Educating a young child (never mind a classroom full of them!) is far more complex than, say, building a wooden chair. Wouldn’t it be helpful then, to have a toolkit filled with the scientifically supported resources needed to help educators most effectively assemble the building blocks of growth and development in their young students?

The first place that I look is the Early Learning Guidelines Toolkit. As I prepare to enter a PhD program in School Psychology and eventually start a career as a school psychologist, it will be incredibly important to have clear, well-organized, and thorough resources on hand to share with teachers to support them in the classroom. Not only can educators find resources according to learning domains – such as approaches to learning, social and emotional development, language and literacy, cognition, and perceptual, motor, and physical development – but they can also find each state’s specific guidelines and resources for early childhood education.

Domains of Early Learning Guidelines Toolkit

The first part, the Domains of Early Learning Guidelines Toolkit, organizes resources for teachers according to the domains of the Interactive Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five, and includes resources that enable educators to utilize scientifically validated methods in their classrooms. The content is organized by learning domain and labeled according to the four specific types of resources:

¹ From p. 10 of Tseng, V. (2012). The uses of research in policy and practice. Social Policy Report, 26(2), 1-16. Retrieved from http://wtgrantfoundation.org/resource/the-uses-of-research-in-policy-and-practice/the-uses-of-research-in-policy-and-practice.
² Tseng, 2012, p. 11

Educators can use this information to help determine which strategies and methods are most strongly supported by psychological science and how they can best be applied in the day-to-day operation of the early childhood classroom.

When a friend of mine (an Early Education major) expressed uncertainty in how effective her teaching methods were in her PreK practicum placement, I directed her to the research and evidence-based sections of the toolkit. Reading about how her teaching methods were supported or could be improved by psychological science helped to greatly boost her confidence in the effectiveness of her work in the classroom.

The Domains of Early Learning Guidelines toolkit provides over 100 resources for a wide range of educational and developmental topics, including:

Physical Development and Mental Health

• Includes: Harvard Center for the Developing Child, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and Healthy Children

Social and Emotional Development

• Includes: Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning, National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), and Head Start Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center (ECLKC)

Approaches to Learning

• Includes: Zero to Three, PBS Parents, and NAEYC

Logic and Reasoning

• Includes: Scholastic, NAEYC, and Zero to Three

Language Development

• Includes: S. Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health (NIH), Encyclopedia of Children’s Health, and U.S. Department of Education Early Learning

English Language Development

• Includes: Child Care & Early Education Research Connections, Colorín Colorado, and English Language Arts/English Language Development Implementation

Literacy Knowledge and Skills

• Includes: Center for Early Literacy Learning, Reading Rockets, and Get Ready to Read!

Mathematics Knowledge and Skills

• Includes: Development and Research in Early Math Education, Center for Early Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, Early Stem Education

Science Knowledge and Skills

• Includes: Helping Your Child Learn Science, Marvelous Explorations Through Science and Stories, and Science for Preschoolers

Social Studies Knowledge and Skills

• Includes: A Sense of Place: Human Geography in the Early Childhood Classroom, Social Studies in Today’s Early Childhood Curricula, and Social Studies in Preschool? Yes!

Creative Arts Expression

• Includes: National Art Education Association, The importance of creative arts in early childhood classrooms, The Center for Early Childhood Education

Early Childhood Organizations

• Includes: Center for Learning & Development | SRI International, Crane Center For Early Childhood Research and Policy, and Child Care and Early Education Research Connections

Every child, classroom, and situation are different, so having a wide variety of tools at your disposal can be immensely helpful in solving problems that arise in practice.

State Resources for Early Learning Guidelines Toolkit

If you are looking for resources and guidelines specific to your state, then you are in luck! All fifty states and the District of Columbia provide information for educators, schools, and parents that can be found in the State Resources for Early Learning Guidelines Toolkit. An astounding total of 632 valuable resources are organized by State and type of resource.

This easily accessible webpage allows you to compare guidelines and recommendations from across the nation, in addition to finding resources for issues or topics that may be unique to your state or region. Resources for each state include:

• Child outcomes (the early learning guidelines).
• Separate adult guidance documents for implementing the early learning guidelines.
• Multimedia adult guidance for implementing the early learning guidelines — videos, tutorials, toolkits, etc.
• Crosswalks that align the early learning child outcomes with other child outcome documents (Head Start, Common Core, etc.).
• Prekindergarten program guidelines.
• Teacher competency indicators.
• State provided resource links.
• The webpage of the office/party that has disseminated the early learning guidelines.

Equipped with the tools to succeed, you can effectively incorporate psychological science into your early childhood classroom. As a psychology student and future psychologist, I have learned so much from the toolkit about how to best support young children in early education, and know that parents, family members, teachers, administrators, and all those involved in the education of a young child can benefit from the many resources available. Whether you are searching according to domain, research type, or state,  you will find the tools you need in the Early Learning Guidelines Toolkit.

So, strap on your tool belt, grab your toolkit, and let’s get to work!

If you have questions or comments concerning the toolkit, please contact Maha Khalid.