LESSON 2 for Training & Curriculum Specialists and Managers

Helping Staff Tailor Learning Experiences

Summary and Objectives

This lesson offers guidance to trainers on how to support the critical role of direct care staff as experts in adapting and individualizing Early Learning Matters (ELM) Curriculum learning experiences in response to the needs and interests of young children. ELM was developed by Purdue University for programs serving children from birth to five years of age.1 A key principle of the curriculum is that direct care staff are in the best position to make informed decisions about how to tailor experiences for children in their setting.

The lesson reviews ELM resources and practices for selecting and adapting learning activities, and suggests ways to help staff effectively tailor the learning experiences of children in their care. The lesson directly connects to the content of lessons for direct care staff regarding the adaptation of ELM activities (Lesson 2) and uses of focused observations and assessments to individualize children’s experiences (Lesson 3).

The content of this lesson directly pertains to five of the 10 program accreditation standards of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC): relationships, curriculum, teaching, assessment of child progress, and families.2

At the conclusion of this lesson, you will have a stronger understanding of:

      • factors to consider in tailoring children’s learning experiences;
      • the ELM Curriculum’s sources of help to direct care staff for adapting and individualizing learning activities; and
      • strategies for helping direct care staff strengthen their skills for meeting children where they are developmentally.

This lesson is to be pursued after becoming familiar with the ELM Curriculum’s User Guide that pertains to the ages of children in rooms you are supporting. This lesson builds on essential information offered in the User Guides. It is not a User Guide substitute. This lesson is also to be pursued after becoming familiar with the ELM Curriculum’s Lessons 2 and 3 for direct care staff.

REVIEW

Effective learning builds on a learner’s current skills and interests in the context of desired goals. The intent is to meet children where they are in relation to skills that provide a foundation for later learning and for life success. The ELM Curriculum calls this meaningful support for children’s learning.

Designers of developmentally appropriate curricula use research and professional standards to develop learning experiences that align with children’s abilities and interests. For example, some ELM activities build on toddlers’ strong interest in carrying things from one place to another.3 In addition to being enjoyable, toddlers’ motor and spatial skills can be strengthened by carrying a material from one place to another.

As another example, ELM activities focused on preschool-age children’s letter knowledge capitalize on studies that show children tend to focus on letters in their own name when first learning letter names. Letters that research suggests children learn most easily are introduced first in the ELM Curriculum. Each letter is connected to letters children see in their classroom.4

Activities based on research and professional standards work best when classroom staff draw on their understandings of specific children to tailor children’s learning experiences. Direct care staff are in the privileged position of knowing the particular abilities and interests of children in their care.

The ELM Curriculum’s sources of help for tailoring children’s experiences are summarized in this lesson’s box entitled, ELM Resources to Help Staff Meet Children Where They Are.

In addition to these resources, the two User Guides offer suggestions for tailoring aspects of activities to children’s needs and interests. The description of how ELM supports preschool-age children’s language/literacy development, for example, offers ideas on how to help younger preschool-age children and/or children who are not fluent English speakers participate in interpretation discussions of why events may have happened in a story.5

ELM Resources to Help Staff Meet Children Where They Are

Activity Options
Activity plans for birth–36 months offer 2–3 options in each area, such as Social-Emotional and Cognitive, that differ in level of challenge. Some activity plans for children 3–5 years of age offer options for reviewing or extending skills introduced earlier in the curriculum.

Activity Descriptions
Tailoring information is available in three different parts of an activity description. (1) Many activity plans begin with a Be Prepared section that describes the intended participants in an activity, such as infants who are ready to crawl, and/or offers guidance on selection of materials. (2) The opening segment of infant/toddler activity descriptions also often specifies the intended participant, such as nonmobile or mobile infants. (3) Many activity descriptions include adaptation suggestions, such as follow-up prompts to use if children seem uncertain about a question, and ways to briefly extend exploration of a topic.

Scaffolding Tips
Each activity plan suggests ways to make an activity slightly more challenging (Enrichment) and slightly less challenging (Extra Support).

What to Look For (Birth–36 Months)
Each activity plan for infants and toddlers helps caregivers anticipate how children might participate in an activity. The What to Look For section also suggests ways a caregiver might respond to different types of participation.

