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Concept Development captures how teachers use instructional discussions and activities to promote student's higher-order thinking skills, AND how the teacher focuses on understanding rather than rote instruction. This domain is all about the "how" of learning, and encouraging students to think outside the box.

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Looking for an effective way to incorporate Concept Development practices? Speak the language of "STEAM": Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math.

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Looking for an effective way to incorporate Concept Development practices? Speak the language of "STEAM": Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math.

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https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/video/fostering-childrens-thinking-skills

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Podcast: Diving into Concept Development 

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Podcast: Diving into Concept Development 

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Monica: Hello, beautiful people. Thank you for joining us in this new episode of Teaching with CLASS. Today, we are talking about diving into concept development with my very good and dear friend, Maria Cristina Caro, who is here with us ready to share her expertise in early childhood education and CLASS. I want to give her a couple of minutes to introduce herself to us. Maria Cristina, welcome. Maria Cristina: Hi, thank you. Hi, Monica. How are you? I am very excited and honored to be here. Thank you for inviting me. Every time I see your name, I get excited. I'm like, yes, we're going to do something together. Doing projects together is awesome. I have been working in this field, this profession of early childhood education since maybe the 1980s. I love what I do. I facilitate trainings. Now, I'm a CLASS consultant for Teachstone. I facilitate trainings for them. I also conduct class observations for coalitions in Florida. I'm also a federal reviewer for the [...] Head Start. I also have my own company. Also, I do a lot. Everything I do is related to CLASS. This is a tool that I believe in, and I want to stay doing this for the rest of my life. That's how passionate I am about the CLASS tool. I love everybody at Teachstone. Monica: We even have that in common. We breathe through CLASS. Maria Cristina: I agree. Monica: Maria Cristina is so kind to be with us today to respond to a request from the CLASS learning community to talk about concept developments. How fascinating, not surprising because that's the way Maria Cristina is. She has this amazing analogy of concept development. I'm going to open up the mic for her to explain this analogy that you will take with you, and never forget what concept development is about. Maria Cristina: Awesome. Thank you, Monica. This is an analogy that I use when I'm facilitating trainings. I'm trying to figure out, did I come up with this, or did I hear it? I'm not sure, but I'm just going to take on a sheet right now. When I'm explaining to educators what concept development is, I let them know that concept development is not about teaching children to memorize concepts or facts. I was talking to Monica in-between recordings about this. For the most part, sometimes we as educators, were brought out in a place where they told us what to say, told us what to do. We didn't have opportunities to question why and how. For example, when I was learning the numbers, I needed to memorize them all the way to a hundred. It was a hard job, but I did it. Sometimes when I'm observing classrooms, I see that most of the time, we spend a lot of time helping children memorize the numbers, the shapes, and things like that. Going back to the analogy, anybody can go swimming, I was telling Monica earlier. But when we want to implement concept development in our classroom, we need to prepare to go scuba diving. If I want to go scuba diving today, guess what, I can't. Why not? I can go swimming. I'm not in Miami, but if I were in Miami right now, I could go swimming. I have a bathing suit, a towel, a chair, a little cooler, and lotions on the back of my car. I can go swimming at any time. Anybody that likes swimming can go swimming. It's very easy. You go find a pool, find a beach, and you go. I live in Miami. I live 15 minutes from the beach, so I'm set. But when we need to go scuba diving, if I wanted to go scuba diving today or tomorrow, guess what? I couldn't because for scuba diving, I need to plan. There are a lot of steps. I need to first take a class because I don't even know how to hold my breath on the water. I don't know how to use an oxygen tank. I don't have the equipment, so I will have to rent it, buy it, I'm not sure. Then I will have to pass a test and get a certification in Florida, and then I need to find somebody with a boat to take me. Hopefully, that person knows where to take me so I can have a successful scuba diving experience because it has to be deep. I cannot go in shallow water. You see how much I will need to go scuba diving. I need a lot of time planning. Same thing for concept development. The way I explain concept development if we need to go scuba diving with children. How do we do that? If we're teaching numbers, for example, yes, it's awesome that they learned the numbers from 1-100. But do they know why they're learning the numbers? Have you ever asked your child, your children, or your students, why do you think we're learning numbers? Why is it important to learn numbers? What do we do with the numbers in our day to day life? What would happen if we didn't know numbers? We use numbers to put everything if you think about it to identify buildings. We all have different addresses. Imagine if we all have Monica's address. What will happen? We will all live together, and I don't think Monica will like that. There are too many people. We all have the numbers to identify as a social security, a passport is different. We want to know the time. I know it's 4:22 because I know how to recognize and