JBTE Early Childhood Education cheat sheet

Piaget's stages: sensorimotor (0–2 years; object permanence emerges around 8–12 months), preoperational (2–7; symbolic play, egocentrism), concrete operational (7–11; conservation).

Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is the gap between independent performance and performance with adult or peer support; scaffolding is support calibrated to that gap and gradually withdrawn.

Erikson's early psychosocial stages: trust vs. mistrust (birth–1 year), autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1–3 years), initiative vs. guilt (3–6 years).

Bronfenbrenner's ecological model: microsystem (family, classroom), mesosystem (links between microsystems), exosystem (parent workplace, community services), macrosystem (culture, policy), chronosystem (time and transitions).

Ainsworth attachment classifications: secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-ambivalent/resistant; Main added disorganized/disoriented attachment.

Typical motor milestones: sits without support 6–8 months, crawls 7–10 months, walks independently 12–15 months, pincer grasp 9–12 months.

Theory of mind, including false-belief understanding, typically emerges around age 4 and supports perspective-taking, pretend play, and social negotiation.

Thomas and Chess temperament categories are easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up; goodness of fit describes how well the caregiving environment matches the child's temperament.

Development is cumulative and domain-interrelated: a language delay can affect social-emotional and literacy outcomes; screening flags risk but does not diagnose.

NAEYC developmentally appropriate practice rests on three core considerations: child development and learning (commonality), each child's individuality, and the social and cultural context.

Parten's play sequence: unoccupied, onlooker, solitary, parallel, associative, cooperative; cooperative play with shared goals and roles typically emerges during the preschool years.

Play types include functional (sensorimotor repetition), constructive (building), dramatic/pretend, and games with rules; each supports different developmental capacities.

The project approach has three phases: beginning (topic selection, prior-knowledge web), developing (investigation and representation), and concluding (sharing and reflection).

The emergent curriculum cycle is observe children's interests, document, reflect with colleagues, plan experiences, and revisit; teacher intention and child direction are balanced.

Intentional teaching is purposeful and planned but not necessarily direct instruction; it includes arranging environments, modeling, questioning, and scaffolding during play.

High-quality classroom organization uses defined learning centers, accessible open-ended materials, predictable routines, and warnings before transitions to reduce challenging behavior.

CLASS observation domains are emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support; instructional support includes concept development, quality of feedback, and language modeling.

A DAP decision rule: when a practice conflicts with a child's individual needs or family context, the teacher adapts the environment or interaction rather than forcing uniformity.

Receptive language (understanding) typically precedes expressive language (production); a child may follow directions before saying the corresponding words.

Typical milestones: cooing around 2 months, canonical babbling 4–6 months, gestures 9–12 months, first words around 12 months, 50 words and two-word combinations by 18–24 months.

Dialogic reading PEER: Prompt the child, Evaluate the response, Expand the response, Repeat the prompt; CROWD prompts are completion, recall, open-ended, wh-, and distancing.

Phonological awareness continuum: word awareness, syllable awareness, rhyme, alliteration, onset-rime, then phoneme awareness (isolation, blending, segmenting).

Concepts of print include print directionality, front and back of a book, words versus pictures, spacing, punctuation, and the understanding that print carries meaning.

The alphabetic principle is the understanding that letters represent sounds; invented spelling (e.g., 'KAT' for cat) is a normal developmental stage, not a random error.

Dual language learners often code-switch and transfer skills across languages; maintaining the home language supports, rather than impedes, English acquisition.

AAP screen guidance: avoid screen media under 18 months except video chatting; 18–24 months use high-quality media with co-viewing; ages 2–5 limit to about 1 hour per day of high-quality programming.

Joint attention and serve-and-return interactions are foundational: child-initiated bids followed by responsive adult language predict stronger vocabulary growth.

Gelman and Gallistel's counting principles: one-to-one correspondence, stable order, cardinality, abstraction, and order irrelevance.

Cardinality is the understanding that the last number word spoken in a count represents the total quantity of the set.

Subitizing is instant recognition of small quantities without counting; perceptual subitizing typically handles 1–3 (sometimes 4), and conceptual subitizing handles larger sets through grouping.

Counting develops from rote recitation to rational counting (one-to-one with meaning); preschool children often count to 10 before understanding conservation of number.

Patterning progression: recognize and copy an AB pattern, extend it, then create and translate patterns; later patterns include AAB, ABB, and ABC.

Measurement in early childhood moves from direct comparison (longer/shorter) to nonstandard units (paper clips, cubes) before standard tools such as rulers.

Geometry and spatial reasoning include naming 2-D and 3-D shapes, composing and decomposing shapes, and using position words such as above, behind, and next to.

Part-part-whole and composing/decomposing numbers to 10 build the foundation for addition and subtraction; number bonds and five/ten frames are common representations.

Math talk that uses comparative and spatial language (more, fewer, equal, taller, under) during play and routines predicts later mathematics achievement.

Safe sleep ABC: infants sleep Alone, on their Back, in a Crib; the sleep surface is firm, flat, and free of soft bedding, bumpers, and toys.

Handwashing requires soap and running water for at least 20 seconds; critical times include before food preparation or eating, after toileting, diapering, and contact with bodily fluids.

During diapering, keep one hand on the child, never leave the child unattended on a changing table, and disinfect the surface after each change.

Choking hazards for children under 4 include whole grapes, nuts, popcorn, hot dogs, hard candy, and chunks of raw carrot or apple; cylindrical foods are cut lengthwise into thin strips.

CACFP meal pattern components include fruits, vegetables, grains, meat or meat alternate, and milk; children 1–2 years receive whole milk, and children 2 and older receive low-fat (1%) or fat-free milk.

Common child care exclusion criteria: fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher with behavior change, vomiting, diarrhea, contagious illness, and rash with fever; exact rules vary by licensing.

Medication administration rights: right child, right medication, right dose, right route, right time; written parental authorization and the original labeled container are required.

Physical activity guidance: toddlers and preschoolers need about 180 minutes of activity daily; infants need supervised tummy time while awake and interaction that encourages movement.

Emergency preparedness includes current first aid and CPR certification, a written emergency plan, accessible epinephrine for anaphylaxis, and practiced evacuation and lockdown drills.

