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Standard: NYS Early Learning Guidelines: Infants explore the environment through senses, movement, and interaction.
Activity: Object Permanence Basket
Place a soft toy under a small cloth and encourage the infant to look for it, reach for it, or uncover it.
Milestone Alignment: Infants learn through sensory exploration and gradually develop object permanence, attention, memory, and problem-solving skills (Zukauskas, 2026).

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Standard: NYS Early Learning Guidelines: Infants communicate needs through sounds, gestures, facial expressions, and early vocalizations.
Activity: Serve-and-Return Talk
During feeding or play, respond to coos, babbles, gestures, and eye contact with words and pauses.
Milestone Alignment: Infants communicate through crying, cooing, babbling, gestures, and caregiver interaction before spoken language emerges (Zukauskas, 2026).

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Accommodation, modification, and differentiation are related but different instructional supports. An accommodation changes how a student accesses instruction or demonstrates learning without changing the learning goal. A modificationchanges what the student is expected to learn or complete. Differentiation is the teacher’s planned adjustment of content, process, product, or learning environment based on student readiness, interests, language, developmental level, and learning profile.

Teachers use multiple types of data to determine appropriate supports, including observations, developmental milestones, family input, student work samples, screening results, formal and informal assessments, IEPs, 504 plans, behavior notes, language proficiency data, and progress-monitoring information. Using more than one data source helps teachers make fair and developmentally appropriate decisions.

For kindergarten or early elementary students, which I intend to teach, an accommodation could be allowing a student to answer a comprehension question orally or with picture cards. A modification could be reducing the number of story details a student must retell while still participating in the same read-aloud activity. Differentiation could include flexible small groups, where one group practices letter sounds, another retells a story with pictures, and another writes or dictates a sentence about the text.

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Standard: NYS Early Learning Guidelines: Infants develop secure relationships with familiar adults.
Activity: Responsive Peekaboo and Naming Feelings
Play peekaboo, mirror the infant’s facial expressions, and label emotions: “You smiled! You look happy.”
Milestone Alignment: Infants develop attachment, trust, and early emotional awareness through warm and consistent caregiver interactions (DeWolfe, 2026; Zukauskas, 2026).

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Standard: NYS Early Learning Guidelines: Toddlers show preferences and begin expressing emotions.
Activity: Choice Board Routine
Offer two picture choices, such as blocks or books, and support the child in pointing, naming, or choosing.
Milestone Alignment: Toddlers begin asserting autonomy and preferences while still needing adult support for emotional regulation and transitions (DeWolfe, 2026).

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Standard: NYS Early Learning Guidelines: Toddlers begin parallel and simple cooperative play.
Activity: Turn-Taking Ball Roll
Two or three children roll a ball back and forth while the teacher models “my turn,” “your turn,” and “wait.”
Milestone Alignment: Children ages 2–3 are developing self-regulation, peer awareness, and early social problem-solving.

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Standard: NYS Prekindergarten Standard: PK.SEL.1 regulates responses to needs, feelings, and events; PK.SEL.4 develops positive peer relationships.
Activity: Feelings Problem-Solving Cards
Children identify a feeling card, describe a time they felt that way, and choose a calm-down or friendship strategy.
Milestone Alignment: Preschoolers begin naming emotions, sharing materials, modifying behavior with support, and showing concern for peers.

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Standard: NYS Early Learning Guidelines: Toddlers use gestures, sounds, and early words to communicate.
Activity: Picture Naming Basket
The child selects familiar objects or picture cards while the teacher labels and expands language: “Ball. Red ball.”
Milestone Alignment: Toddlers begin using gestures, imitating words, and combining words into simple phrases (Zukauskas, 2026).

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Standard: NYS Early Learning Guidelines: Toddlers follow simple directions and use language in play.
Activity: Two-Step Movement Directions
Use gestures and visual cues while giving directions such as, “Pick up the bear and put it in the box.”
Milestone Alignment: By age 3, many children can name familiar objects, participate in simple conversations, and follow two- or three-step directions (Zukauskas, 2026).