ELM Guides for Observing and Individualizing
Each guide focuses on one or several related foundation skills. Each guide lists behaviors to observe, suggests observation opportunities, and offers ideas for follow-up learning supports that reinforce or reintroduce a skill(s). There are guides for infants (birth–12 months), toddlers (12–36 months), and preschool-age children (3–5 years).

Progress Assessments of Literacy and Mathematics (3–5 Years Only)
Six assessments of literacy skills and three assessments of counting skills are provided. The assessments are a sequenced part of the curriculum. Each assessment plan suggests ideas for follow-up learning supports. Forms are provided for recording a child’s assessment responses. The form for recording children’s responses is located in the left column of each assessment plan.

What Gets Tailored

Best practices in early learning programs call for staff responsiveness to children at different levels. One level is the quality of interpersonal relationships, including interactions. A NAEYC accreditation assessment item, for example, expects staff to moderate their voice and physical interaction in response to the individual levels of arousal of infants, toddlers, and twos.6

Another level of responsiveness occurs when learning experiences are tailored to provide challenging and achievable goals for children, as emphasized in NAEYC’s developmentally appropriate practice statement.7

Below is a summary of five factors included in the ELM Curriculum’s guidance to staff about tailoring children’s learning. These factors are also prominent in NAEYC’s accreditation standards regarding curriculum adaptations and modifications.8

Teaching strategies. Developmentally appropriate teaching strategies recommended by NAEYC9 are central to ELM activity plans. Ten teaching strategies that promote responsive interactions with infants and toddlers are described in the ELM Curriculum User Guide: Birth–36 Months (see pp. 5–6). The integrated use of different teaching strategies is illustrated in a sorting and counting activity for preschool-age children in the ELM Curriculum User Guide: 3–5 Years (see p. 5). The example shows a strategic mix of seven of the 10 effective teaching practices recommended by NAEYC.

Teaching practices are a common focus of efforts to tailor learning experiences. An approach that is helpful to one child may be less effective with another child. Here are two examples from ELM Curriculum activity plans. The teaching strategies are underlined.

      • Toddlers enjoy and cognitively benefit from manipulating items that connect and disconnect. An activity plan10 on disconnecting two star builders suggests that staff demonstrate and describe how to pull apart two connected builders. A scaffolding tip suggests that, if a toddler tries to separate the stars without success, the staff member give assistance by offering to hold one star and encourage the toddler to pull on the connected star.
      • A Social-Emotional activity plan11 for preschool-age children introduces Tucker the Turtle’s approach to managing one’s own feelings of anger. The plan suggests that staff use a puppet to demonstrate and describe how to “stop, tuck, and think” when feeling angry. The plan also suggests the staff member lead children in practicing “stop, tuck, and think” actions. A scaffolding tip suggests that, if children seem unsure what to do with their bodies during this practice, the staff member demonstrate each action word with his/her body. The tip also suggests that the staff member display and describe two curriculum-provided pictures of a turtle, emphasizing how a turtle can stop what it is doing by pulling its head and legs into its shell. The shell gives the turtle a place to be calm and to think.

The scaffolding tips in these examples offer extra support that increases the amount of help. Holding a star builder and encouraging a toddler to pull on a connected builder are more intense and tailored teaching strategies than a toddler’s experience of trying to pull apart the builders on his/her own after watching and listening to a demonstration. In the Tucker the Turtle activity example, the extra support tip adds a second form of demonstration plus concrete images and descriptions of a turtle and its shell. Children with limited or no understanding of how a turtle can retreat into its shell may be understandably confused by a demonstration only.

Materials. Effective materials are of interest to children and also are appropriately challenging to use. Direct care staff are in an excellent position to know what toys and other materials are of interest to specific children. The ELM Curriculum offers guidance on selecting materials that are appropriately challenging. Here are three examples. The first two are from Be Prepared sections of activity plans. The third example is from a plan’s What to Look For section.

      • A one-to-one activity plan12 that promotes older toddlers’ concentration skills as part of manipulating a puzzle lists five puzzle characteristics to consider in selecting a puzzle that is optimally challenging for a child. An important factor here is the match between puzzle features, such as pegs and chunkiness, and a child’s fine motor skills.
      • A small group activity plan13 for preschool-age children calls for each child to receive 10 Unifix® cubes for making a measure (a stick). The plan suggests (1) providing fewer than 10 cubes if counting to 10 is likely to be too challenging or (2) offering two different colors of cubes so children can arrange a stick in alternating colors. It is generally easier to count alternating colors.
      • A one-to-one activity plan14 uses buttons and a box with a buttonhole in its lid to support younger toddlers’ fine motor skills. If a toddler is not able to put a button into the buttonhole after several attempts, the staff member is encouraged to remove the lid and change the activity to a game of dropping buttons into the box.