Epstein's six types of family involvement are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community.

Funds of knowledge (Moll) are the skills, knowledge, and cultural resources families use in daily life; teachers use them to connect curriculum to children's homes.

Family engagement differs from involvement: engagement is a reciprocal partnership with shared power and decision-making, while involvement often means participation in school-directed activities.

IFSP (IDEA Part C, ages 0–3) includes family outcomes and is developed with the family; IEP (Part B, ages 3–21) focuses on educational goals and services.

Cultural humility is a lifelong process of self-reflection, openness, and redressing power imbalances; it differs from cultural competence as a fixed set of knowledge.

Two-way communication with families, using plain language and interpreters rather than children, is associated with better attendance and outcomes; confidentiality applies to all family information.

Transition practices that support continuity include sharing records with consent, visiting new settings, and aligning routines between home, early childhood program, and kindergarten.

Barriers to family participation include transportation, work schedules, language, immigration-related distrust, and past negative school experiences; scheduling and location decisions can reduce them.

Observation methods include running record (sequential narrative), anecdotal record (short focused incident), event sampling (specific behavior), time sampling (interval recording), checklist, and rating scale.

Authentic assessment observes children in natural settings during everyday routines and play; it differs from standardized testing and is used to inform instruction.

Screening tools such as ASQ-3 identify children who may need further evaluation; they are not diagnostic and do not replace comprehensive assessment.

Assessment quality criteria include validity (measures the intended construct), reliability (consistency across time and raters), and freedom from bias; multiple observations and observers reduce error.

Portfolios document growth over time with work samples, photographs, observation notes, and family input; they support conferencing and transition planning.

Confidentiality: records are kept secure, shared only with consent or need-to-know, and families have rights to access them; FERPA applies to education records.

Mandated reporters must report reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect promptly to the designated agency; they do not investigate or confront the family.

NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct addresses responsibilities to children, families, colleagues, and community/society; core values include appreciating childhood and basing practice on knowledge.

Reflective practice uses observation, documentation, and collegial dialogue to examine one's own biases and improve teaching; it is a component of ongoing professional development.

Piaget's stages: sensorimotor (0–2 years; object permanence emerges around 8–12 months), preoperational (2–7; symbolic play, egocentrism), concrete operational (7–11; conservation).

Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is the gap between independent performance and performance with adult or peer support; scaffolding is support calibrated to that gap and gradually withdrawn.

Erikson's early psychosocial stages: trust vs. mistrust (birth–1 year), autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1–3 years), initiative vs. guilt (3–6 years).

Bronfenbrenner's ecological model: microsystem (family, classroom), mesosystem (links between microsystems), exosystem (parent workplace, community services), macrosystem (culture, policy), chronosystem (time and transitions).

Ainsworth attachment classifications: secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-ambivalent/resistant; Main added disorganized/disoriented attachment.

Typical motor milestones: sits without support 6–8 months, crawls 7–10 months, walks independently 12–15 months, pincer grasp 9–12 months.

Theory of mind, including false-belief understanding, typically emerges around age 4 and supports perspective-taking, pretend play, and social negotiation.

Thomas and Chess temperament categories are easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up; goodness of fit describes how well the caregiving environment matches the child's temperament.

Development is cumulative and domain-interrelated: a language delay can affect social-emotional and literacy outcomes; screening flags risk but does not diagnose.

NAEYC developmentally appropriate practice rests on three core considerations: child development and learning (commonality), each child's individuality, and the social and cultural context.

Parten's play sequence: unoccupied, onlooker, solitary, parallel, associative, cooperative; cooperative play with shared goals and roles typically emerges during the preschool years.

Play types include functional (sensorimotor repetition), constructive (building), dramatic/pretend, and games with rules; each supports different developmental capacities.

The project approach has three phases: beginning (topic selection, prior-knowledge web), developing (investigation and representation), and concluding (sharing and reflection).

The emergent curriculum cycle is observe children's interests, document, reflect with colleagues, plan experiences, and revisit; teacher intention and child direction are balanced.

Intentional teaching is purposeful and planned but not necessarily direct instruction; it includes arranging environments, modeling, questioning, and scaffolding during play.

High-quality classroom organization uses defined learning centers, accessible open-ended materials, predictable routines, and warnings before transitions to reduce challenging behavior.

CLASS observation domains are emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support; instructional support includes concept development, quality of feedback, and language modeling.

A DAP decision rule: when a practice conflicts with a child's individual needs or family context, the teacher adapts the environment or interaction rather than forcing uniformity.

Receptive language (understanding) typically precedes expressive language (production); a child may follow directions before saying the corresponding words.

Typical milestones: cooing around 2 months, canonical babbling 4–6 months, gestures 9–12 months, first words around 12 months, 50 words and two-word combinations by 18–24 months.

Dialogic reading PEER: Prompt the child, Evaluate the response, Expand the response, Repeat the prompt; CROWD prompts are completion, recall, open-ended, wh-, and distancing.

Phonological awareness continuum: word awareness, syllable awareness, rhyme, alliteration, onset-rime, then phoneme awareness (isolation, blending, segmenting).

Concepts of print include print directionality, front and back of a book, words versus pictures, spacing, punctuation, and the understanding that print carries meaning.

The alphabetic principle is the understanding that letters represent sounds; invented spelling (e.g., 'KAT' for cat) is a normal developmental stage, not a random error.

Dual language learners often code-switch and transfer skills across languages; maintaining the home language supports, rather than impedes, English acquisition.

AAP screen guidance: avoid screen media under 18 months except video chatting; 18–24 months use high-quality media with co-viewing; ages 2–5 limit to about 1 hour per day of high-quality programming.

Joint attention and serve-and-return interactions are foundational: child-initiated bids followed by responsive adult language predict stronger vocabulary growth.

Gelman and Gallistel's counting principles: one-to-one correspondence, stable order, cardinality, abstraction, and order irrelevance.

Cardinality is the understanding that the last number word spoken in a count represents the total quantity of the set.

Subitizing is instant recognition of small quantities without counting; perceptual subitizing typically handles 1–3 (sometimes 4), and conceptual subitizing handles larger sets through grouping.