read the numbers. That's what I call going scuba diving. Do children really know why they're learning the letters, the shapes, the colors? Do they know how to apply it in their day to day? Do they know how they're going to use it? Or are we just teaching them to memorize them? As I mentioned earlier, anybody can memorize things. I used to memorize entire books. Nobody knew I didn't know how to read until I was seven years old, I think. I will look at the picture, and I will memorize whatever the teacher was saying. One day, they cut me because my book was upside down. I saw the picture and I knew exactly what was going on. I can learn things by memory, but do I know why I'm doing what I'm doing? That is taking the children to scuba diving. That is the analogy that I use, taking deep, asking them why and how they're going to use it. Monica: I absolutely love that analogy, taking your children to scuba diving. Let's go back to concept development and walk us through the framework of CLASS. You can do that scuba diving with them. First, what is concept development? Following Cristina's share-out, why is it important? For concept development, we want to keep two things in mind. One that is intentional is what Maria Cristina was saying, being prepared, knowing, understanding, learning, and all those steps. It was intentionally planned by you, teachers of the world. The second piece is, what you're planning is to help them use what we call high order thinking skills. We want them to be able to reason and analyze the why of things. We want them to be able to problem solve and evaluate what they're doing. Trial and error is part of what we want to do on the concept development. We want them to be able to create, to come up with their own ideas, whether they are tangible or they are spoken like a story. They can make up a story. Whatever we're doing on the concept development, Maria Cristina said, memory is important. Memory is the foundation of foundation. We want to go beyond memorization. That's why we have these very specific indicators that helped in your interactions. They help you develop those cognitive skills. The indicators are analysis and reasoning, creating in the new edition is creativity, integration, and connections to the real world or connections to everyday life in the new edition. Through those indicators, planning purposely. What is it that you're going to ask children? What activity will you facilitate and guide with children so that they can challenge the brain and go to the next level of cognition? Baby steps, little by little, indicator by indicator. Thinking always, what am I doing? What are they learning? How are they going to be able to use this skill, this conversation, or this practice in their everyday life? That's what we do. We learn things to use in our lives. Maria Cristina is taking us through one thing that she's choosing, taking us through the indicators. It can be anything. Anything that comes to mind can be developed into concept development. Maria Cristina, share with us any topic that you want to talk about. How can we go indicator by indicator to help children think? Maria Cristina: Awesome. I will do that in a second. Also, I wanted to point this out. I see this when I'm observing classrooms. Concept development doesn't need to just happen during circle time. It can happen at any time of the day. As soon as you see the child or the student, how are you today? How are you feeling? He or she says happy, why? Why are you happy? Tell me more. I can take them scuba diving right there. Tell me more. How does it feel to be happy? What happens to our face when we're happy? What happens to our tummy? When I'm happy, I feel butterflies. I still feel those. I know I'm old. I don't know if it's ever going to go away, but I don't want it to go away. When I'm still really happy, I feel excited, I feel those butterflies. For example, last time when I saw people from Teachstone at the InterAct, I met Allison in person and other wonderful people there, and I'm so excited. I was excited. We can talk to children about how it feels. How do they know they feel that way? What time of the day do you feel this way? What makes us feel excited and happy, for example? What are some of the things? Birthday parties. Every child wants to talk about their birthday party, the cake, and the things that they're going to have. I want to choose water, Monica, so I can walk you through the analysis, reasoning, creating, integration, and connecting to the real world. Why water? Because water is important. It's important that we learn to drink more of it. A lot of us need to drink a lot of more water, and sometimes we forget. My excuse is that, oh, I didn't buy filters. When I'm in Miami. I forget to buy bottled water, sometimes I don't drink. But it's easy to drink water in Miami because it's usually hot. Everybody's going to look for their water bottle now. Do you have one? Drink a lot of water. It's important to hydrate yourself. I can present that to the children and say, does anybody know what being hydrated means? What does it mean? Does anybody know? Why is it important? We also have an opportunity for advanced language there explaining to children how important water is. Why is it important to use water? How do we use water? What time of the day do you use the water? What do we do with water? We can do what? We usually use water when we want to take a bath. Talking about going scuba diving, we need water to go scuba diving. Creating encourages the children to think about, what are the other things that we can do with water? What animals do live in water? Think about the water that we use every day. We can ask the children, remember last week when we were watering our little bean, what do you think will happen if we didn't have any water? What will happen? Think about it for a second. What will happen to the bean, to the plants, to the earth if we don't have any water? We can make connections to the rain. If we want to make connections to how they use the water, we also can connect it to the rain, to the water for going swimming, and things like that. Relate it to the students. Ask them, do you like to take baths? Bubble