Some activity descriptions suggest a specific placement of a material at the beginning of the activity. For example, placing a puzzle directly in front of a child, with the staff member sitting next to the child, indirectly communicates that the child is in charge of the material and the staff member is available to help.15 As another example, book sharing activity options with infants generally differ by the extent to which an infant is involved in managing the book, such as turning pages or lifting flaps in a book.

Lesson 3 for direct care staff offers an example of how a caregiver’s focused observations of a toddler’s interactions with a toy led to use of simpler toys and improvements in back-and-forth interactions with the caregiver. (See Caleb’s Social Interaction Skills at the end of Lesson 3 for direct care staff.)

Configuration. Some activity plans designed for a small group or informal gathering suggest that a staff member offer the activity in a different configuration if a child seems to have difficulty with the activity’s targeted skill when peers are involved. For example, an activity designed for an informal gathering of older toddlers encourages children to ring a bell as part of listening to words in a song.16 The What to Look For section of the plan explains that some toddlers may find the sounds of many bells to be overstimulating. The section suggests that a toddler may prefer to participate in the activity in a one-to-one arrangement or with one other toddler only.

Amount of Time. It is common for ELM activity plans to suggest an activity be continued a little longer “if time and child interest permit.” This is consistent with an assessment item in the NAEYC accreditation standards that suggests staff should help prolong an activity through encouragement or active involvement when an infant shows interest or pleasure in an activity.17 A reverse expectation is also in place in the curriculum. A staff member is encouraged to bring an activity to a close, and perhaps offer it at a different time, if a child(ren) loses interest.

Repetition. Offering an activity or a segment of an activity again and again is closely related to the amount of time an activity is offered to a child(ren). Repeated opportunities to practice a new skill are highly beneficial to learning, as noted in both User Guides. Repeated practice opportunities pertain to the plentiful characteristic of the ELM Curriculum.

The suggested follow-up plan activities in each Guide for Observing and Individualizing and Progress Assessment of literacy and mathematics skills commonly involve repeating an ELM activity, sometimes with adaptations, as a way of reinforcing or reintroducing a skill.

Repetition often works best when it involves some new challenge.18 ELM’s scaffolding tips that offer enrichment ideas generally involve a small change in an activity, such as suggesting a toddler disconnect three star builders after he/she successfully disconnects two stars.19 More broadly, this concept is represented in ELM through incremental increases in the challenge of repeated activities, such as using a slightly more complex material or new rules in a self-regulation game.

When Tailoring Occurs

Effective caregivers continuously tune in to what the children in their care are doing. Paying attention to a child’s actions enables caregivers to decide how to facilitate a child’s participation in a room’s activities. Direct care staff make decisions about tailoring the ELM Curriculum’s learning activities at two key points: before an activity is offered and while a child(ren) is participating in an activity.

The two decision points regarding tailoring occur with the use of activity plans across blocks (infant-toddler) and weeks (preschool) in the ELM Curriculum. Lesson 2 for direct care staff reviews ways to adapt an activity as part of making the most of activity plans. The two decision points also occur when staff develop individualized learning plans as a follow up to focused observations and assessments. Lesson 3 for direct care staff reviews the curriculum’s observation/assessment and individualization procedures.

Before Offering an Activity. Adapting an activity before it is offered to a child(ren) is a common way to tailor a learning experience. Direct care staff are encouraged to anticipate how children in their care are likely to respond to an activity and, if appropriate, modify the activity so it optimally supports the needs or interests of a child(ren).

This practice is consistent with NAEYC program standards that expect a curriculum to allow for adaptations and modifications.20

A caregiver may decide to incorporate a scaffolding tip into his/her approach to the activity from the beginning. For example, a caregiver who knows for certain that a young toddler will find it too challenging to put a button in the buttonhole of a container’s lid may offer the button box without its lid and engage the toddler in a game of dropping buttons, one by one, into the box. In this situation, the caregiver does not wait for the toddler to experience frustration with an activity that is too challenging in terms of fine motor skills.

