Learning in one area of development helps developmental progress in other areas. Research suggests that the defining feature of successful early care settings is a nurturing, responsive adult.Understanding young children and their development is essential. Experiences should be based on children’s needs and interests, but to know these adults must understand children, both individually and collectively. By understanding development adults need to know the normal pattern of behavior for children at specific ages, and must also realize that individual differences exist between children.

Infants: Abraham Maslow – His “Hierarchy of Needs” are based on what people need to become and stay healthy. The first two apply to infants and toddlers. The first is the psychologically needs of food, water, and clothing. The second is safety and security. He believed that basic needs must be met before higher level learning can take place.

1. Environment: Create an environment where children are safe, feel emotionally secure, and have a sense of belonging.

2. Care: Provide responsive care that meets children’s individual needs.

Toddlers: Lev Vygotsky – He was interested in children’s social interactions and how they were crucial to learning. He felt that both adults and peers help children learn.

1. Zone of Proximal Development:Vygotsky used this term to describe the range of what children are learning about a particular experience. The lower limits are what children can do by themselves. The upper limits are what children can learn by watching and talking with other children (more important) and other adults.

2. Scaffolding: This is the process by which children can build knowledge and understanding. They can function at a higher level than they can on their own when they are working with other children, just like a scaffold can hold you up when you are painting a house.

Preschoolers: Jean Piaget – He believed that infants and toddlers think differently than young children, that young children think differently than older children and that older children think differently than adults. He called these four stages: Sensorimotor (birth-2)

Preoperational (2-7), Concrete Operations (7-12), Formal Operations (Adolescence).

1. Sensorimotor: This stage begins at birth and last to about age two. Infants learn by reacting to what they experience through their five senses, and physical activity especially through manipulation of objects.

2. Preoperational: This stage lasts from about two through the preschool years to age seven. Children focus on how things look. They see the world from their own point of view which Piaget called egocentrism. Children at this stage are thinking symbolically, this lays the foundation for more abstract thinking later.

Constructivism: Piaget believed that learning must be meaningful to a child’s experience and development in order for the child to understand and fully remember. Children, he felt, construct their own knowledge from self-directed problem solving and experimentation. “Every time we teach a child something, we keep him from inventing it himself…that which we allow him to discover by himself…will remain with him.”

If you want children to keep their feet on the ground put some responsibility on their shoulders. (Abigail Van Buren)