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Standard: NYS Prekindergarten Standard: PK.ELAL.19 participates in collaborative conversations; PK.ELAL.27 explores and uses new vocabulary in play-based experiences.
Activity: Read-Aloud Vocabulary Talk
Read a picture book, introduce three target words with pictures or motions, and have children use the words during dramatic play.
Milestone Alignment: Preschoolers expand vocabulary, participate in conversations, ask questions, and use language to explain ideas.

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Standard: NYS Early Learning Guidelines: Toddlers explore cause and effect and solve simple problems.
Activity: Cause-and-Effect Play
Provide pop-up toys, stacking cups, or simple shape sorters. Narrate actions such as, “You pushed it, and it popped up!”
Milestone Alignment: Toddlers begin using trial and error, symbolic thinking, and simple problem-solving as they move into early preoperational thinking (DeWolfe, 2026).

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Standard: NYS Early Learning Guidelines: Toddlers use play, imitation, and materials to explore relationships and solve problems.
Activity: Sorting and Matching Tray
Children sort toy animals, blocks, or picture cards by color, size, or type.
Milestone Alignment: By age 3, children can manipulate toys, complete simple puzzles, and engage in pretend play, showing growth in memory and categorization (Zukauskas, 2026).

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Standard: NYS Prekindergarten Standard: PK.MATH.3 connects counting to cardinality; PK.MATH.4 answers counting questions using objects up to 10.
Activity: Counting Snack Mats
Children count up to 10 crackers, counters, or cubes, match them to a numeral card, and answer, “How many do you have?”
Milestone Alignment: Preschool children build number sense through concrete objects, one-to-one correspondence, and hands-on play.

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Standard: NYS Grade 1 Standard: 1.MATH.21 organizes, represents, and interprets data with up to three categories.
Activity: Class Graph Investigation
Students vote for a favorite fruit, build a picture graph, and answer “how many more” or “how many less” questions.
Milestone Alignment: Early elementary students begin using concrete operational thinking to compare, classify, count, and interpret data (DeWolfe, 2026).

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Standard: NYS Grade 1 Standard: 1.ELAL.20 participates in collaborative conversations with peers and adults, follows discussion rules, and considers differences. Activity: Partner Retell and Response After a read-aloud, partners take turns retelling one event and responding to each other using sentence frames. Milestone Alignment: Children ages 6–8 are developing competence, perspective-taking, and the ability to follow group discussion expectations (DeWolfe, 2026).

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Standard: NYS Grade 1 Standard: 1.ELAL.5 develops and answers questions about key ideas and details in a text; 1.ELAL.21 describes familiar people, places, things, and events with relevant detail.
Activity: Question-Answer Story Map
Students listen to a story, answer who/what/where questions, and orally describe one character or event using a visual organizer.
Milestone Alignment: Early elementary students develop academic language through reading, writing, speaking, listening, and peer discussion.

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DeWolfe, T. E. (2026). Developmental stages. Salem Press Encyclopedia of Health, 1–3.

Morin, A. (n.d.). Common accommodations and modifications in school. Understood. https://www.understood.org/en/articles/common-classroom-accommodations-and-modifications

New York State Education Department. (2019). Resource guides for school success: The prekindergarten early learning standards. https://www.nysed.gov/sites/default/files/programs/early-learning/pk-standards-resource-web-revised-2021.pdf

New York State Education Department. (2021). Resource guides for school success: The first grade early learning standards. https://www.nysed.gov/sites/default/files/programs/early-learning/1st_grade_standards_resource_web_revised_2021.pdf

The IRIS Center. (n.d.). Accommodations: Instructional and testing supports for students with disabilities: Page 1: Accommodations. Vanderbilt University. https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/acc/cresource/q1/p01/

Zukauskas, R. (2026). Infant/toddler development. Salem Press Encyclopedia of Health, 1–3.