The general idea here is to adapt a planned activity before it is offered if staff confidently anticipate any aspect of the activity might impose a barrier to participation. The words “confidently anticipate” in the prior sentence are important for staff to recognize. Removing too much challenge from an activity may lead to a less-than-optimal learning experience, including quick loss of a child’s interest.

Selecting appropriate learning experiences is another type of tailoring that occurs in three ways in the ELM Curriculum: (1) the 2–3 options in each activity plan for infants and toddlers; (2) the review or extend options in some activity plans for children 3–5 years of age; and (3) activities included in individualized follow-up plans developed after a focused observation or assessment of a child’s skill progress.

The 2–3 options in activity plans for children birth–36 months of age provide information on the intended participant, such as an infant who can sit independently. The curriculum recognizes that some newer staff members may benefit from guidance on identifying an emerging skill that is the focus of an activity. For example, an ELM activity designed for an infant who is ready to crawl lists four ready-to-crawl indicators for staff to consider.21

Some activity options for infants and toddlers use a laddered approach. For example, a self-regulation activity plan for older toddlers offers a demonstration and description of deep and slow breathing in Option 1, practice opportunities with a prop in Option 2, and practice opportunities without a prop and in a different body position in Option 3. The activity plan’s What to Look For section suggests that some toddlers may be ready for Option 3 without the preparation of Options 1 and/or 2. It also suggests that the intentionally limited supports for breathing practice in Option 3 may make this option too challenging for some toddlers but a good choice for other toddlers.22

Later weeks of the curriculum for preschool-age children offer two options for revisiting skills introduced earlier in the curriculum’s developmental sequence. The two options are available in activity plans for mathematics (Weeks 37–50), language/literacy (Weeks 46–50), social-emotional (Weeks 44–50), and physical/health (Weeks 37–45 and 48–50). The weeks occur during summer months if Week 1 begins in early- to mid-September.

One of the two options is a review of a foundation skill introduced or practiced in a prior activity. The other option is an activity that extends the skill. For example, the first option in Week 39 for physical/health is to repeat an activity in which a child practices catching a ball he/she throws into the air.23 The second option extends the catching skill by inviting children to catch a ball thrown by an adult. As another example, the first option in Week 41 for mathematics is to repeat an activity in which a child makes a group of two.24 The second option extends this skill by engaging children in making groups of 1–10 counters.

The ELM Curriculum’s procedures for observing/assessing and individualizing require decisions about what types of learning experiences to offer in a follow-up plan of support. The Lesson 3 for direct care staff includes an example of a child (Sarah) whose difficulty in settling into rest time led to a follow-up plan in which staff gently incorporated verbal support for deep and slow breathing into the child’s rest time routine (see Sarah’s Concentration Skill at the end of Lesson 3 for direct care staff).

An activity option selected for a child(ren) may benefit from adaptation, of course. Suggestions for follow-up learning experiences in each Guide for Observing and Individualizing and in Progress Assessment procedures for preschool-age children often include ideas for adapting existing ELM activities. Here is an example from the Guide for Observing and Individualizing preschool-age children’s skills that support creative expression. One of the Guide’s follow-up suggestions for reintroducing the concept of drama is to provide a small mirror(s) for a child(ren) to look at his/her attempts to make different facial expressions. The suggested use of a small mirror is an adaptation of the existing plan, which focused on imitating facial expressions of others without a mirror.25

While an Activity is Happening. ELM resources for helping staff adapt an activity while it is being offered include scaffolding tips, the What to Look For section of activity plans for infants and toddlers, and activity descriptions. These sources of help are summarized in this lesson’s box entitled, ELM Resources to Help Staff Meet Children Where They Are.

Making good use of the curriculum’s adaptation suggestions requires staff to carefully watch and listen to each child during an activity. Attentive caregivers quickly know whether an important part of an activity needs to be broken into smaller parts or expanded into a more challenging opportunity for a child(ren) to learn.

Examples of adapting an activity are offered in the prior section on What Gets Tailored. These include the use of teaching strategies to help a child understand Tucker the Turtle’s approach to dealing with anger, and the change of button box in a fine motor activity focused on putting buttons in a buttonhole.