Counting develops from rote recitation to rational counting (one-to-one with meaning); preschool children often count to 10 before understanding conservation of number.

Patterning progression: recognize and copy an AB pattern, extend it, then create and translate patterns; later patterns include AAB, ABB, and ABC.

Measurement in early childhood moves from direct comparison (longer/shorter) to nonstandard units (paper clips, cubes) before standard tools such as rulers.

Geometry and spatial reasoning include naming 2-D and 3-D shapes, composing and decomposing shapes, and using position words such as above, behind, and next to.

Part-part-whole and composing/decomposing numbers to 10 build the foundation for addition and subtraction; number bonds and five/ten frames are common representations.

Math talk that uses comparative and spatial language (more, fewer, equal, taller, under) during play and routines predicts later mathematics achievement.

Safe sleep ABC: infants sleep Alone, on their Back, in a Crib; the sleep surface is firm, flat, and free of soft bedding, bumpers, and toys.

Handwashing requires soap and running water for at least 20 seconds; critical times include before food preparation or eating, after toileting, diapering, and contact with bodily fluids.

During diapering, keep one hand on the child, never leave the child unattended on a changing table, and disinfect the surface after each change.

Choking hazards for children under 4 include whole grapes, nuts, popcorn, hot dogs, hard candy, and chunks of raw carrot or apple; cylindrical foods are cut lengthwise into thin strips.

CACFP meal pattern components include fruits, vegetables, grains, meat or meat alternate, and milk; children 1–2 years receive whole milk, and children 2 and older receive low-fat (1%) or fat-free milk.

Common child care exclusion criteria: fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher with behavior change, vomiting, diarrhea, contagious illness, and rash with fever; exact rules vary by licensing.

Medication administration rights: right child, right medication, right dose, right route, right time; written parental authorization and the original labeled container are required.

Physical activity guidance: toddlers and preschoolers need about 180 minutes of activity daily; infants need supervised tummy time while awake and interaction that encourages movement.

Emergency preparedness includes current first aid and CPR certification, a written emergency plan, accessible epinephrine for anaphylaxis, and practiced evacuation and lockdown drills.

Epstein's six types of family involvement are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community.

Funds of knowledge (Moll) are the skills, knowledge, and cultural resources families use in daily life; teachers use them to connect curriculum to children's homes.

Family engagement differs from involvement: engagement is a reciprocal partnership with shared power and decision-making, while involvement often means participation in school-directed activities.

IFSP (IDEA Part C, ages 0–3) includes family outcomes and is developed with the family; IEP (Part B, ages 3–21) focuses on educational goals and services.

Cultural humility is a lifelong process of self-reflection, openness, and redressing power imbalances; it differs from cultural competence as a fixed set of knowledge.

Two-way communication with families, using plain language and interpreters rather than children, is associated with better attendance and outcomes; confidentiality applies to all family information.

Transition practices that support continuity include sharing records with consent, visiting new settings, and aligning routines between home, early childhood program, and kindergarten.

Barriers to family participation include transportation, work schedules, language, immigration-related distrust, and past negative school experiences; scheduling and location decisions can reduce them.

Observation methods include running record (sequential narrative), anecdotal record (short focused incident), event sampling (specific behavior), time sampling (interval recording), checklist, and rating scale.

Authentic assessment observes children in natural settings during everyday routines and play; it differs from standardized testing and is used to inform instruction.

Screening tools such as ASQ-3 identify children who may need further evaluation; they are not diagnostic and do not replace comprehensive assessment.

Assessment quality criteria include validity (measures the intended construct), reliability (consistency across time and raters), and freedom from bias; multiple observations and observers reduce error.

Portfolios document growth over time with work samples, photographs, observation notes, and family input; they support conferencing and transition planning.

Confidentiality: records are kept secure, shared only with consent or need-to-know, and families have rights to access them; FERPA applies to education records.

Mandated reporters must report reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect promptly to the designated agency; they do not investigate or confront the family.

NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct addresses responsibilities to children, families, colleagues, and community/society; core values include appreciating childhood and basing practice on knowledge.

Reflective practice uses observation, documentation, and collegial dialogue to examine one's own biases and improve teaching; it is a component of ongoing professional development.

Piaget's stages: sensorimotor (0–2 years; object permanence emerges around 8–12 months), preoperational (2–7; symbolic play, egocentrism), concrete operational (7–11; conservation).

Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is the gap between independent performance and performance with adult or peer support; scaffolding is support calibrated to that gap and gradually withdrawn.

Erikson's early psychosocial stages: trust vs. mistrust (birth–1 year), autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1–3 years), initiative vs. guilt (3–6 years).

Bronfenbrenner's ecological model: microsystem (family, classroom), mesosystem (links between microsystems), exosystem (parent workplace, community services), macrosystem (culture, policy), chronosystem (time and transitions).

Ainsworth attachment classifications: secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-ambivalent/resistant; Main added disorganized/disoriented attachment.

Typical motor milestones: sits without support 6–8 months, crawls 7–10 months, walks independently 12–15 months, pincer grasp 9–12 months.

Theory of mind, including false-belief understanding, typically emerges around age 4 and supports perspective-taking, pretend play, and social negotiation.

Thomas and Chess temperament categories are easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up; goodness of fit describes how well the caregiving environment matches the child's temperament.

Development is cumulative and domain-interrelated: a language delay can affect social-emotional and literacy outcomes; screening flags risk but does not diagnose.

NAEYC developmentally appropriate practice rests on three core considerations: child development and learning (commonality), each child's individuality, and the social and cultural context.

Parten's play sequence: unoccupied, onlooker, solitary, parallel, associative, cooperative; cooperative play with shared goals and roles typically emerges during the preschool years.

Play types include functional (sensorimotor repetition), constructive (building), dramatic/pretend, and games with rules; each supports different developmental capacities.

The project approach has three phases: beginning (topic selection, prior-knowledge web), developing (investigation and representation), and concluding (sharing and reflection).

The emergent curriculum cycle is observe children's interests, document, reflect with colleagues, plan experiences, and revisit; teacher intention and child direction are balanced.

Intentional teaching is purposeful and planned but not necessarily direct instruction; it includes arranging environments, modeling, questioning, and scaffolding during play.