baths are my favorite. I haven't taken one for a while because I have been a little bit busy. But when my kids were little, I remember I used to have a bubble bath especially with my daughter. We did so many bubble baths. I think she's bubbled out because it was a bubble bath every afternoon. It was almost like a ritual, and we got to talk about what happened. How was your day? Tell me something happy that happened, and she will tell me, I did this and this. Tell me something sad, and she will say something, oh, a little boy was crying. In that way, I initiated those conversations with her. We can connect it. We don't know where the conversation might go. The children or students may say, I take a bath with my mom or with my brother, or we take bubble baths, or we go outside and take showers. I have a shower outside. Have you ever heard that? A lot of people in Florida have showers outside. They have a shower, they go in the pool, and they come back, they shower, and they go back into the house. Imagine where this topic can go. I told Monica earlier, I can be here the whole entire day talking to you about water and the questions that we can ask children. We can compare water. Why do we see waters with colors? Some of the oceans, the water looks green, and some of the other oceans, the water looks bluish. What color is the water? How do we know? How can we color water? We can go to another. We can buy food coloring. Do you know that in Chicago, for St. Patrick's Day, they color the entire river, they color it green? My daughter and I had the opportunity to be there a couple of times because her favorite city is Chicago. The first time I saw it, I was like, oh, really? How do they do it? How do they pour all the green in there? It took me a while to realize how they did it. [...] talking about water and concept development. Monica: Thank you, Maria Cristina. There is a topic of water, a planned indicator, practice with the children. She said, it can take any direction based on what the children are answering. I'm going to give you just a hint of the next dimension because if you plan an activity intentionally, and then the children start talking about maybe you wanted to talk about rivers and the ocean, and then they start talking about animals who live in the river and the ocean. You go that way. She goes from concept development to quality of feedback. Don't be afraid of the questions or answers from your children. Just be alive. Be prepared thinking of your objective, how you can go that way, because it is their motivation to talk. They saw a dolphin because you can swim with dolphins in Miami, and then you start talking about that. At the level of cognition, they're learning something. That is the point of concept development and quality of feedback, learning and understanding. There you have one specific topic, specific activities, specific questions. Always important, Maria Cristina, can you share with us, how can you support children from different cultures, or children with disabilities, or children who speak more than one language on the concept development, making sure that they also have that opportunity to develop their mind? Maria Cristina: The moment that we implement concept development with children in our classroom, we're exposing everybody to that interaction. They're going to be part of it. I was mentioning to you earlier, using visuals is helpful. If we're talking about drinking water, we can show them pictures of somebody drinking water. Are we talking about oceans? Are we talking about different things? One thing that is important to do with children that have special needs is pay attention. Observe them. See what they're looking at, what the focus is. Are they looking at the roof? Like I was mentioning to you earlier, I conducted an observation, and there was a child in a wheelchair. He was nonverbal, and the teacher was so effective, the child was placed by the window because he loved to stare out the window. The teacher will ask questions to him. What are you looking at over there? Why do you like the window so much? At some moment, she opened the window and said, I'm going to open the window so that way, you can smell the air from outside. Paying attention to what they like. They're going to tell you with their body, with their behaviors of you know what, this is what they like and what they're interested in. We can take them scuba diving with us for sure. We shouldn't leave them at home. We should include them in everything that we do. That's what I wanted to say. I apologize for that many here. For children that are learning more than one language, we want to make sure that we have the language represented and also take some time to learn a few words, why and how in their native language so we can also start prompting the thought processes, asking them those questions, and then showing them pictures. It's important for us to include every child in our classroom, and some children may need extra support. We want to provide a one-on-one whenever they need us more. Monica: Thank you, Maria Cristina, that individualization inclusion, definitely. Maria Cristina and I are no longer in the classroom, but we are teachers. That's what we chose to be in life. You're observers. You're consistently observing your children. You're the experts of your children, so make sure that you identify those cues, to be able to provide this very effective concept development interactions with them. With this, we get to the end of our episode of concept development, leaving it up in the air, quality of feedback. We're going to plan on bringing new strategies. Also, I mentioned that we can request it. For now, I want to thank my dear friend, Maria Cristina, for taking the time from your vacation to be with us today, to share with the teachers the strategies so that they can become more effective in concept development. I love you so much, and I hope to have you again. I want to also thank all of you, teachers, architects of the brain, architects of the brain of children, for sharing your love and your wisdom with the children of the world, and for being here to [...] of others. I will see you next time. Bye-bye.