The laddered options in some infant/toddler activity plans, described earlier, make it easy for staff to shift to a more or less challenging task during an activity. Activity plans for sharing a book with an infant are an example. A caregiver can easily transition from helping an infant look at a book’s pictures and listen to the caregiver’s voice (Option 1) to encouraging a child to help turn pages and communicate about pictures (Option 2) to helping the child hold the book, turn pages, and communicate about the story (Option 3).26

REFLECT

The resources and practices reviewed in this lesson view direct care staff as experts in adapting and individualizing ELM Curriculum activities in response to the needs and interests of young children. Reflect on this responsibility in relation to the staff with whom you work. What differences, if any, do you see across staff in their eagerness and ability to serve as experts in adapting and individualizing ELM activities? What skills in tailoring children’s learning experiences may need further support?

Reflect on your own understanding of how to tailor children’s learning experiences. What aspects, if any, of the ELM Curriculum’s resources and procedures for adapting and individualizing learning activities represent new information for
you? What steps might you take to strengthen your understanding of less familiar aspects of ELM’s approaches to tailoring children’s learning?

Lesson 3 for direct care staff explains that the eyes and ears of staff in high-quality classrooms get a good workout every day. What do you anticipate will be the least challenging and most challenging tasks in helping direct care staff make good use of what they see and hear?

What types of staff reactions to Lessons 2 and 3 for direct care staff do you anticipate? How might these reactions affect your efforts to help staff offer learning experiences that directly address the needs and interests of each child in their care? 

EXTEND

The following suggestions for helping staff tailor children’s learning experiences include three explorations included in Lessons 2 and 3 for direct care staff.

What Gets Tailored

      • Talk with staff about their recent experiences in using each of the following five factors to tailor a learning experience. Draw on the What Gets Tailored section of this lesson to introduce each factor: (1) teaching strategies, (2) materials, (3) configuration, (4) amount of time, and (5) repetition.
      • Each ELM Curriculum activity uses one or more of 10 developmentally appropriate teaching strategies.27 Six are listed here. Engage staff in a discussion of when each strategy might be used to provide extra support or more challenge (enrichment) in an activity. For example, when might a caregiver offer hands-on assistance to provide extra support or ask a question to add a little more challenge? You may wish to draw attention to descriptions and examples of these strategies in the appropriate User Guide.28
        • Asking a question
        • Demonstrating
        • Encouraging
        • Giving assistance
        • Pausing
        • Acknowledging a child’s actions

Adapting Activities

      • Lesson 2 for direct care staff suggests that caregivers select an activity plan of interest (any age) and three children in their room (see first bulleted item under Adaptations in the Extend section). Talk with staff about their responses to questions included in this Lesson 2 item, including how each child might respond to the activity and adaptations they would consider before or while offering the activity.
      • Lesson 2 for direct care staff suggests that caregivers select three activity plans of their choice and give special attention to the scaffolding tips in each (see second bulleted item under Adaptations in the Extend section). Talk with staff about how the adaptation suggestions could help the activity achieve the NAEYC goal of offering challenging and achievable learning experiences for each child.
      • Talk with direct care staff about how they might respond to the following NAEYC accreditation assessment items:
        • Show or describe an example of how you changed material or equipment in your room to accommodate the individual needs of children.29
        • Show or describe one example of how you customized a learning experience, based on your knowledge of a child’s skills.30
        • Show one example of how you made an activity a little more difficult to advance a child’s further learning.31

Selecting Activities

      •  Invite staff who work with infants and/or toddlers to select three activity plans of their choice. Facilitate a discussion of which of the 2–3 options in each plan would be appropriate for several specific children in their room. Include in the discussion some attention to activity options that might be appropriate to repeat with a child, and how staff will know when a child seems ready to move to an activity of greater challenge.

      • Engage staff who work with children 3–5 years of age in discussions of how to select a review option or an extend option in activity plans for mathematics (Weeks 37–50), language/literacy (Weeks 46–50), social-emotional (Weeks 33–50), and physical/health (Weeks 37–45 and 48–50). Encourage the staff member to select several activity plans of his/her choice in two different areas. Then invite the staff member to identify 3–5 children of different ages in his/her room and talk with you about which option would be appropriate for each child and why.

      • Lesson 3 for direct care staff includes two examples of developing an individualized learning plan as a follow-up to focused observations of a targeted skill (see the Extend section). Each example includes questions for staff to consider (see paragraphs that begin with, Your reflections). Help staff link observation information to the questions. Here are two examples.

        • Maddie’s balancing skills: The first reflection question about Maddie asks about her attitude toward and interest in using her body to practice balancing. The observations tell us that when Maddie fell over she laughed with a friend and tried again (Observation 2), and that she initiated the outdoor activity of dancing to a song (Observation 3). You may wish to talk with staff about how Maddie’s attitude and interest could affect her eagerness to participate in follow-up activities.