High-quality classroom organization uses defined learning centers, accessible open-ended materials, predictable routines, and warnings before transitions to reduce challenging behavior.

CLASS observation domains are emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support; instructional support includes concept development, quality of feedback, and language modeling.

A DAP decision rule: when a practice conflicts with a child's individual needs or family context, the teacher adapts the environment or interaction rather than forcing uniformity.

Receptive language (understanding) typically precedes expressive language (production); a child may follow directions before saying the corresponding words.

Typical milestones: cooing around 2 months, canonical babbling 4–6 months, gestures 9–12 months, first words around 12 months, 50 words and two-word combinations by 18–24 months.

Dialogic reading PEER: Prompt the child, Evaluate the response, Expand the response, Repeat the prompt; CROWD prompts are completion, recall, open-ended, wh-, and distancing.

Phonological awareness continuum: word awareness, syllable awareness, rhyme, alliteration, onset-rime, then phoneme awareness (isolation, blending, segmenting).

Concepts of print include print directionality, front and back of a book, words versus pictures, spacing, punctuation, and the understanding that print carries meaning.

The alphabetic principle is the understanding that letters represent sounds; invented spelling (e.g., 'KAT' for cat) is a normal developmental stage, not a random error.

Dual language learners often code-switch and transfer skills across languages; maintaining the home language supports, rather than impedes, English acquisition.

AAP screen guidance: avoid screen media under 18 months except video chatting; 18–24 months use high-quality media with co-viewing; ages 2–5 limit to about 1 hour per day of high-quality programming.

Joint attention and serve-and-return interactions are foundational: child-initiated bids followed by responsive adult language predict stronger vocabulary growth.

Gelman and Gallistel's counting principles: one-to-one correspondence, stable order, cardinality, abstraction, and order irrelevance.

Cardinality is the understanding that the last number word spoken in a count represents the total quantity of the set.

Subitizing is instant recognition of small quantities without counting; perceptual subitizing typically handles 1–3 (sometimes 4), and conceptual subitizing handles larger sets through grouping.

Counting develops from rote recitation to rational counting (one-to-one with meaning); preschool children often count to 10 before understanding conservation of number.

Patterning progression: recognize and copy an AB pattern, extend it, then create and translate patterns; later patterns include AAB, ABB, and ABC.

Measurement in early childhood moves from direct comparison (longer/shorter) to nonstandard units (paper clips, cubes) before standard tools such as rulers.

Geometry and spatial reasoning include naming 2-D and 3-D shapes, composing and decomposing shapes, and using position words such as above, behind, and next to.

Part-part-whole and composing/decomposing numbers to 10 build the foundation for addition and subtraction; number bonds and five/ten frames are common representations.

Math talk that uses comparative and spatial language (more, fewer, equal, taller, under) during play and routines predicts later mathematics achievement.

Safe sleep ABC: infants sleep Alone, on their Back, in a Crib; the sleep surface is firm, flat, and free of soft bedding, bumpers, and toys.

Handwashing requires soap and running water for at least 20 seconds; critical times include before food preparation or eating, after toileting, diapering, and contact with bodily fluids.

During diapering, keep one hand on the child, never leave the child unattended on a changing table, and disinfect the surface after each change.

Choking hazards for children under 4 include whole grapes, nuts, popcorn, hot dogs, hard candy, and chunks of raw carrot or apple; cylindrical foods are cut lengthwise into thin strips.

CACFP meal pattern components include fruits, vegetables, grains, meat or meat alternate, and milk; children 1–2 years receive whole milk, and children 2 and older receive low-fat (1%) or fat-free milk.

Common child care exclusion criteria: fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher with behavior change, vomiting, diarrhea, contagious illness, and rash with fever; exact rules vary by licensing.

Medication administration rights: right child, right medication, right dose, right route, right time; written parental authorization and the original labeled container are required.

Physical activity guidance: toddlers and preschoolers need about 180 minutes of activity daily; infants need supervised tummy time while awake and interaction that encourages movement.

Emergency preparedness includes current first aid and CPR certification, a written emergency plan, accessible epinephrine for anaphylaxis, and practiced evacuation and lockdown drills.

Epstein's six types of family involvement are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community.

Funds of knowledge (Moll) are the skills, knowledge, and cultural resources families use in daily life; teachers use them to connect curriculum to children's homes.

Family engagement differs from involvement: engagement is a reciprocal partnership with shared power and decision-making, while involvement often means participation in school-directed activities.

IFSP (IDEA Part C, ages 0–3) includes family outcomes and is developed with the family; IEP (Part B, ages 3–21) focuses on educational goals and services.

Cultural humility is a lifelong process of self-reflection, openness, and redressing power imbalances; it differs from cultural competence as a fixed set of knowledge.

Two-way communication with families, using plain language and interpreters rather than children, is associated with better attendance and outcomes; confidentiality applies to all family information.

Transition practices that support continuity include sharing records with consent, visiting new settings, and aligning routines between home, early childhood program, and kindergarten.

Barriers to family participation include transportation, work schedules, language, immigration-related distrust, and past negative school experiences; scheduling and location decisions can reduce them.

Observation methods include running record (sequential narrative), anecdotal record (short focused incident), event sampling (specific behavior), time sampling (interval recording), checklist, and rating scale.

Authentic assessment observes children in natural settings during everyday routines and play; it differs from standardized testing and is used to inform instruction.

Screening tools such as ASQ-3 identify children who may need further evaluation; they are not diagnostic and do not replace comprehensive assessment.

Assessment quality criteria include validity (measures the intended construct), reliability (consistency across time and raters), and freedom from bias; multiple observations and observers reduce error.

Portfolios document growth over time with work samples, photographs, observation notes, and family input; they support conferencing and transition planning.

Confidentiality: records are kept secure, shared only with consent or need-to-know, and families have rights to access them; FERPA applies to education records.

Mandated reporters must report reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect promptly to the designated agency; they do not investigate or confront the family.

NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct addresses responsibilities to children, families, colleagues, and community/society; core values include appreciating childhood and basing practice on knowledge.

Reflective practice uses observation, documentation, and collegial dialogue to examine one's own biases and improve teaching; it is a component of ongoing professional development.

