Early Care & Education
|
|
The Great Start Collaborative of Ottawa County is committed to ensuring that all children are healthy, safe, and ready to succeed by age five.
|
In the first few years of life, children learn more and at a much faster pace than any other time. Research shows the early experiences and early learning that we provide - positive, negative, or neutral - actually change the physical structure of the brain. As a parent or early childhood professional, you have the awesome responsibility and privilege of shaping these early experiences.
|
|
Ottawa Area Intermediate School District early childhood services and staff are working together to ensure that resources and tools are available to give every child a healthy, enriched start to learning and life.
Information about quality childcare, parenting classes, preschool opportunities, home visiting programs, playgroups, professional development, and special needs are all just a click away using the tabs to the left. A child's future is in your hands.........it's never too early to give them a GREAT START!!! Click here for more tips and information.....
|
|
Michigan's Core Knowledge and Core Competencies for Early Childhood Care and Education Professionals
Click here to view
|
| "Providers and caregivers who care for young children need to understand the full range of child development and learning; the individual strengths, interests, and needs of each child; and the social and cultural contexts of each child. When caring for infants and toddlers, it is important that providers and caregivers are able to establish warm, responsive relationships with children and form partnerships with families. Infants and toddlers develop at their own paces. Providers and caregivers need the skills to notice, adapt, and respond to individual babies’ and toddlers’ changing interests and abilities, including those children with disabilities or special needs. Providers and caregivers must also be able to recognize when infant/toddler development does not occur within expected ranges. Core knowledge defines the content of the developmental needs of children birth to three while core competencies describe the skills that providers and caregivers should have to address the developmental needs of these very young children. States can play a leading role in bringing attention to the unique needs of babies and toddlers in child care by providing training, technical assistance, and funding to help providers and caregivers understand core knowledge and competencies relevant to babies and toddlers." CLASP: REINVESTING IN CHILD CARE:STATE INFANT/TODDLER POLICIES MARCH 2009 |
Resources About Quality Child Care
The STATE OF MICHIGAN Department of Human Services has developed the Child Development and Care Handbook.
For many families, the cost of safe, quality child care can affect the family budget. The Child Development and
Care (CDC) Program may offer payment for child care services for some families when the parent is not able to
provide child care because of:
• Employment.
• High School Completion.
• Approved Activity.
• Family Preservation.
This handbook provides:
• General information about the Child Development and Care Program for parents and providers.
• Additional provider information.
CLICK HERE to view this valuable resource.
Michigan State University Extension is providing a web page full of tips, questions and answers, resources, and an event calendar.
Check it our here!
|
One Minute Tips for Caregivers
The Early Childhood Investment Corporation has partnered with Detroit Public Television and United Way for Southeastern Michigan to develop 42 one minute vignettes. The vignettes are designed to give one minute tips to caregivers (parent and providers) about early childhood development and how caregivers can support development. The vignettes have an added purpose, a call to action, to encourage caregivers to learn more by contacting a Great Start Regional Child Care Resource Center. The vignettes are currently airing on Detroit Public Television and Lansing Public Television. The vignettes will soon be airing statewide. Click here to view all the vignettes!
|
101 Tips for Increasing Physical Activity in Early Childhood
Preschool children love to move, and young bodies need to move! By exploring, discovering and using everything they come in contact with at home or in the classroom, children learn. Acquiring motor skills involves the introduction of new concepts and skills, exploring those skills physically and applying the movements to a variety of simple games and cooperative movement activities. When early childhood caregivers model and teach the importance of physical activity, young children are more likely to adopt a lifetime of healthful practices and behaviors. The following 101 tips, published by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) and Playworld Systems, were collected from numerous early childhood movement experts to help teachers and caregivers plan and provide age-appropriate physical activity experiences. |
|
Center of the Social Emotional Foundations
for Early
Learning (CSEFEL)
Check out the CSEFEL website!
Promoting
Social Emotional Competence was designed to provide a
foundation for understanding the Teaching Pyramid as a
framework for
promoting young children’s social and emotional development
and
preventing and addressing challenging behavior. This
22-minute video is a
perfect way to be introduced to and become familiar with the
pyramid
framework.
View this video online at the CSEFEL
website.
Practical
Strategies for Teaching Social Emotional Skills. This
28-minute video highlights strategies and approaches that
early
childhood personnel and families can use to systematically
target social
emotional supports that build young children’s skills in a
variety of
areas including making friends, problem solving, asking an
adult for
help, talking about feelings, and managing their emotions.
The
strategies rely on a 3-stage approach to supporting young
children’s
social emotional development by (1) introducing and
practicing a skill,
(2) building fluency and competency with a skill, and (3)
ensuring there
is maintenance of a skill. The video provides multiple
examples of
early childhood personnel demonstrating how to introduce a
skill using a
variety of tools, practice a skill through planned and
unscripted
activities, and maintain the skill by recognizing children
for using the
skill on their own. View this video online at the CSEFEL
website.
|
|
Early Childhood Education (ZA) Endorsement
Teachers with a Michigan Elementary Education (K-8) or Special Education (K-12) Teaching Certificate may earn an Early Childhood Education Endorsement (ZA) which certifies teachers (birth through age 5) in less than 2 years. Courses are offered online, face-to face in the evenings or in the summers in a condensed format. The required laboratory hours are offered in the Michigan State University Child Development Laboratories during the latter half of the summer months to accommodate your teaching schedule. The Early Childhood Education Endorsement (ZA) is an authorization to teach in any school program birth through age eight. The courses taken meet the requirements of a planned program and can be used for continuing teacher certification in the State of Michigan. The new program requires 26 credits and meets the Michigan Department of Education standards. 150 child contact hours will be provided in the MSU Child Development Laboratories through this program. At the completion of the coursework, teachers must pass the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification (MTTC) subject area test in Early Childhood Education to have
the endorsement posted to their teaching certificate. To view MSU's brochure click here.... |
Michigan's Early Childhood Standards of
Quality for Prekindergarten
|
Michigan’s Early Childhood Standards of Quality for Prekindergarten (ECSQ-P) are intended to help early childhood programs provide high quality settings and to respond to the diversity of children and families. The ECSQ-P build on the minimums detailed in the Rules for Child Care Centers and incorporate the essential elements of the program and child outcome standards required for various other early childhood programs. In addition they are aligned with the Grade Level Content Expectations (GLCEs) for Kindergarten. The
standards remain as approved in 2005, and the new document includes
these new updates:
- Early Learning Expectations for Three and
Four-year-old
Children and
- an updated graphic design.
To read the standards click here... |