        • Tonia’s interest in puzzles: The second reflection question about Tonia asks what might be included in a follow-up plan to support Tonia’s interest in puzzles. It appears that Tonia is mostly interested in the pictures on puzzle pieces. She looked at pictures in both observations and engaged in naming the pictures with the caregiver in the second observation. Tonia seems to be showing an emerging awareness that everything has a name. Follow-up supports might include more experiences in naming and saying the names of pictured items. Tonia might like to compare features of animals or objects shown in two different pictures. Tonia also might enjoy learning and saying the names of different items, people, or animals shown in picture books. Eventually this skill could be extended to names of pictured or observed actions, such as a child rolling a ball or painting with a brush.

PRACTICE

Below are several questions you may encounter as you help direct care staff strengthen their skills in tailoring children’s learning experiences. How might your understanding of the ELM Curriculum help you address these situations?

Scenario #1: A staff member says the following during a discussion of different teaching strategies: “I think the more teaching techniques we can use in an activity, the better it will be for all children. Different strokes for different folks. Pour it on! More is better.” How might you respond to this comment?

It is true that different children often respond to specific teaching strategies in unique ways. More is not necessarily better, however. What’s important is to provide just enough support for a child to experience success in an activity. It may not be necessary to provide hands-on assistance with a task, for example, if a demonstration and description are sufficiently helpful to a child. Paying close attention to a child’s responses to an activity is essential to knowing whether more or less help is needed. Tuning in to children’s responses is much easier to do in a one-to-one or small group than whole group configurations.

Scenario #2: A staff member asks whether he/she can change an activity in a way that is not suggested in the scaffolding tips or activity description. What do you say?

A basic principle of the ELM Curriculum is that direct care staff are experts in adapting activities to meet the needs and interests of children in their care. The adaptation ideas offered in activity plans are suggestions only; they do not represent the full range of possible ways to make an activity work well for a specific child or group of children. Direct care staff should feel free to use the “What Gets Tailored” factors in ways that support children in their room. At the same time, a clear eye needs to be focused on the goal of an activity, including the foundation skill(s) promoted by the activity. Adaptation of an activity should not lead to significant drift from its purpose.

This lesson was written by Douglas R. Powell, with contributions from Chanele Robinson-Rucker. For information about the ELM Curriculum contact: elmcurriculum@purdue.edu.

Endnotes

  1. Development of the Early Learning Matters (ELM) Curriculum was supported by the U.S. Department of Defense Child Development Competitive Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), grant number 2013-48762-21537 to Purdue University as part of the DoD-USDA Partnership for Military Families. The ELM Curriculum is based in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2055. Douglas Powell, Principal Investigator. Shelley MacDermid Wadsworth, Co-Principal Investigator. Back
  9. Copple, C., & Bredekamp, S., with Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2011). Basics of developmentally appropriate practice: An introduction for teachers of infants and toddlers. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children. See also: Copple, C., & Bredekamp, S. (2009). To be an excellent teacher. In C. Copple & S.. Bredekamp (Eds.), Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs: Serving children from birth through age 8, 3rd ed. (pp. 33–50). Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Back
  11. ELM Curriculum, 3–5 Years, Week 12, Social-Emotional, Day 2. Back
  15. ELM Curriculum, 24–36 Months, Block 6, Self-Regulation, Option 2. Back
  16. ELM Curriculum, 24–36 Months, Block 7, Physical/Health, Option 1. Back
  18. For an example of the benefits of adding challenge to frequent practice, see pp. 40–41 of the Self-Regulation section of the ELM Curriculum User Guide: 3–5 Years. Back
  22. ELM Curriculum, 24–36 Months, Block 2, Self-Regulation, Options 1–3. Back
  25. ELM Curriculum, 3–5 Years, Week 29, Creative Expression, Day 2. Back
  27. The 10 teaching strategies are summarized in Lesson 1 for direct care staff. Back
  28. See pp. 5–6 in the ELM Curriculum User Guide: Birth–36 Months and p. 5 in the ELM Curriculum User Guide: 3–5 Years (boxed Example of Intentionality in Developmentally Appropriate Teaching). Back

Footer

© 2024 The Trustees of Purdue University | All Rights Reserved