Piaget's stages: sensorimotor (0–2 years; object permanence emerges around 8–12 months), preoperational (2–7; symbolic play, egocentrism), concrete operational (7–11; conservation).

Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is the gap between independent performance and performance with adult or peer support; scaffolding is support calibrated to that gap and gradually withdrawn.

Erikson's early psychosocial stages: trust vs. mistrust (birth–1 year), autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1–3 years), initiative vs. guilt (3–6 years).

Bronfenbrenner's ecological model: microsystem (family, classroom), mesosystem (links between microsystems), exosystem (parent workplace, community services), macrosystem (culture, policy), chronosystem (time and transitions).

Ainsworth attachment classifications: secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-ambivalent/resistant; Main added disorganized/disoriented attachment.

Typical motor milestones: sits without support 6–8 months, crawls 7–10 months, walks independently 12–15 months, pincer grasp 9–12 months.

Theory of mind, including false-belief understanding, typically emerges around age 4 and supports perspective-taking, pretend play, and social negotiation.

Thomas and Chess temperament categories are easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up; goodness of fit describes how well the caregiving environment matches the child's temperament.

Development is cumulative and domain-interrelated: a language delay can affect social-emotional and literacy outcomes; screening flags risk but does not diagnose.

NAEYC developmentally appropriate practice rests on three core considerations: child development and learning (commonality), each child's individuality, and the social and cultural context.

Parten's play sequence: unoccupied, onlooker, solitary, parallel, associative, cooperative; cooperative play with shared goals and roles typically emerges during the preschool years.

Play types include functional (sensorimotor repetition), constructive (building), dramatic/pretend, and games with rules; each supports different developmental capacities.

The project approach has three phases: beginning (topic selection, prior-knowledge web), developing (investigation and representation), and concluding (sharing and reflection).

The emergent curriculum cycle is observe children's interests, document, reflect with colleagues, plan experiences, and revisit; teacher intention and child direction are balanced.

Intentional teaching is purposeful and planned but not necessarily direct instruction; it includes arranging environments, modeling, questioning, and scaffolding during play.

High-quality classroom organization uses defined learning centers, accessible open-ended materials, predictable routines, and warnings before transitions to reduce challenging behavior.

CLASS observation domains are emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support; instructional support includes concept development, quality of feedback, and language modeling.

A DAP decision rule: when a practice conflicts with a child's individual needs or family context, the teacher adapts the environment or interaction rather than forcing uniformity.

Receptive language (understanding) typically precedes expressive language (production); a child may follow directions before saying the corresponding words.

Typical milestones: cooing around 2 months, canonical babbling 4–6 months, gestures 9–12 months, first words around 12 months, 50 words and two-word combinations by 18–24 months.

Dialogic reading PEER: Prompt the child, Evaluate the response, Expand the response, Repeat the prompt; CROWD prompts are completion, recall, open-ended, wh-, and distancing.

Phonological awareness continuum: word awareness, syllable awareness, rhyme, alliteration, onset-rime, then phoneme awareness (isolation, blending, segmenting).

Concepts of print include print directionality, front and back of a book, words versus pictures, spacing, punctuation, and the understanding that print carries meaning.

The alphabetic principle is the understanding that letters represent sounds; invented spelling (e.g., 'KAT' for cat) is a normal developmental stage, not a random error.

Dual language learners often code-switch and transfer skills across languages; maintaining the home language supports, rather than impedes, English acquisition.

AAP screen guidance: avoid screen media under 18 months except video chatting; 18–24 months use high-quality media with co-viewing; ages 2–5 limit to about 1 hour per day of high-quality programming.

Joint attention and serve-and-return interactions are foundational: child-initiated bids followed by responsive adult language predict stronger vocabulary growth.

Gelman and Gallistel's counting principles: one-to-one correspondence, stable order, cardinality, abstraction, and order irrelevance.

Cardinality is the understanding that the last number word spoken in a count represents the total quantity of the set.

Subitizing is instant recognition of small quantities without counting; perceptual subitizing typically handles 1–3 (sometimes 4), and conceptual subitizing handles larger sets through grouping.

Counting develops from rote recitation to rational counting (one-to-one with meaning); preschool children often count to 10 before understanding conservation of number.

Patterning progression: recognize and copy an AB pattern, extend it, then create and translate patterns; later patterns include AAB, ABB, and ABC.

Measurement in early childhood moves from direct comparison (longer/shorter) to nonstandard units (paper clips, cubes) before standard tools such as rulers.

Geometry and spatial reasoning include naming 2-D and 3-D shapes, composing and decomposing shapes, and using position words such as above, behind, and next to.

Part-part-whole and composing/decomposing numbers to 10 build the foundation for addition and subtraction; number bonds and five/ten frames are common representations.

Math talk that uses comparative and spatial language (more, fewer, equal, taller, under) during play and routines predicts later mathematics achievement.

Safe sleep ABC: infants sleep Alone, on their Back, in a Crib; the sleep surface is firm, flat, and free of soft bedding, bumpers, and toys.

Handwashing requires soap and running water for at least 20 seconds; critical times include before food preparation or eating, after toileting, diapering, and contact with bodily fluids.

During diapering, keep one hand on the child, never leave the child unattended on a changing table, and disinfect the surface after each change.

Choking hazards for children under 4 include whole grapes, nuts, popcorn, hot dogs, hard candy, and chunks of raw carrot or apple; cylindrical foods are cut lengthwise into thin strips.

CACFP meal pattern components include fruits, vegetables, grains, meat or meat alternate, and milk; children 1–2 years receive whole milk, and children 2 and older receive low-fat (1%) or fat-free milk.

Common child care exclusion criteria: fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher with behavior change, vomiting, diarrhea, contagious illness, and rash with fever; exact rules vary by licensing.

Medication administration rights: right child, right medication, right dose, right route, right time; written parental authorization and the original labeled container are required.

Physical activity guidance: toddlers and preschoolers need about 180 minutes of activity daily; infants need supervised tummy time while awake and interaction that encourages movement.

Emergency preparedness includes current first aid and CPR certification, a written emergency plan, accessible epinephrine for anaphylaxis, and practiced evacuation and lockdown drills.

