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A Focus on Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health
August 2022
Milestones and Developmentally Appropriate Expectations through
Best Practices for Preschoolers
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This newsletter focuses on sharing information on infant/early childhood mental health and
the importance of relationship-based approaches and supports that help infants and young children feel safe, supported, and valued by the adults around them. The newsletter, and the Infant Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) program, is made possible by a partnership between the Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) and the Pennsylvania Key.
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As children grow into the preschool years, it is so important they feel safe exploring social interactions, identifying and expressing their feelings, and building relationships with adults and peers. Social emotional development begins with nurturing and responsive relationships with caring adults.
In this issue we explore how to foster healthy social emotional development and how to manage healthy expectations for preschoolers. We hope this issue will support teachers and caregivers to set realistic and developmentally appropriate expectations using best practices in early childhood development.
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Pennsylvania’s Promise for Children is a campaign to help families make good choices about their child’s early learning and choose quality early learning programs that are right for their family. The Pennsylvania Office of Early Learning and Development (OCDEL) is the primary partner in PA's Promise for Children. Get tools to inform and engage families of children, birth to Kindergarten. |
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Professionals who work with children are much better equipped to help children learn if they understand how they grow.
Developmental milestones are skills that most children achieve by a certain age. Children reach milestones in how they play, learn, speak, act, and move. Being aware of development, educators and caregivers can understand what types of environments children need. Learn more about children's development through the resources below.
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Why learn about child development? A solid understanding of milestones and developmental pathways across each domain of children’s development can benefit child care providers in several ways. Dig a bit deeper here to learn more about the five benefits that child care professionals gain when they take the time and effort to learn about the typical growth and development of children. Learn more.
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Developmental milestones for preschoolers. Cognitive (learning, thinking, problem-solving), Social and emotional (skills with others) and Physical development (movement and muscles) for 3, 4 and 5 years of age. Learn more.
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Social Emotional Development. The first five years of life have a big impact on a child’s overall social-emotional health. Here are some ways families and caregivers can support this area of development while understanding what to expect at each milestone. Learn more.
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PAIU Early Intervention. Pennsylvania’s Pre-school Early Intervention (EI) Program serves over 50,000 children (ages 3-5) who have disabilities and/or developmental delays. Find information on what is pre-school early intervention, the services that may be offered and more. Learn more.
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Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, sets and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. You may already be doing many of the things that make up SEL without even knowing it! Learn more.
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Developmentally appropriate practice (or DAP) is a way of teaching that meets young children where they are – which means teachers must get to know them well – and enables children to reach goals that are both challenging and achievable. Therefore, all teaching practices should be appropriate to children’s age and developmental status and cultural contexts in which they live.
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DAP with Preschoolers. Good teachers maintain appropriate expectations, providing each child with the right mix of challenge, support, sensitivity, and stimulation. With their knowledge, skill, and training, teachers—in collaboration with families—can ensure programs promote and enhance every child’s learning. Learn more.
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10 Effective DAP Teaching Strategies. An effective teacher/child care provider chooses a strategy to fit a particular situation. It’s important to consider what the children already know and can do and the learning goals for the specific situation. By remaining flexible and observant, one can determine which strategy may be most effective. Often, if one strategy doesn’t work, another will. Learn more.
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Finding Social Emotional Curricula. One of the best ways that programs can assure they are meeting the social emotional needs of children is to select and use an appropriate curriculum in this area of development. The Choose and Use guide offers the user a template for choosing among curricula based on key features. Learn more.
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Devereux Reflective Checklist for Teaching Practices. The Reflective Checklist is designed to help teachers reflect upon and intentionally use practices that promote children’s social and emotional health. It has 38 items and covers teaching practices across five categories to include: Daily Routines, Environment, Caring Connections, Activities and Experiences and Partnerships Between Teachers and Families. Learn more.
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Talk, Read and Sing Together Every Day! Tips for Preschool Teachers and Other Childhood Education Providers. A rich language environment is important to children’s early learning, and can have strong effects on early language, vocabulary, reading, and math skills, as well as on children’s social-emotional development. Learn more.
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Resources for Preschool Learning Environments. Preschoolers are active learners! They use the materials and learning opportunities in their environment to explore, solve problems, and learn about the world around them. It’s key to create learning environments that are responsive to children’s differing abilities, interests, and developmental levels. Doing so ensures that children are engaging in the learning experiences offered to them. Also, spaces that are welcoming and sensitive to children’s cultural and linguistic characteristics foster an effective learning environment. Explore the resources to learn key aspects of preschool learning environments.
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Social Emotional Tips for Providers Caring for Preschoolers. A set of five one-page posters staff can refer to during specific daily routines including: morning, dressing, meals, bath time and bedtime. Putting these posters up around the classroom can serve as a reminder of what to say or do to nurture the social and emotional health of preschoolers every day. The practical strategies, sample language and rationale in each poster can help staff to: Practice using behavior and language that supports healthy, positive connections with children; Learn more about social and emotional health and; Understand the importance of social and emotional health to school readiness. Learn more.
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CDC’s Developmental Milestones (Preschoolers (3-5 years of age). As children grow into early childhood, their world will begin to open up. They will become more independent and begin to focus more on adults and children outside of the family. They will want to explore and ask about the things around them even more. Their interactions with family and those around them will help to shape their personality and their own ways of thinking and moving. Learn more.
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Social Emotional Tips for Families with Preschoolers. A set of five one page posters that families can refer to during specific daily routines including: morning, dressing, meals, bath time and bedtime. Putting these posters up around the house can serve as a reminder of what to say or do to nurture the social and emotional health of a preschooler every day. The practical strategies, sample language and rationale in each poster can help families to: Practice using behavior and language that supports healthy, positive connections with children; Learn more about social and emotional health and; Understand the importance of social and emotional health to school readiness. Learn more.
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PA Families Inc. If you are the parent of a child, infant to age 5, living in Pennsylvania and have questions about your child’s development, learn about Pennsylvania Early Intervention (EI) programs that provide support and services to families with children birth to age 5. Learn more.
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IECMH Consultation helps adults strengthen their relationships with young children and build capacity to respond to children’s social-emotional needs. IECMHC can help reduce caregiver stress, as well as increase caregivers’ reflective practice skills.
IECMH Consultants are available by appointment to provide IECMHC Virtual Office Hours consultation via telephone or video conference. IECMHC Virtual Office Hours is a short-term, collaborative, problem-solving conversation to help you find next steps for: Child Social-Emotional Concerns | Child Behavioral or Developmental Concerns Emotional Well-being of Teachers and Caregivers | Partnering with Families.
Appointments are held on the first and third Fridays of the month, or other days/times by request. Get more info.
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Programs and families can contact the program leadership directly at [email protected] with questions or concerns.
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Share your feedback! We'd like to hear what you think about infant early childhood mental health. Are there resources you'd like to see? Questions you have? Tell us! Send your feedback to [email protected].
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