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What does scuba diving have to do with concept development in early education? In today’s episode, we are joined by Maria Cristina Caro, a seasoned early childhood educator with decades of experience. Maria Cristina takes us on a deep dive into the world of concept development in early education, comparing the process to scuba diving.

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Finding Opportunities for Concept Development Within your Curriculum 

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Finding Opportunities for Concept Development Within your Curriculum 

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One of the more difficult CLASS™ indicators to identify and measure is integration -connecting concepts together and connecting them to previously learned concepts. When assessing this indicator, I ask myself, "Did the teacher ask or state explicitly how two ideas are related?" Two examples of this are:

"The hungry caterpillar's cocoon is kind of like he's all wrapped up in a snugly blanket, isn't it?"

"We've been learning how to put letters together to write our names, haven't we? Well, we can use letters to spell words, too. "

Concept Development is all about helping children think about the how and the why of things. Understanding how and why always involves integrating concepts. One simple way to think about analysis and reasoning is "examining the facts to find reasons for things." A concept may be an idea, a bit of factual information, or even an action that when logically connected with other concepts becomes reasoning. If the teacher asked, "Why do you think the caterpillar was so hungry?" the children would have to piece together information. This would most likely involve an in-depth conversation about what happened in the story, in which the teacher scaffolds with questions like:

"Where did he go after he ate all that food?"

"What was he doing while he was inside his cocoon?"

"Did he come right back out, or did he stay inside there for a while?"

"Did he have any food in there?"

"Do you think he ate all that food so he could grow up and turn into a butterfly?"

All of these ideas can make up connections that lead to children's ultimate understanding of why the caterpillar was so hungry. More difficult questions like this do require sustained back-and-forth exchanges and numerous connections.

At the high end of Concept Development, we see frequent examples of analysis and reasoning, and the teacher's questions lead to sustained instructional discussions. Concepts must be identified (analysis) and then explicitly and logically linked together (integration) through the higher-order process of reasoning, leading to new understanding.

What we see when this happens is a teacher who is intentionally guiding children through a series of logical connections; together they are "thinking out loud." In this way, integration at high levels is not only frequent throughout the observation (taking place within several different conversations), but it's also very explicit. When scaffolding and other attempts do not lead children to uncover connections for themselves, the teacher clearly points them out. When the children do make their own connections, the teacher repeats them so that everything is broken down explicitly.

When assessing the level of integration in an observation, helpful questions are:

Did the teacher explicitly ask children to make connections or did she explicitly state the connections?

Does the explicit connection of concepts happen frequently throughout the observation?

Did children reach new levels of understanding as the result of connections?

We can certainly understand why the indicator of integration can be difficult to assess, let alone to engage in, with young children frequently during the course of a lesson or activity. However, knowing the context and the purpose of pursuing explicit connections (pushing for understanding) helps us better analyze our observations and strive to think up new ways of explaining and exemplifying the indicator to teachers.

