Consider how the following interactions with children promote development:
- Greetings and departures – Welcoming children warmly sets the tone for the child’s entire day. It creates a sense of belonging, which children need to settle in and focus on learning. A sincere ‘good-bye’ lets children know they are valued and it models good manners.
- Responding to behaviors/emotions – Caregivers can help children develop self-regulation skills and language skills during interactions related to challenging behaviors.
- Conflict resolution – When teachers coach children through conflicts, they promote cooperation and problem solving skills.
- Bottle feedings – Holding an infant during bottle feeding is a great time to make eye contact and talk with infants. You can sing songs and strengthen your bond with individual children, which is important to help them development attachments to others.
- One-on-one conversations – Making time to have personal discussions with children is a great way to model patterns of language and rules of conversations. Teachers can introduce new vocabulary words and build relationships with children.
- Planning and reviewing play- When teachers talk with children about their play, both their plans for play and reviewing accomplishments, it is a great way to build focus, self-confidence, and goal-setting skills.
- Small groups- Small group times are usually used to explore math and early literacy concepts. Using small group instruction also allows children to learn from one another, practice cooperation skills, and communicate with each other.
For the main article Supporting Child Development, CLICK HERE
For the article Tasks within the Physical Environment, CLICK HERE
For the article Tasks within the Daily Routine, CLICK HERE
For the article Interactions with Adults, CLICK HERE