Epstein's six types of family involvement are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community.

Funds of knowledge (Moll) are the skills, knowledge, and cultural resources families use in daily life; teachers use them to connect curriculum to children's homes.

Family engagement differs from involvement: engagement is a reciprocal partnership with shared power and decision-making, while involvement often means participation in school-directed activities.

IFSP (IDEA Part C, ages 0–3) includes family outcomes and is developed with the family; IEP (Part B, ages 3–21) focuses on educational goals and services.

Cultural humility is a lifelong process of self-reflection, openness, and redressing power imbalances; it differs from cultural competence as a fixed set of knowledge.

Two-way communication with families, using plain language and interpreters rather than children, is associated with better attendance and outcomes; confidentiality applies to all family information.

Transition practices that support continuity include sharing records with consent, visiting new settings, and aligning routines between home, early childhood program, and kindergarten.

Barriers to family participation include transportation, work schedules, language, immigration-related distrust, and past negative school experiences; scheduling and location decisions can reduce them.

Observation methods include running record (sequential narrative), anecdotal record (short focused incident), event sampling (specific behavior), time sampling (interval recording), checklist, and rating scale.

Authentic assessment observes children in natural settings during everyday routines and play; it differs from standardized testing and is used to inform instruction.

Screening tools such as ASQ-3 identify children who may need further evaluation; they are not diagnostic and do not replace comprehensive assessment.

Assessment quality criteria include validity (measures the intended construct), reliability (consistency across time and raters), and freedom from bias; multiple observations and observers reduce error.

Portfolios document growth over time with work samples, photographs, observation notes, and family input; they support conferencing and transition planning.

Confidentiality: records are kept secure, shared only with consent or need-to-know, and families have rights to access them; FERPA applies to education records.

Mandated reporters must report reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect promptly to the designated agency; they do not investigate or confront the family.

NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct addresses responsibilities to children, families, colleagues, and community/society; core values include appreciating childhood and basing practice on knowledge.

Reflective practice uses observation, documentation, and collegial dialogue to examine one's own biases and improve teaching; it is a component of ongoing professional development.

Piaget's stages: sensorimotor (0–2 years; object permanence emerges around 8–12 months), preoperational (2–7; symbolic play, egocentrism), concrete operational (7–11; conservation).

Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is the gap between independent performance and performance with adult or peer support; scaffolding is support calibrated to that gap and gradually withdrawn.

Erikson's early psychosocial stages: trust vs. mistrust (birth–1 year), autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1–3 years), initiative vs. guilt (3–6 years).

Bronfenbrenner's ecological model: microsystem (family, classroom), mesosystem (links between microsystems), exosystem (parent workplace, community services), macrosystem (culture, policy), chronosystem (time and transitions).

Ainsworth attachment classifications: secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-ambivalent/resistant; Main added disorganized/disoriented attachment.

Typical motor milestones: sits without support 6–8 months, crawls 7–10 months, walks independently 12–15 months, pincer grasp 9–12 months.

Theory of mind, including false-belief understanding, typically emerges around age 4 and supports perspective-taking, pretend play, and social negotiation.

Thomas and Chess temperament categories are easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up; goodness of fit describes how well the caregiving environment matches the child's temperament.

Development is cumulative and domain-interrelated: a language delay can affect social-emotional and literacy outcomes; screening flags risk but does not diagnose.

NAEYC developmentally appropriate practice rests on three core considerations: child development and learning (commonality), each child's individuality, and the social and cultural context.

Parten's play sequence: unoccupied, onlooker, solitary, parallel, associative, cooperative; cooperative play with shared goals and roles typically emerges during the preschool years.

Play types include functional (sensorimotor repetition), constructive (building), dramatic/pretend, and games with rules; each supports different developmental capacities.

The project approach has three phases: beginning (topic selection, prior-knowledge web), developing (investigation and representation), and concluding (sharing and reflection).

The emergent curriculum cycle is observe children's interests, document, reflect with colleagues, plan experiences, and revisit; teacher intention and child direction are balanced.

Intentional teaching is purposeful and planned but not necessarily direct instruction; it includes arranging environments, modeling, questioning, and scaffolding during play.

High-quality classroom organization uses defined learning centers, accessible open-ended materials, predictable routines, and warnings before transitions to reduce challenging behavior.

CLASS observation domains are emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support; instructional support includes concept development, quality of feedback, and language modeling.

A DAP decision rule: when a practice conflicts with a child's individual needs or family context, the teacher adapts the environment or interaction rather than forcing uniformity.

Receptive language (understanding) typically precedes expressive language (production); a child may follow directions before saying the corresponding words.

Typical milestones: cooing around 2 months, canonical babbling 4–6 months, gestures 9–12 months, first words around 12 months, 50 words and two-word combinations by 18–24 months.

Dialogic reading PEER: Prompt the child, Evaluate the response, Expand the response, Repeat the prompt; CROWD prompts are completion, recall, open-ended, wh-, and distancing.

Phonological awareness continuum: word awareness, syllable awareness, rhyme, alliteration, onset-rime, then phoneme awareness (isolation, blending, segmenting).

Concepts of print include print directionality, front and back of a book, words versus pictures, spacing, punctuation, and the understanding that print carries meaning.

The alphabetic principle is the understanding that letters represent sounds; invented spelling (e.g., 'KAT' for cat) is a normal developmental stage, not a random error.

Dual language learners often code-switch and transfer skills across languages; maintaining the home language supports, rather than impedes, English acquisition.

AAP screen guidance: avoid screen media under 18 months except video chatting; 18–24 months use high-quality media with co-viewing; ages 2–5 limit to about 1 hour per day of high-quality programming.

Joint attention and serve-and-return interactions are foundational: child-initiated bids followed by responsive adult language predict stronger vocabulary growth.

Gelman and Gallistel's counting principles: one-to-one correspondence, stable order, cardinality, abstraction, and order irrelevance.

Cardinality is the understanding that the last number word spoken in a count represents the total quantity of the set.

Subitizing is instant recognition of small quantities without counting; perceptual subitizing typically handles 1–3 (sometimes 4), and conceptual subitizing handles larger sets through grouping.