Obviously, I love talking about the intricacies and nuances of Concept Development and the entire Instructional Support domain. Through our new Instructional Support Strategies training, I'm able to do this on a regular basis and continue to learn from each of you. Let me know what you think in the comments, or better yet, join us at one of our upcoming Instructional Support Strategies trainings to learn more.
Sara Beach is a former Teachstone Staff Trainer. She has frequently presented on topics such as Helping Teachers with the Instructional Supports, through active, adult-learning approaches. She has been an Infant-toddler teacher, center director, education specialist, coach-mentor, and early childhood college instructor, and her highest honor has been supporting teachers.

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Understanding Integration in Concept Development

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Integrating Integration into Our Understanding of Concept Development

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Take a look at this short article with examples of extending conversation and encouraging analysis and reasoning. 

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Take a look at this short article with examples of extending conversation and encouraging analysis and reasoning. 

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Young children are naturals at analysis and reasoning. They want to understand. They want to solve problems, experiment, and compare. And we can help them!

First, let's look at what Analysis and Reasoning means. To is to look closely or examine, and to means to form conclusions or inferences based on what we know or experience. Every time a preschooler asks questions, predicts, classifies, compares, or evaluates, they are practicing analysis and reasoning skills.

Children need adults to practice many of these thinking exercises at a deep level. It is not enough to ask a single prediction question . W hat matters most are the back-and-forth exchanges that follow an activity-the ways a teacher keeps challenging and supporting children.

We can promote higher-order thinking through analysis and reasoning in everyday tasks, not just during a science experiment. Below are just a few question "starters." Then it's your turn to seek inspiration from other CLASS dimensions as you consider how to respond to children to keep the thinking going.
Playing with Blocks:

Problem-solving: Can you fix the ramp with these blocks? What other materials might you need? I want to build a bridge; how can I do that?

Prediction/experimentation: My tower keeps falling! How many blocks can you add before it falls? What will happen if I pull this block out?

Classification/comparison: Do you have more blocks in your tower than mine? How do you know?

Evaluation: Were you able to fix the ramp? How did you figure that out?

On a Nature Walk:

Why/how questions: This flower pricked me! Why does it have thorns? How is that like an animal's teeth?

Problem-solving: You want to carry all those rocks, but they keep falling. It seems like you have too many to fit in your hands. What solution could we come up with? What else might work?

Prediction/experimentation: I wonder how many rocks could fit in this cup. What do you think? Why do you think that?

Classification/comparison: How are these two leaves different? Can you find another leaf with a stem like this?

Prepping Snack:

Why/how questions: Why do these strawberries have stems?

Problem-solving: We don't eat the stem. What can we do with it? What else can we try?

Classification/comparison: I like raspberries. How are strawberries and raspberries alike? How are they different? Can you find the biggest strawberry?

Reading a Book:

Why/how questions: How do you think the story will end? Why do you think the character is sad?

Problem-solving: The animals are fighting. How could they solve their problem? Why might that work?

Prediction/experimentation: What do you think she will do next? Let's record our predictions so we can remember at the end of the book.

Evaluation: What did you think of the book? What was your favorite part?

The ability to think critically is what allows us to gain a deeper understanding of concepts. How else do you bring Analysis and Reasoning into your classroom?

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Concept Development: Focus on Analysis and Reasoning

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Young children are naturals at analysis and reasoning. Every time a preschooler asks questions, predicts, classifies, compares, or evaluates, they are practicing analysis and reasoning skills. We can promote these higher-order thinking skills in everyday tasks.

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Originally published October 18, 2021

There is always an opportunity for interaction. Some opportunities are easily recognizable: times of play, free choice, centers, small group. We often see teachers engaged in activities alongside children during these times or hear questions being asked. Other opportunities might be a little less obvious. These are the times of your day that you might see as mundane moments that merely require your supervision or monitoring. The times where you're going through the motions. "I'm doing this thing so I can move on to the next thing."

In a previous blog, colleague and early childhood environment extraordinaire, Heather Sason, discussed how your classroom environment can help promote effective teacher-child interactions. In this blog, I propose we explore some of the often overlooked times in your day that are ripe for interactions with children and that do promote exploration, learning, and development!

