between birth and eight years of age. It has four stages: infancy, toddlerhood, preschool, and school age. In addition, early childhood has phases characterized by different developmental milestones. Early childhood is a stage in which children gain and master essential skills and knowledge that define their success in future education and other life stages.

Although early childhood represents an evident developmental continuum, many programs focus on this stage for different reasons. Children and families have needs that require interventions from the government and organizations. As a result, well-coordinated programs are necessary to create positive environments that can support child development from infancy to school age.

Moreover, early childhood is considered a vital stage of life. Children at this phase are more vulnerable to developmental problems and failures. Such factors as poverty, parenting issues, violence, and language increase a child's risk level. For instance, emotionally-unstable parents are likely to compromise children's ability to manage emotions. Poverty can also hinder a child's access to school and high-quality early childhood programs. Furthermore, students exposed to trauma may experience abnormal brain development or demonstrate challenging behaviors in the classroom. They may also struggle to work with others and perform tasks in school and at home.

Key Topics Covered in Early Childhood Development Courses

Early childhood development (ECD) has critical areas that AssignmentDoers Experts cover. Our tutors are conversant with these topics to deliver high-quality content and help students get better grades. Our ECD assignment help service covers many areas, including theories of child development (Psychosexual, behavioral, psychosocial, cognitive, social learning, and attachment models), health and safety, nutrition, PILES, and child development timeline. Let's now explore some of these areas.

Knowledge Development in Early Childhood

Children's knowledge is certainly crucial. Knowledge is vital for conceptual growth and long-term academic success. Children with increased knowledge demonstrate enhanced language and reading comprehension skills, as well as enhanced critical reasoning and cross-curricular learning. The importance of providing children with a solid foundation of content knowledge has been proven by research for at least three reasons. First, knowledge is both cumulative and exponential. Children with extensive knowledge bases have a greater ability to learn new information. In addition, prior knowledge facilitates the encoding and retrieval of new information. Thirdly, information promotes critical thinking by enhancing working memory and freeing up resources for comprehension and analysis. Evidently, a child's knowledge base is a crucial element of their academic performance. Recent surveys have revealed a startling absence of instruction aimed at developing children's knowledge of core concepts, the world, and domains. Hence, skill and knowledge acquisition must be the primary objective of Early Childhood Programs.

Child Development Theories

Studying human development is a multifaceted and rich process. Although we have experience regarding development, we find it difficult to understand how and why people undergo growth, gain skills, and demonstrate various behaviors and actions. Developmental psychologists answer many questions about children's development by explaining and predicting behaviors that people develop and exhibit.

Scholars use theoretical concepts to understand how children develop and gain skills. Child development theories explain how kids grow, change, and achieve various milestones over a period of time. They revolve around different dimensions of development, such as language, literacy, cognitive, social, emotional, and physical skills.

We need to study how children undergo development, grow, gain skills, and change. Understanding children's development enables us to appreciate and understand the growth processes that kids undergo from birth to other stages of life.

Also known as grand theories, some child development models use stage techniques to focus on every aspect of human development. However, mini-theories revolve around relatively limited developmental aspects like cognitive and social development. Researchers and theorists proposed many child development models to explain how human beings grow and gain skills. Such theories underscore the developmental phases of children and pinpoint the typical ages where milestones occur.

Freud's Psychosexual Developmental Theory

This theory explains that childhood experiences directly impact people's personalities and behaviors in various stages of life, including puberty and adulthood. Childhood experiences determine children's personalities and behavioral patterns in their adult years. Through clinical work with psychiatric patients, Freud realized that early life experiences and unconscious desires affect how people behave and act. Such encounters are strongly related to healthy development in kids.

Freud believed that children develop in a series of phases revolving around erogenous parts of the body. During each stage, a person experiences conflicts that facilitate the development process. He posited that libido energy focuses on different pleasure areas at specific stages. Adult behavior can make a person fail to progress through a stage, which causes fixation at that developmental point.

Erick Erikson's Psychosocial Developmental Theory

This framework focuses on growth and change throughout a person's life. It has concepts based on social interactions and conflicts that occur during various developmental stages. In other words, the model sees social relationships as a vehicle for development and developmental tasks as psychosocial phases. It is a compressive developmental paradigm and revolves around human development from birth through old age.

The theory has eight stages that describe how human development occurs from infancy to death. At each stage, people experience developmental conflicts that affect their functioning and growth. Children and adults encounter development crises that help them learn and achieve certain milestones. If a person manages challenges at each phase, they develop lifelong psychological virtues. Unlike other developmental paradigms, psychosocial theory centers on the development that occurs during a person's lifetime.

Piaget's Cognitive Developmental Theory

This model focuses on how children develop mental models about the world. Children develop cognitive skills as they learn and grow. They learn to construct thought processes by exploring things and interacting with environments. This model of child development aligns with the developmental milestones that children achieve while passing through a series of stages.

Piaget's theory has four stages characterized by important qualities and vulnerabilities. The During the sensorimotor stage, young children achieve object permanence. The preoperational stage occurs in children aged 2 to 7 years and involves developing symbolic thoughts. The concrete operational help children achieve logical thoughts, while the formal operational stage entails engaging in scientific reasoning.

Bandura's Social Learning Theory

This theoretical framework suggests that children learn and gains skills through direct experiences. They also develop and gain knowledge through observational learning and modeling by people around them. Bandura suggested that how we behave, act, and respond to different situations affects how we support social learning. Kids see how adults behave and encode that information. They then imitate the behavior exhibited by their parents, teachers, and other important figures.

Bowlby's Attachment Theory

Bowlby's Attachment Theory suggests that children's development is grounded on attachments. Places, people, and other things provide attachments that affect children's experiences throughout their life. In other words, life experiences could determine whether children would thrive, learn, or develop significant mental health problems. Like animals, humans form attachments with others, which provide a mechanism for survival and development. Children who face constant interruptions when interacting with their families are likely to demonstrate significant cognitive and social-emotional challenges when they become adults. Therefore, kids develop mental models and understand different things based on their relationships with parents and other adults.

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory of Cognitive Development

Lev Vygotsky posited that children gain skills through active involvement in activities and hands-on experiences. He articulated that families, peers, and culture facilitate the development of higher-order functions. Learning is a process that occurs when children interact with other people, including classmates, educators, parents, and caregivers. Through social interactions, learning becomes incorporated into a child's understanding of the world.

In addition, this theory has a key construct known as the zone of proximal development. The zone of proximal development denotes a space between what a student can do alone and what they can do with adult assistance or through peer collaboration. Some learners can perform well when working independently, while others require guidance to complete tasks and achieve certain goals. When children get assistance from more knowledgeable people, they undergo progressive learning, build their skills, and improve their scope of knowledge.

In sum, learning about child development is critical. You can apply child development models to determine and comprehend how young children undergo healthy growth and development. The perspectives help us understand ECD and develop ways to optimize the early years of children's lives, thereby making a difference in society. However, you must be conversant with child development concepts to create a better society. In most cases, the solutions to ECD assignments vary based on a specific task, topic, context, and your knowledge and experience. To achieve your academic goals, it is vital to use child development-related sources, follow all guidelines, and seek online assignment help and guidance if necessary.

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Need early childhood development help from experts? Submit your questions and get ECD and child development assignment help answers from qualified tutors.