Counting develops from rote recitation to rational counting (one-to-one with meaning); preschool children often count to 10 before understanding conservation of number.

Patterning progression: recognize and copy an AB pattern, extend it, then create and translate patterns; later patterns include AAB, ABB, and ABC.

Measurement in early childhood moves from direct comparison (longer/shorter) to nonstandard units (paper clips, cubes) before standard tools such as rulers.

Geometry and spatial reasoning include naming 2-D and 3-D shapes, composing and decomposing shapes, and using position words such as above, behind, and next to.

Part-part-whole and composing/decomposing numbers to 10 build the foundation for addition and subtraction; number bonds and five/ten frames are common representations.

Math talk that uses comparative and spatial language (more, fewer, equal, taller, under) during play and routines predicts later mathematics achievement.

Safe sleep ABC: infants sleep Alone, on their Back, in a Crib; the sleep surface is firm, flat, and free of soft bedding, bumpers, and toys.

Handwashing requires soap and running water for at least 20 seconds; critical times include before food preparation or eating, after toileting, diapering, and contact with bodily fluids.

During diapering, keep one hand on the child, never leave the child unattended on a changing table, and disinfect the surface after each change.

Choking hazards for children under 4 include whole grapes, nuts, popcorn, hot dogs, hard candy, and chunks of raw carrot or apple; cylindrical foods are cut lengthwise into thin strips.

CACFP meal pattern components include fruits, vegetables, grains, meat or meat alternate, and milk; children 1–2 years receive whole milk, and children 2 and older receive low-fat (1%) or fat-free milk.

Common child care exclusion criteria: fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher with behavior change, vomiting, diarrhea, contagious illness, and rash with fever; exact rules vary by licensing.

Medication administration rights: right child, right medication, right dose, right route, right time; written parental authorization and the original labeled container are required.

Physical activity guidance: toddlers and preschoolers need about 180 minutes of activity daily; infants need supervised tummy time while awake and interaction that encourages movement.

Emergency preparedness includes current first aid and CPR certification, a written emergency plan, accessible epinephrine for anaphylaxis, and practiced evacuation and lockdown drills.

Epstein's six types of family involvement are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community.

Funds of knowledge (Moll) are the skills, knowledge, and cultural resources families use in daily life; teachers use them to connect curriculum to children's homes.

Family engagement differs from involvement: engagement is a reciprocal partnership with shared power and decision-making, while involvement often means participation in school-directed activities.

IFSP (IDEA Part C, ages 0–3) includes family outcomes and is developed with the family; IEP (Part B, ages 3–21) focuses on educational goals and services.

Cultural humility is a lifelong process of self-reflection, openness, and redressing power imbalances; it differs from cultural competence as a fixed set of knowledge.

Two-way communication with families, using plain language and interpreters rather than children, is associated with better attendance and outcomes; confidentiality applies to all family information.

Transition practices that support continuity include sharing records with consent, visiting new settings, and aligning routines between home, early childhood program, and kindergarten.

Barriers to family participation include transportation, work schedules, language, immigration-related distrust, and past negative school experiences; scheduling and location decisions can reduce them.

Observation methods include running record (sequential narrative), anecdotal record (short focused incident), event sampling (specific behavior), time sampling (interval recording), checklist, and rating scale.

Authentic assessment observes children in natural settings during everyday routines and play; it differs from standardized testing and is used to inform instruction.

Screening tools such as ASQ-3 identify children who may need further evaluation; they are not diagnostic and do not replace comprehensive assessment.

Assessment quality criteria include validity (measures the intended construct), reliability (consistency across time and raters), and freedom from bias; multiple observations and observers reduce error.

Portfolios document growth over time with work samples, photographs, observation notes, and family input; they support conferencing and transition planning.

Confidentiality: records are kept secure, shared only with consent or need-to-know, and families have rights to access them; FERPA applies to education records.

Mandated reporters must report reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect promptly to the designated agency; they do not investigate or confront the family.

NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct addresses responsibilities to children, families, colleagues, and community/society; core values include appreciating childhood and basing practice on knowledge.

Reflective practice uses observation, documentation, and collegial dialogue to examine one's own biases and improve teaching; it is a component of ongoing professional development.

Piaget's stages: sensorimotor (0–2 years; object permanence emerges around 8–12 months), preoperational (2–7; symbolic play, egocentrism), concrete operational (7–11; conservation).

Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is the gap between independent performance and performance with adult or peer support; scaffolding is support calibrated to that gap and gradually withdrawn.

Erikson's early psychosocial stages: trust vs. mistrust (birth–1 year), autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1–3 years), initiative vs. guilt (3–6 years).

Bronfenbrenner's ecological model: microsystem (family, classroom), mesosystem (links between microsystems), exosystem (parent workplace, community services), macrosystem (culture, policy), chronosystem (time and transitions).

Ainsworth attachment classifications: secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-ambivalent/resistant; Main added disorganized/disoriented attachment.

Typical motor milestones: sits without support 6–8 months, crawls 7–10 months, walks independently 12–15 months, pincer grasp 9–12 months.

Theory of mind, including false-belief understanding, typically emerges around age 4 and supports perspective-taking, pretend play, and social negotiation.

Thomas and Chess temperament categories are easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up; goodness of fit describes how well the caregiving environment matches the child's temperament.

Development is cumulative and domain-interrelated: a language delay can affect social-emotional and literacy outcomes; screening flags risk but does not diagnose.

NAEYC developmentally appropriate practice rests on three core considerations: child development and learning (commonality), each child's individuality, and the social and cultural context.

Parten's play sequence: unoccupied, onlooker, solitary, parallel, associative, cooperative; cooperative play with shared goals and roles typically emerges during the preschool years.

Play types include functional (sensorimotor repetition), constructive (building), dramatic/pretend, and games with rules; each supports different developmental capacities.

The project approach has three phases: beginning (topic selection, prior-knowledge web), developing (investigation and representation), and concluding (sharing and reflection).

The emergent curriculum cycle is observe children's interests, document, reflect with colleagues, plan experiences, and revisit; teacher intention and child direction are balanced.

Intentional teaching is purposeful and planned but not necessarily direct instruction; it includes arranging environments, modeling, questioning, and scaffolding during play.