What distinguishes an interaction as a high-quality, effective interaction that promotes learning and development? Intentionality! When I hear "intention," I think "purpose." To teach with intention means to teach with purpose. Think about the language used in the CLASS® manual for the dimensions: Facilitation of Learning and Development (FLD) and Facilitated Exploration (FE). Expansion. Engagement. Encouragement. These terms provide a picture of an experience that is dynamic, energetic, pleasant, and full of growth! And, full of purpose.

"That's great, Megin...but what does this even look like? What do I DO?" Ok, let's get down to good stuff; three often underrated opportunities for FLD and FE:

Diaper Changes and Potty Breaks

Many of the teachers in my CDA with CLASS courses often describe "everyday" acts that are actually amazing strategies to promote learning and development. Here are a few examples:

Involving the Child
You might allow a child or infant to hold their socks and say something like, "Would you like to hold these socks while I change your diaper? This sock has stripes like this one. They're the same! They are a match!" Not only is this an example of a child's active engagement during a routine, it is also a great example of expanding a child's cognition by describing the concept of "matching."

Mimicking
Many teachers describe copying the facial expressions an infant or toddler makes while lying on the changing table. A toddler smiles, you smile. When an infant sticks out their tongue, you might also stick out your tongue slightly. If you have not tried this, I highly recommend you do.

Following Children's Lead or Interest
You might be thinking, "how can I tell what a child is interested in during a diaper change or bathroom break?" One way is eye gaze. During a diaper change, you might notice a child gazing at a picture on the wall and say, " I see you're looking at the picture of the butterfly! Would you like to read a book about butterflies when we're done changing your diaper?"

A lot can happen in a 5 minute diaper change or potty break!

Transitions

Transitions can feel tense or chaotic at times. Or, because we try to keep transitions brief, it can feel like there isn't enough time to squeeze in any learning. Use transition times to your benefit as fun, lighthearted learning opportunities:

Singing
Singing during clean-up keeps toddlers involved and actively engaged in their task. Singing is also a powerful tool for language and brain development.

Asking Questions
Asking questions keeps children engaged during a transition and promotes thinking skills. While children are lining up to go outside, you might ask them, "Remember when it rained this morning? After it rained, we had puddles all over the bike track. What do you think might happen if you ride through the puddles?" When you ask these kinds of questions, you are intentionally supporting thinking and prediction skills.

The beautiful thing about expanding children's cognition is that the focus is on the expanding, not necessarily an activity itself.

Mealtimes and Feeding

How many times have you cut food for a toddler? Or watched a one year old use their fingers to try and pick up the food on their tray? Filled a bottle for an infant? My guess is... a lot! During these times, there is often some conversation. But, there is also an opportunity to move from being "involved" to being "intentional." Here are a few more of my favorite strategies from teachers in the CDA with CLASS program:

Talking About Colors, Flavors, or Textures
Comparing and contrasting what children are eating encourages them to analyze similarities or differences: "These apple slices we have for lunch are red, and they are crunchy. Was the applesauce we had at breakfast crunchy? Right, it was smooth and kind of squishy. But they are both made from apples! How do you think the applesauce got that way? Have you ever seen an apple that was a different color?"

There is quite a bit happening in this seemingly simple exchange. Not only is the teacher encouraging children's thinking skills by asking questions and pointing out differences in the foods the children are eating, but also making connections to children's real lives by asking about their similar experiences outside the classroom.

Speaking of Asking Questions...
By asking purposeful questions, not just rote, teachers can expand children's cognition, extend their experience, and embed information about concepts. For example, with older toddlers, cutting food into halves or quarters provides an opportunity to talk about, or embed, information on measurement and numeracy: "Evan, you cut your sandwich in half. How many pieces do you have now? That's right, two pieces! You started with one big sandwich, but now you have two. What happens if you cut them again? How many will you have? Let's find out!"

Verbal Encouragement
Encouraging a child trying to pick a small piece of their food, for example, "those bananas are slippery, aren't they? You almost got it, Michaela! Keep trying!" Verbal encouragement motivates a child to expand or persist in their experience, and therefore your interaction with them!

