By Council for Professional Recognition, NNPA Newswire
Before a child even steps into a classroom or childcare center, their first life lessons occur within the walls of their home. During their formative years, from birth to age five, children undergo significant cognitive, motor, and behavioral development. As their primary guides and first teachers, parents, and guardians play a pivotal role in fostering these crucial aspects of growth.
The Council for Professional Recognition, a nonprofit, is dedicated to supporting parents and families in navigating questions about childcare and education training. In keeping with its goal of meeting the growing need for qualified early childcare and education staff, the Council administers the Child Development Associate (CDA). The CDA program is designed to assess and credential early childhood education professionals. This work gives the Council great insights into child development.
Cognitive Development: Building the Foundation of Learning
Cognitive development lays the groundwork for a child’s ability to learn, think, reason, and solve problems.
- Read Together: One of the most powerful tools for cognitive development is reading. It introduces children to language, expands their vocabulary, and sparks imagination. Make reading a daily ritual by choosing age-appropriate books that capture their interest.
- Play Together: Play is a child’s entry to the physical, social, and affective worlds. It’s a critical and necessary tool in the positive cognitive development of young children and is directly linked to long-term academic success.
- Dance and Sing Together: These types of activities help young children develop spatial awareness and lead to improved communication skills. As a bonus, it’s also helpful for improving gross motor skills.
- Invite your Child to Help you in the Kitchen: It’s a fun activity to do together and helps establish a basic understanding of math and lifelong healthy eating practices.
- Encourage Questions: As children find their voice, they also find their curiosity for the world around them; persuade them to ask questions and then patiently provide answers.
Motor Development: Mastering Movement Skills
Motor development involves the refinement of both gross and fine motor skills, which are essential for physical coordination and independence. In these formative years, your little one will learn to walk, learn how to grab and hold items, begin building their muscle strength, and more. Here are some ways to facilitate positive motor development at home:
- Tummy Time: Starting from infancy, incorporate daily tummy time sessions to strengthen neck and upper body muscles, promoting eventual crawling and walking. You can elevate the tummy time experience by:
- Giving children lots of open-ended toys to explore like nesting bowls, a pail and shovel, building blocks, wooden animals, and people figures.
- Hanging artwork on the wall that appeals to infants, including bold colors, clear designs, and art from various cultures.
- Providing mobiles that children can move safely and observe shapes and colors.
- Outdoor Play: Provide opportunities for outdoor play, whether it’s at a park, playground, or in a backyard. Activities such as running, jumping, climbing, and swinging enhance gross motor skills while allowing children to connect with nature. Also, try gardening together! Not only does gardening promote motor skill development, but it offers many other benefits for young children including stress management, cognitive and emotional development, sensory development, and increased interest in math, sciences, and healthy eating.
- Fine Motor Activities: Fine motor skills relate to movement of the hands and upper body, as well as vision. Activities that encourage hand-eye coordination and fine motor skill development include:
- Drawing and coloring
- Doing puzzles, with size and piece amounts dependent on the age of the child
- Dropping items or threading age-appropriate beads on strings
- Stacking toys
- Shaking maracas
- Using age-appropriate, blunt scissors
- Playing with puppets or playdough
This is the type of knowledge that early childhood educators who’ve earned a Child Development Associate credential exhibit as they foster the social, emotional, physical, and cognitive growth of young children.
Supporting Early Childhood Educators
Recently, a decision in Delaware has helped early childhood professionals further their efforts to apply this type of knowledge. Delaware State University, Delaware Technical Community College, and Wilmington University have signed agreements to award 12 credits for current and incoming students who hold the Child Development Associate credential.
Delaware Governor John Carney said, “I applaud the Department of Education and our higher education partners for this agreement, which will support our early childhood educators. Research shows how important early childhood education is to a child’s future success. This new agreement will help individuals earn their degrees and more quickly get into classrooms to do the important work of teaching our youngest learners in Delaware.”
Council for Professional Recognition CEO Calvin E. Moore, Jr., said his organization is honored to be a part of this partnership.
“Delaware and the work of these institutions is a model that other states should look to. This initiative strengthens the early childhood education workforce by accelerating the graduation of more credentialed educators, addressing the critical need for qualified educators in early childhood education. We have already seen the impact the work of the Early Childhood Innovation Center has brought to the children of Delaware.”