High-quality classroom organization uses defined learning centers, accessible open-ended materials, predictable routines, and warnings before transitions to reduce challenging behavior.

CLASS observation domains are emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support; instructional support includes concept development, quality of feedback, and language modeling.

A DAP decision rule: when a practice conflicts with a child's individual needs or family context, the teacher adapts the environment or interaction rather than forcing uniformity.

Receptive language (understanding) typically precedes expressive language (production); a child may follow directions before saying the corresponding words.

Typical milestones: cooing around 2 months, canonical babbling 4–6 months, gestures 9–12 months, first words around 12 months, 50 words and two-word combinations by 18–24 months.

Dialogic reading PEER: Prompt the child, Evaluate the response, Expand the response, Repeat the prompt; CROWD prompts are completion, recall, open-ended, wh-, and distancing.

Phonological awareness continuum: word awareness, syllable awareness, rhyme, alliteration, onset-rime, then phoneme awareness (isolation, blending, segmenting).

Concepts of print include print directionality, front and back of a book, words versus pictures, spacing, punctuation, and the understanding that print carries meaning.

The alphabetic principle is the understanding that letters represent sounds; invented spelling (e.g., 'KAT' for cat) is a normal developmental stage, not a random error.

Dual language learners often code-switch and transfer skills across languages; maintaining the home language supports, rather than impedes, English acquisition.

AAP screen guidance: avoid screen media under 18 months except video chatting; 18–24 months use high-quality media with co-viewing; ages 2–5 limit to about 1 hour per day of high-quality programming.

Joint attention and serve-and-return interactions are foundational: child-initiated bids followed by responsive adult language predict stronger vocabulary growth.

Gelman and Gallistel's counting principles: one-to-one correspondence, stable order, cardinality, abstraction, and order irrelevance.

Cardinality is the understanding that the last number word spoken in a count represents the total quantity of the set.

Subitizing is instant recognition of small quantities without counting; perceptual subitizing typically handles 1–3 (sometimes 4), and conceptual subitizing handles larger sets through grouping.

Counting develops from rote recitation to rational counting (one-to-one with meaning); preschool children often count to 10 before understanding conservation of number.

Patterning progression: recognize and copy an AB pattern, extend it, then create and translate patterns; later patterns include AAB, ABB, and ABC.

Measurement in early childhood moves from direct comparison (longer/shorter) to nonstandard units (paper clips, cubes) before standard tools such as rulers.

Geometry and spatial reasoning include naming 2-D and 3-D shapes, composing and decomposing shapes, and using position words such as above, behind, and next to.

Part-part-whole and composing/decomposing numbers to 10 build the foundation for addition and subtraction; number bonds and five/ten frames are common representations.

Math talk that uses comparative and spatial language (more, fewer, equal, taller, under) during play and routines predicts later mathematics achievement.

Safe sleep ABC: infants sleep Alone, on their Back, in a Crib; the sleep surface is firm, flat, and free of soft bedding, bumpers, and toys.

Handwashing requires soap and running water for at least 20 seconds; critical times include before food preparation or eating, after toileting, diapering, and contact with bodily fluids.

During diapering, keep one hand on the child, never leave the child unattended on a changing table, and disinfect the surface after each change.

Choking hazards for children under 4 include whole grapes, nuts, popcorn, hot dogs, hard candy, and chunks of raw carrot or apple; cylindrical foods are cut lengthwise into thin strips.

CACFP meal pattern components include fruits, vegetables, grains, meat or meat alternate, and milk; children 1–2 years receive whole milk, and children 2 and older receive low-fat (1%) or fat-free milk.

Common child care exclusion criteria: fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher with behavior change, vomiting, diarrhea, contagious illness, and rash with fever; exact rules vary by licensing.

Medication administration rights: right child, right medication, right dose, right route, right time; written parental authorization and the original labeled container are required.

Physical activity guidance: toddlers and preschoolers need about 180 minutes of activity daily; infants need supervised tummy time while awake and interaction that encourages movement.

Emergency preparedness includes current first aid and CPR certification, a written emergency plan, accessible epinephrine for anaphylaxis, and practiced evacuation and lockdown drills.

Epstein's six types of family involvement are parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision-making, and collaborating with the community.

Funds of knowledge (Moll) are the skills, knowledge, and cultural resources families use in daily life; teachers use them to connect curriculum to children's homes.

Family engagement differs from involvement: engagement is a reciprocal partnership with shared power and decision-making, while involvement often means participation in school-directed activities.

IFSP (IDEA Part C, ages 0–3) includes family outcomes and is developed with the family; IEP (Part B, ages 3–21) focuses on educational goals and services.

Cultural humility is a lifelong process of self-reflection, openness, and redressing power imbalances; it differs from cultural competence as a fixed set of knowledge.

Two-way communication with families, using plain language and interpreters rather than children, is associated with better attendance and outcomes; confidentiality applies to all family information.

Transition practices that support continuity include sharing records with consent, visiting new settings, and aligning routines between home, early childhood program, and kindergarten.

Barriers to family participation include transportation, work schedules, language, immigration-related distrust, and past negative school experiences; scheduling and location decisions can reduce them.

Observation methods include running record (sequential narrative), anecdotal record (short focused incident), event sampling (specific behavior), time sampling (interval recording), checklist, and rating scale.

Authentic assessment observes children in natural settings during everyday routines and play; it differs from standardized testing and is used to inform instruction.

Screening tools such as ASQ-3 identify children who may need further evaluation; they are not diagnostic and do not replace comprehensive assessment.

Assessment quality criteria include validity (measures the intended construct), reliability (consistency across time and raters), and freedom from bias; multiple observations and observers reduce error.

Portfolios document growth over time with work samples, photographs, observation notes, and family input; they support conferencing and transition planning.

Confidentiality: records are kept secure, shared only with consent or need-to-know, and families have rights to access them; FERPA applies to education records.

Mandated reporters must report reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect promptly to the designated agency; they do not investigate or confront the family.

NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct addresses responsibilities to children, families, colleagues, and community/society; core values include appreciating childhood and basing practice on knowledge.

Reflective practice uses observation, documentation, and collegial dialogue to examine one's own biases and improve teaching; it is a component of ongoing professional development.