By intentionally ceasing these moments of an infant's or toddler's day, teachers can facilitate exploration, learning, and development. Sometimes, these learning moments may not look all that "academic." Infants and toddlers may not be able to respond in full sentences, but that's ok! That doesn't mean there is no cognition happening. Remember, infants' and toddlers' receptive language far exceeds their expressive language.

Play = learning. The longer a child plays or engages, the more learning that is taking place. The longer you engage with them, the longer they will stay engaged.

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3 Overlooked Opportunities for Facilitation of Learning and Development

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Let's explore some of the overlooked times in the day that are ripe for interactions with children that promote exploration, learning, and development.

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Intentionally plan an activity specifically related to the Concept Development Dimension! Check out this example.

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Intentionally plan an activity specifically related to the Concept Development Dimension! Check out this example.

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The Best Way to Incorporate More Concept Development in Your Lessons

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Open-ended questions, brainstorming, integrations....how can you include more of these indicators in your lesson plans? This Concept Development plan will help.

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Experiment, make predictions and practice brainstorming with your group by facilitating a Guided Study from our Creative Curriculum! 

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Experiment, make predictions and practice brainstorming with your group by facilitating a Guided Study from our Creative Curriculum! 

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Three ways to expand on a child's response:

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Three ways to expand on a child's response:

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Foster critical thinking by promoting conversations that encourage children to problem solve and apply their existing knowledge.

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Foster critical thinking by promoting conversations that encourage children to problem solve and apply their existing knowledge.

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Identify ways that conversation can help build children's skills.

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January 10, 2024

Author, Speech-Language pathologist, and Harvard Lecturer
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Sponsored by ChildCare Education Institute

We all want the best for the children in our care -and everyday conversation offers one of the most profound and underused opportunities to help build relationships and help them thrive. But how can we make the most of these opportunities? This webinar, presented by the author of The Art of Talking with Children, Rebecca Rollans, EDD, will explore the power of everyday conversation to strengthen bonds while helping children become kinder, more confident, and more creative. Rebecca will offer inspiration and strategies to incorporate into your daily work with children. Through this session, you'll gain a toolbox to enhance classroom dynamics and interactions and better understand the children at all ages and stages of development.

In this powerful webinar, you will:

Analyze your own communication strengths and challenges in talking with children;

Identify key ways quality conversation builds children's skills;

Develop a tailored set of strategies you can use when working or raising young children

All sessions are 1.5 hours long and include a brief announcement from our sponsor. 2:oo PM - 3:30 PM Eastern Time. ****** Certificates of Attendance are free!

If you attend the live webinar and stay from the beginning to the very end, you will receive the OFFICIAL certificate by email within one week of the live webinar. You can also download the blank certificate using the link displayed at the end of the webinar.

If you arrive late to the live webinar or watch the recording download the blank certificate by following the link announced at the end of every webinar.

Recording viewers must enter the link announced and displayed at the end of the webinar into a browser to download the certificate.

Read more about free certificates. ****** As of January 1, 2024 we temporarily suspended the service of offering Continuing Education Units. We hope to begin offering them again in the future. ******
See the schedule of upcoming webinars.

THIS SESSION HAS CONCLUDED - Watch the recording now!

Session Slides: Download

Session Recording: View

Links:
Rich Talk in the Classroom

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The Power of "Rich Talk": Conversational Strategies to Bond With and Build Young Children's Skills, by Rebecca Rolland, EDD - Early Childhood Webinars

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Sponsored by ChildCare Education Institute We all want the best for the children in our care -and everyday conversation offers one of the most profound and underused opportunities to help build relationships and help them thrive. But how can we make the most of these opportunities?

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Expose infants to language as often as you can!

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Expose infants to language as often as you can!

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Use self/parallel talk, wait-time, and gestures to involve toddlers in conversation!

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Use self/parallel talk, wait-time, and gestures to involve toddlers in conversation!

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Support preschoolers to enter the conversation by asking about their interests, encouraging them to share their ideas, and following their lead!

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Support preschoolers to enter the conversation by asking about their interests, encouraging them to share their ideas, and following their lead!